Compare the daily work
A career label can hide very different activities. Marketing may involve research, writing or campaign reporting; software work includes reading and fixing existing code. Pick two pathways and try their starter tasks. Keep a note of what felt interesting, frustrating and worth practising. Enjoying a task once is useful evidence, but it is not an aptitude score.
Set your real constraints
Write down your weekly study time, access to a laptop, language comfort, total budget and any travel limits. Decide which constraints are fixed and which can change. For a degree, include exam arrangements, practical requirements and entry subjects. A short skills course cannot replace a formal qualification when a role or further-study programme requires one.
Make a reversible next step
Choose one project you can begin this week. Give yourself a review date and a concrete output, such as a small website or a reconciled workbook. At the review, judge the work and the learning process rather than how impressive the career title sounds. You can keep a second route open while you investigate degree admission requirements.
Talk about a specific decision
Take your trial output and two course options to a parent, teacher or adviser. Ask what evidence is missing and what the next low-cost test should be. Avoid asking anyone to predict your whole career. A useful conversation ends with a checkable next action, a responsible person and a date.