When graduating from high school, you are usually very closely tied to your family unit. When you go off to college, your unit changes. Your 4–5-year exposure to other people from other families and to the routine of the school calendar will change you. I started out wanting to be a design engineer, since I went to a math and science oriented high school. I had tremendous family support. 
However, by graduation I ended up with more credits in literature, history, and religion. I was now going to move from New England to Virginia to be a teacher, not bad for a dyslectic.
In the good book, God is not going to speak to us today and tell us to leave our home like He did with Abraham. But there are lessons about acting with courage to be learned from Abraham’s example. Courage is faithfulness in the midst of trials and temptations. In the example of Abraham, we see one who sacrificed what was comfortable and familiar for hardship and uncertainty. Whether you believe in the good book or not, there is a reason it was written. You are now almost old enough to stand on you own feet and challenge the world.
Most of us come “home” very changed after our first year. By the 4th or 5th year safety was no longer our pursuit. It was adventure on our own because we were no longer children.
In my case I was a stutterer and dyslectic teaching literature. Reading daily out loud from our chosen books, plays, or other printed works.
As we mature, some quickly, some less so, over a 4–5-year period we become different people. It is not necessarily maturation, but the influence of our new families, both at home and school.
To put succinctly, the above is trying to say to you dear reader that you are not the same person you were when you left to go to college. You could be near home where you are still living and commute every day, as I did, or it you could be on another coast, or country. But the atmosphere is different in both places because you are not a child at home rather an adult in a new living environment.
Your choice of career will always change as you change. You are still not who you will be. But you are now looking for a job with compensation. Listen and write down any advice from others who are not “family” but who you trust. They know the today’s YOU, not the kid from 5 years ago.
Your job as an adult job searcher is to research who you are, what you can contribute, and who/what are the companies that you have chosen to communicate with.
Your challenge is to choose who you believe in. Do you have the courage to know you? Do you have the courage to research what companies and marketplaces fit you best today?
Life is always like the “yellow brick road” (yes, from Wizard of OZ. If you have not seen it do!) There is generally no straight line for any of us. A career, as I said above, is usually a 3–4-year job, leading to a better job, leading to a better job. etc.
Retirement watches are very rear, even for CEO’s. One of my sons is now in his 23rd year with the same company. I placed him there as a recruiter, no fee of course, but the company has changed its name 3-4 times. Mergers, acquisition, and many new products require changes because of market swings.
Enjoy this Job Search process, it will make you ready for the rest of your business life. Remember, believe in yourself.
Bruce
