career that emphasizes improvisation?

[justmyimagination]

I need help! Common dilemma: I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. Yes, I know I don’t have to decide now, but I’d feel much better just knowing that there was a point to all the work in college, something out there I could actually enjoy doing. And it would be nice to pick a major that was at least taking me in the right direction.

I’m a freshman in college, and so far I’ve considered and taken classes in psychology, industrial design, and computer science. But when I think about what I’d actually be doing, I’m just…not interested.

Here’s the problem: I don’t want to plan the process in advance. I don’t want to look at every angle of a design assignment, brainstorm a billion ideas, sketch them, model them, make prototypes, deal with the whole manufacturing process. I don’t want to have an idea first, then methodically implement it. I don’t want to design absolutely everything a program will do, then write it. I want to discover what I’m doing as I go, start with a problem and improvise using previous knowledge, concepts, and tools, bringing many unrelated things together. I want to be able to quickly try something as I think of it and see if it works and if it doesn’t, try something else. It’s how I do everything best, from art projects to schoolwork to travel. It’s not very practical and very very ‘P’ but it truly brings out my best and uses my skills instead of forcing me to ignore them so I can get something done the traditional way.

It’s not that I don’t want to put serious time and effort into what I'm doing, it's just that in every career I've seen the focus is in completely the wrong place for me. My ideal job is one where I spend some of my time information gathering, figuring out how things work, exploring and collecting information that might be useful later, and the rest of the time having problems thrown at me, and then being left alone to solve them, improvising on the fly and rapidly applying the concepts I collected.

So my question is: is this possible? Can anyone think of a job where this is required, yet doesn’t call for being quick on my feet where social interaction is concerned? I don’t want to be the expert that gives an instant answer, my process takes time, but it’s fast-paced, and doesn’t require spending more time on explaining what I’m going to do than just working on the problem. I’m interested in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, symbolic systems, creative arts, informational graphics, design problems, and computer programming. I will seriously put in the time and effort to learn whatever it is I have to to get where I want to be, but I need to figure out where that is first.

If anyone can give me any feedback (even that I’m asking completely the wrong question, or that this is an inevitable INTP problem and I had better just get over it) I would really, really appreciate it.

[Hustler]

Improv comedy.

[kuranes]

Improv comedy.

I was about to say the same thing. Or playing Jazz. Painting. All of the above. They're generally not practical ways to make a predictable buck though, in the "dues paying" stages. Very iffy. But to avoid that you're back in positions where you only get to improvise PART of the time, at least in the beginning.

[Eileen]

Teaching.

It requires planning, but it requires more improvisation.

[MacGuffin]

Teaching.

It requires planning, but it requires more improvisation.Yeah but that requires social interaction.

[last_caress]

Bounty hunter.

[Eileen]

Yeah but that requires social interaction.

Yeah, I missed that part. Oops. It surely, suckily does.

[justmyimagination]

Thanks. :)

Eileen, I did consider teaching, but I'm honestly not very good at it. Plus the social thing, hehe.


But to avoid that you're back in positions where you only get to improvise PART of the time, at least in the beginning.

So what are the jobs that you eventually get to improvise in, then? I think that was my original question, though perhaps not worded suitably. I'll put in the time to get there, I just want to know if it's possible. And "improvise" was an oversimplification, I still want to solve complicated problems and have parameters to work with, it's more of a difference in the process that I'm looking for. Teacher(and bounty hunter :) ) came closer to it that Jazz or painting.

I am sorry for asking about something I can't properly define, but I did it on the off-chance someone might have had a similar experience or frustration, and found a solution or could even simply explain it better than I can.

[nihilist]

Aside from social interaction, teaching would actually be an interesting venture except that anything below high school is more disciplining/brainwashing rather than teaching.

[Eileen]

Aside from social interaction, teaching would actually be an interesting venture except that anything below high school is more disciplining/brainwashing rather than teaching.

Correction: Teaching high school is also mostly disciplining/brainwashing rather than teaching. I do what I can not do brainwash, but sometimes it's really frustrating (especially with the discipline--I mistakenly believed, because *I* knew how to behave, that most kids would know. This turns out not to be the case at all.).

I sometimes wish I'd gone into younger grades education so that I could have a positive early effect on kids, but by the time they get to me, they're gone. It's not only the schools' fault, though. It's everyone and everything--parents, media, church, everything. After spending 2 years in public schools*, I'm pretty sure we're doomed.

*I'm not convinced that other schools aren't the same way, though, and I do believe strongly in the idea of public education.

[Ella]

Go to the careers advisors or counseling center on your campus and take the Strong Interest Inventory. That will help.

[Eileen]

Eileen, I did consider teaching, but I'm honestly not very good at it. Plus the social thing, hehe.

Well, to be fair, most people who haven't been teaching for 4+ years aren't very good at it. It's one of those crafts that takes a lot of time to develop. However, there are people who I think have such a roundabout communication style that they'd really have a hard time teaching. It's important to be able to quickly get to the heart of things in teaching (which I am not entirely skilled at myself).

And the social thing--that part can be enjoyable to an NF (personal connections) but overall, it exhausts me and makes me a complete hermit.

[nihilist]

Correction: Teaching high school is also mostly disciplining/brainwashing rather than teaching. I do what I can not do brainwash, but sometimes it's really frustrating (especially with the discipline--I mistakenly believed, because *I* knew how to behave, that most kids would know. This turns out not to be the case at all.).

Then, I guess I don't know much about high school from a teacher's perspective. Perhaps, the only medium where subject matter is taken seriously is university-level academia.

[distraction tactics]

I want to discover what I’m doing as I go, start with a problem and improvise using previous knowledge, concepts, and tools, bringing many unrelated things together. I want to be able to quickly try something as I think of it and see if it works and if it doesn’t, try something else.

I'm not giving career advice, but this is precisely how my bandmates and I used to write songs. Exactly.

[justmyimagination]

I was about to say the same thing. Or playing Jazz. Painting. All of the above. They're generally not practical ways to make a predictable buck though, in the "dues paying" stages. Very iffy. But to avoid that you're back in positions where you only get to improvise PART of the time, at least in the beginning.


I'm not giving career advice, but this is precisely how my bandmates and I used to write songs. Exactly.

Hmm. All this sounds like I'm going to have to do it in the non-work part of my life. Oh well. Thanks, guys.

[25fd]

Entrepreneurship

[CoHo]

I'm going to have to side with Eileen with teaching.

I've never been so scared my first day on a job. I wanted to hide under the podium but it was occupied HAHAHAAHAHA!

Seriously, it is like a drug; once you get past the first year you learn to love it. The personal development (learning to speak in public, learning to be confortable with your voice, learning to laugh at your mistakes) is unmatched; and having people thank you later in life is pretty cool

[25fd]

I'm going to have to side with Eileen with teaching.

I've never been so scared my first day on a job. I wanted to hide under the podium but it was occupied HAHAHAAHAHA!

Seriously, it is like a drug; once you get past the first year you learn to love it. The personal development (learning to speak in public, learning to be confortable with your voice, learning to laugh at your mistakes) is unmatched; and having people thank you later in life is pretty cool


I am a teacher at heart. (One part of my heart at least :)). I have an instant desire to share what I learn. I enjoy seeing my students “smarten up”. I just despise the educational system we have. I don't think I could be part of it. ... but teaching has many faces... so who knows...

[Ferrus]

I'm going to have to side with Eileen with teaching.

I've never been so scared my first day on a job. I wanted to hide under the podium but it was occupied HAHAHAAHAHA!

Seriously, it is like a drug; once you get past the first year you learn to love it. The personal development (learning to speak in public, learning to be confortable with your voice, learning to laugh at your mistakes) is unmatched; and having people thank you later in life is pretty cool
At what level did you teach?

[CoHo]

I teach college night classes

[Lucy]

code breaking?

[CoHo]

dry humping

[Pooja]

Bush's public relations (PR) team?

[cathmc]

II want to discover what I’m doing as I go, start with a problem and improvise using previous knowledge, concepts, and tools, bringing many unrelated things together. I want to be able to quickly try something as I think of it and see if it works and if it doesn’t, try something else. It’s how I do everything best, from art projects to schoolwork to travel. It’s not very practical and very very ‘P’ but it truly brings out my best and uses my skills instead of forcing me to ignore them so I can get something done the traditional way.
Can anyone think of a job where this is required, yet doesn’t call for being quick on my feet where social interaction is concerned?
I'm too lazy to read through all the other responses so sorry if someone's already said this but...
Seems to me you can still major in something like computer programming or industrial design, as planned, and then look for a job that's focused on troubleshooting of existing designs instead of coming up with new ones. So that you're reacting to a fluid situation, hopefully in the context of some crisis that requires you to solve the problems quickly, but if it's computer programs or, um, industrially designed things, the personal interactions could be limited.