What is the best career out there?

What career path would be best for someone who has hearing loss in one ear? Any help would be appreciated?

• I'm deaf in one ear (since birth) and also a single mother looking for a career that would be good for my disability. I've been to college two times but i also have anxiety because of my hearing problems so kept changing my career path. I would really like to be a surgical technologist or a x-ray tech. Maybe even something to do with computers. I feel so lost and I just really want to be able to make a better life for myself and my daughter. Im already 23 and I need to start school right away and put aside my fears because of my hearing loss. Does anyone have any ideas about what jobs would be best for someone with hearing loss? Hopefully someone can help me figure out what would be best for me, perhaps someone with the same problem? I'm very smart and I know I would do so well in school as i did in high school. Working at several different minimum wage jobs I've learned that my hearing is a big problem because you have to work with people in virtually every work place but I'm determined to find a career path that is right for me! Any help would be much appreciated.

• Answer:

  Good for you for being so determined! The first thing to think about is, what are your likes, dislikes, and talents? Rather than focus on your area of difficulty, think first about what you're good at and like to do. You've done some of that in your comments above. If you are in school now, or even if you're not, most colleges have career counseling centers where they give interest inventories (a series of questions given by computer that helps guide you towards a career choice). See if you can take one or two of these, and then with the results you get, make an appointment to talk with a career counselor at the college to discuss the results of the interest inventory and go from there. It seems to me that the biggest challenge is likely being in situations where you must hear others and respond appropriately in a short period of time in order to do your job well. Fast food and face-to-face customer service jobs may be difficult, but computer work may be a much better fit. I don't know where you live, but if you're in the U.S., there is something called the Americans with Disabilities Act which prevents employers from discriminating against a person with a legally-protected disability....as long as they can do the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation. If you live in the U.S. you should become familiar with this. Good luck to you. I hope you find a career which is satisfying and fulfilling.