Having a career crisis. Wtf do I do?

I have great academic potential, predicted 6 9s and 5 8s at GCSE, and I enjoy maths and philosophy in particular.

My aim is to retire before 40 and travel the world learning about different cultures faiths etc as that really interests me however it's not a very financially rewarding job.

I have no clue what to do for a job, if you can think of it I've probably gone through a phase of researching/wanting to be it but every time I run into a roadblock usually finance-related or ethics-related. For instance, my 2 latest, most realistic ideas have been surgery and corporate law: surgery is underpaid, overworked and has tons of training (meaning I most likely couldn't retire until my 50s). I know I could go into private practice or combine public and private however there is still the extensive training and some ethical objection. Corporate law pays VERY well with relatively little out-of-work training (I could retire in my early 30s) but I have ethical objections due to growing up lower-working class and the only way to achieve these high salaries is serving the rich 😒: although I could retire at 40 and work through my 30s to grow further financially and do charity work while I am retired, so many decisions.

I also have not finalised my A-level choices but at the moment my two main combination options are chem, maths, history and politics, maths, history. I was going to do 4 A-levels however have been strongly discouraged by my peers and my college.

Please help I'm dying here.

You need to stop leaping to uninformed cliches and worry about next year, not 30 years. None of the 'facts' you've described above are true. Just do the A levels you are best at, and from them a degree will emerge, and from that a career. Life isn't like a menu, you can't randomly pick and choose, and certainly there's no point choosing the food you are going to eat in a months time, when you've no idea what you will be doing or where you will be.

a career in surgery is a career in medicine. It requires Chemistry and biology a level ( to have the most choice ), AAA a level grades, UCAT ( entrance exam ) and/or BMAT ( other entrance exam ), interviews, interview technique, and then 5 years of medical school. Then you will have to stay in the UK for 2 years for FY1 and FY2, and then if you want to become a specialised doctor it's a 5-10 year route just to train. Medicine is a lifetime effort, constant exams, constant training, etc. If you're interested in maths and philosophy and want to travel, unless you're willing to spend at least 40-50 years as a doctor and then become a consultant with medecins sans frontiers it's not going to work really with what you want.

Career wise, there are:

ethical advisor for large company
philosophy professor ( requires probably a PHD and a long time before you can travel )
diplomat ( travels a lot )

But with the most competitive fields, medicine and corporate law you need to know what you are doing from early on as for both subjects you can't just whimsically choose which a-levels you like especially if you want to go to a prestigious university. There is a point in choosing a food you are going to eat in a few months if that's the only food you will be eating for decades. I have a huge decision to make as my A-level choices here determine my degree and my job, like you said, and telling me not to worry isn't helping and "uninformed cliches" is just wrong nor did I ever call them 'facts'. Some actual advice rather than don't worry about it, worry about next year is so ridiculously irrelevant when next year determines the rest of my life if I dont want to spend more time in education than I need to. So I'd disagree, life is more like a menu than some fairytale river that takes you where you need to be and I need to make a choice, none of this is whimsical and it's ignorant for you to assume it is.

What you should do right now is go to a university careers page, look at the degree programs and their requirements and then try and come up with 4 AS Levels to pick. If you are not sure what to pick, then I would advise to pick things which are well rounded and will not necessarily cut you off from what you could want to do.

Judging from your post, you may consider something along the lines of History, Chemistry, Biology and Maths. History will be useful for Politics, Law and teach you essay writing skills. Chemistry and Biology will be useful for medicine and I believe Chemistry is usually a firm requirement for medicine. Maths is generally always a very useful topic, regardless of what you do later in life.

At the end of your AS Levels, you can then consider dropping one subject as you learn which of those topics you enjoy more.

I also would strongly consider you take on board @threeportdrift's advice there. They are correct. You really cannot plan so far ahead and make claims along the lines of "you want to retire at 40". Life will throw up a lot of surprises. You do not really know what you want to do right now so there is absolutely no chance you can know what you want in 20-30 years time or so. It is good that you are thinking ahead. You do need to have some goals and direction. But right now, at your age, it should be more focused on "what A-Levels and then what degree do I want" rather than "how can I make as much money as possible to retire early".

Thanks for the advice, from what I've heard my college and most colleges in the area have stopped providing AS levels and only do the A-level now. Do you think it would be best to just take 3 A-levels or take 3 A-levels and do an AS privately or just all out do 4 A-levels considering the workload of history.

How good at maths are you? How much do you know about the competition to get into the very well paid city law type careers and the lifestyle once you are in?

Well I'm still in GCSE's but I'm predicted a 9 in edexcel GCSE maths and a 9 in AQA level 2 certificate further maths (which is easier than ad-maths but the hardest my school offers)

I know that it is very competitive for training contracts at magic circle law firms which each (there are 5) offer usually less than 100 places and the work-life there is very demanding.

It is hard to say. I normally suggest doing three A-Levels. Personally I would have a good think about what you really want to do. Being a surgeon and being a lawyer for example are two very distinct roles. Try and narrow it down to an industry or area and that may help to narrow down what A-Levels to pick.

Ok. On the question of 3 or 4 A levels you should consider maths as a fourth A level. It would expand your options for degrees such as maths and philosophy or computer science type degrees.

If you were not considering medicine would you be considering chemistry and or biology A levels? That seems to be important here.

I feel like if I wasn't still considering medicine I would drop Chem but after considering it previously i decided not to take bio as it isnt required by most universities and thye would rather have A*A*A without bio than A*A*B with bio being the B (since I'm not as good at it)

I have great academic potential, predicted 6 9s and 5 8s at GCSE, and I enjoy maths and philosophy in particular.

My aim is to retire before 40 and travel the world learning about different cultures faiths etc as that really interests me however it's not a very financially rewarding job.

I have no clue what to do for a job, if you can think of it I've probably gone through a phase of researching/wanting to be it but every time I run into a roadblock usually finance-related or ethics-related. For instance, my 2 latest, most realistic ideas have been surgery and corporate law: surgery is underpaid, overworked and has tons of training (meaning I most likely couldn't retire until my 50s). I know I could go into private practice or combine public and private however there is still the extensive training and some ethical objection. Corporate law pays VERY well with relatively little out-of-work training (I could retire in my early 30s) but I have ethical objections due to growing up lower-working class and the only way to achieve these high salaries is serving the rich 😒: although I could retire at 40 and work through my 30s to grow further financially and do charity work while I am retired, so many decisions.

I also have not finalised my A-level choices but at the moment my two main combination options are chem, maths, history and politics, maths, history. I was going to do 4 A-levels however have been strongly discouraged by my peers and my college.

Please help I'm dying here.

I’m not sure about this but isn’t a bit like Cambridge saying maths isn’t required and then like 80% of offers having done maths … basically isn’t it you could do it without bio but it’s verrrrrrry hard to ?

Yh lol but I would still have better chances with maths as I most likely wouldnt meet requirements for bio as I'm only getting 6 or 7 compared to 9 in chem and maths and further maths

It’s a good point. Bc I know people who have chosen an a level just bc people said it’s good for a certain career and then hated the a level and struggled to get a good career anyways ( though obvs it could work out). You have to balance quite a few things out. I recommend maybe watching a few yt vids of medicine applicant without bio and then seeing what to do