I sit, engulfed by a beanbag chair in the communal living room of a hostel in Krakow, surrounded by young people from around the world. Everybody has their story. Where they’re from, how they ended up here, where they’re going next. British voices across the room talk about taking their gap year, while German voices recount how they’re traveling after finishing university.

I’m engrossed, listening to somebody who grew up a half hour away from me talk about how she quit her job and decided to travel Europe for as long as she can. She’s 24, maybe 25, but she has been traveling for six months already.

“How did you do it?” I ask eagerly. “How did you save up enough to pay for six months of travel? Other people are out there trying to get jobs and you’ve already had yours, quit and backpacked around Europe.”

I lean in to make sure I don’t miss the secret. Her answer surprised me, and it went on to help me discover what career I’d make for myself.

“Do you know what a per diem is?” she says. “Right after college, consulting is the way to go…”

At the time I had never heard of consulting. I didn’t know what a consultant did. I was a Finance major, which meant that I’d… I don’t know, become a Financial Analyst? My friend who was studying Systems, she’d become a Systems Analyst. My friends in Marketing would become Marketing Managers. It seemed like the only path out there. Take your major, add the word analyst to it, go hunting on job boards and work for a big company.

I don’t think I’m the only one who had this view of the world either

High schoolers graduate and go to college without knowing what jobs are out there. Freshmen pick their majors and change them over and over again without knowing how it affects (or doesn’t affect) their future. Graduates take an entry-level job, grind out 40 hours a week and come home to crash on the couch to binge reruns on Netflix, wondering if they’re the only one who hasn’t found their passion.

Students need to know what jobs exist. Graduates need to look into the jobs they have never heard of to find what will make them happy. People ready to switch careers with years of experience need to be aware of what their options are.

It’s more than a list of job titles. We need to know what those careers look like day to day, who they’re a good fit for, what majors are important and how to get into them. There are so many interesting and different careers out there that people stumble into every day. There’s a job out there that might be your perfect fit, but you don’t even know that it exists.

Today I’m announcing the beginning of a new series called ‘Day in the Life’

The purpose of this series is to interview people with unique jobs and backgrounds to spread the word about what’s out there that might be the right fit for us. We want to know what you do, why you do it, how you got there and what makes you good at it. We want to know if it’s for us, why we’d like it and what we need to do to get it.

Want to make sure you don’t miss a chance to learn about your next career switch? Just join the email list below.

Stay tuned for the first installment – Day in the Life of a Product Manager.