Zigzagging From Degree to Jobs While Finding the Right Career Path
Many young professionals in Hawai‘i find their careers look nothing like the degrees they earned. Here’s how I found my way.
When business school students toured Hawaii Business Magazine’s offices this year, they peppered the staff with questions: What did you study? What is your daily routine? How did you get from Point A to Point B?
Somewhere between the desks, coffee cups and stacks of magazines, the students noticed something: The path from degree to job rarely plays out the way one expects.
Most young people grow up hearing a simple blueprint: Go to college, choose a sensible major, get a degree, then a job, and the rest will fall into place. But recent numbers reveal a different picture: Among recent U.S. graduates aged 22 to 27, studies show that anywhere from 35% to more than 50% have jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree.
A degree still matters. It opens doors, builds discipline and strengthens long-term earning potential. But it no longer guarantees a straight path, and you still must learn to pivot, stack skills and find places where your interests meet real opportunities. If you didn’t discover how to do that in school, let me share what I’ve learned since graduating.
Figuring things out
I never planned a non-linear career, but mine turned out that way because life kept pushing me sideways. I treated college like a step to a waiting career, so I pushed through the credits quickly and earned my computer science degree in three years.
Then I did something that made no sense on paper. I took my first full-time job as a legal assistant at a debt collection office on Merchant Street – because there weren’t many “computer science” jobs in Hawai‘i then.
I learned to track patterns, read people, manage court filings and work under serious pressure. I was promoted to head the “Judgment” department in six months and handled cases that demanded speed, accuracy and ownership for both district and circuit court cases. I learned by having real problems thrown at me and figuring things out.
The pivots kept coming. I decided to study criminal justice to move my career forward. I moved to San Francisco with no plan beyond finding work that would increase my opportunities. I held three jobs while finishing my master’s degree online: I worked the opening shift at a Starbucks in the financial district, worked a corporate day job and interned with the San Francisco Police Department at night. That strategy opened doors, and New York pulled me in for a lucrative investigator role. The hustle was paying off and I gained momentum. I loved every bit of it – until I didn’t.
Zigzagging has benefits, added stress
Burnout hit hard enough to break the rhythm.
That breaking point pushed me back toward computer science. I leaned on my network, taught myself new programs, picked up relevant skills and started freelancing in the tech industry. I even started an Instagram account for my two corgis that somehow led to real clients and real projects.
Every pivot looked random at the time, but I kept returning to the same skills: problem solving, efficiency, curiosity, communication and design.
The same skills I built through those pivots continue to power me today. I run private client projects on the side, and I work fulltime as the Digital Director at Hawaii Business Magazine. Both roles pull from the skills I picked up along the way. My career didn’t narrow into one lane, it opened wider and that works better for me.
A non-linear career does add stress. My pivots came with financial pressure, long hours, the strain of switching disciplines and eventually burnout. But that didn’t make me quit working. It steered me back to computer science.
If your career feels like left turns, side gigs or the unexpected, it could mean you’re figuring out what holds your interest. You might not discover that good fit while earning your degree, but you will by moving, testing and adjusting through a non-linear career.
