Facing quarter life crisis
You may have heard of midlife crisis, where many middle aged adults experience major life events that can cause a period of psychological stress or depression, such as the death of a loved one, or a career setback.
There is also a so called “quarter life crisis” for people age between 20-28 year old. I experienced it recently and found that it can be confusing, or even scary, for some of the individuals. Normally, the “victims” are in a transition from school graduation to career life. Such a transition can be very exciting, yet worrisome.
I think the worrisome part is caused by the uncertainty of the future. We can’t really predict what will happen down the road a few years from now. Will we go jobless or will we become a CEO? How is the real life? Is it just like student’s life, or is it a cruel, nasty reality out there?
Of course there are other factors that contributes to quarter life crisis such as financial trouble, romantic relationship, marriage and so on (many people get married at quarter life after all). Quarter life is full of important changes and transitions in life. I would love to talk about the transition from student life to career life since I am experiencing it first hand now. I am graduating soon and am looking around for jobs, and the frustration can be quite real.
Such a transition in life forces one to make difficult decisions that will affect him or her for many years to come. There are many unexpected things that require our attention and I am sure many are not prepared for it. How can we overcome such thing, or to the very least, lessen its shock impact onto ourselves?
I believe the best answer is to be prepared for it, as early as possible. Preparation is the best you can do to increase your chance of making smart decision in such crisis, and you might have to do it early, much earlier than your graduation date. In fact, you should start to think about it before you enter college. At least, you should pick the right college course that will lead you to your ideal career path, or at least, a course that is marketable enough that you won’t have a high chance of facing joblessness after graduating.
Believe me, many of my friends were rather clueless, or simply don’t give a damm, when they select their course of study. They simply follow friends or family’s advice in choosing their study course, based on the assumption that this course might lead to a cool job, without doing a simple research on its marketability and difficulty of the course. Some of them picked the courses that have very little demand in job market, because it sounds simply cool to them.
After picking the suitable course that is relevant to our future career prospect, we can commit ourselves wholeheartedly to earn a worthy certificate. Don’t ever allow yourself to drop out half way or succumb to the dangerous temptation of neglecting your studies. We need this education in real life, although there are more things in life than just education.
As a student, we should do our best to learn about career, such as reading about job application and sharpening our resume writing and interviewing skills. Anything that increase our chance in getting into the career door of a company, is worthy of our attention. At the very least, we should find out the average salary of the job that we are targeting. It will be a joke when we stay silent when our potential employers ask us how much salary we expect from the job. It is also a good idea to pay a visit to job fairs to survey around the job market, or if you are a bit adventurous, talk to the human resource officers there and see if they are friendly and sincere. Some of them are simply nasty or cocky.
Finally, I would say that it is a good idea to keep your mind open, be curious and always ask around for things regarding your future. Read more in life as it helps you a lot in reality. Have a positive world view and I wish you the best in facing your quarter life crisis.
Oh, don’t worry too much. Enjoy a cup of coffee before the journey begins.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
As a student, we should do our best to learn about life in all its beauty and all its horror. Career and job applications come with the territory.
In understanding who we are, what we can do, what we should do and what we want to do, careers and the rest of our lives fall into place so easily. Forget the fact that we have to look at average paying jobs or even jobs because we just need the money.
Knowing what you’re good at in life will always pay you off because there isn’t a reason in the world for people to turn you down. That’s the very thing people squander. The moments in which define them. There isn’t a reason to feel lost when you know what you want in life. Sometimes at all cost. Sometimes above and beyond what any normal people would be willing to do.
@Edrei
Hi Edrei. Yes thanks for your positive view. Life can be intepreted is so many ways, as everyone is different and perceive things differently.
Yes, I agree that it is important to know what we want, it is like having a compass to guide us in life. We need compass when we are lost in a jungle
Even me going thru this crisis, i feel very much insecured about my job, and no interst left in the relationships. i try avoiding myself being exposed to the real world. veru much confused. thinking about this, i always end up with a bad mood.
I am myself facing quarter life crisis now ….Its really getting difficult for me to concentrate.I hate to socialize and keep to myself….I guess faith is the only thing that is keeping me going …
“be prepared for it”, None of us really prepared for it because the tutors never told us what it’s like out there. I think the major problem is that we all too optimistic about life, thinking we’ll get good jobs when we finish university, and being respected, but the truth is: life sucks. In work, people who had a bad time would want you go through the same stuff as well, and tell you “that’s good for you”. If we realized the world is a nasty place long before we graduate, we would not have quarter-life crisis at all. Having said that though, I personally think it is overpopulation to be blamed, we born too late and the good old days of the 80s and 90s are long gone. Welcome to the overcrowded 21th century.