As a child, your parents make the vast majority of your decisions for you—some for your own protection and others for your instruction. You begin to gain more personal agency as you get older, but in many ways your path is set while you’re in school and living at home. Then comes graduation day, and possibly your move-out day, and suddenly your personal agency has exploded.

That moment is one of liberation and celebration for some, and one of anxiety and fear for others. Not only do you now bear the responsibility of your decisions in general, but there is an enormous pressure to decide at age 18, 19 or 20 what you want to do for the rest of your life. Finding the right career path is a thrilling challenge for some, who think strategically or are just along for the ride; but for others, it’s so daunting it’s easier to just not think about it. There’s a huge pressure to figure it out at a pretty early age because if you spend a few years on one path, then figure out you don’t like it, what’re you supposed to do—just go back to school? Start at the bottom in a new job for way less money?

And of course, on top of it all is the uncertainty of potential workplace conflicts with the Sabbath, Holy Days or other tenets of our faith. “Could I even do that job if their business involves promoting Pride Month once a year?”

We staff members here at Compass Check understand. We’ve wrestled with those and other quandaries. So, in that spirit, we introduce a new regular feature for the magazine: career profiles. We’ll be featuring people just a little older than you who hold a wide variety of jobs—doctors, accountants, programmers, parents,  fitness instructors, graphic designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, you name it—to illuminate how these people navigated the same waters you find yourself in now (or will find yourself in very soon).

We hope you find value in the stories of these people, and can glean some insight into how many totally valid ways there are to approach your life’s work, whatever that ends up being.

As always, if you ever have a question or want to follow up, feel free to reach out—we’re on Instagram, Twitter and email like the rest of the Olds.