This was a very brief explanation of many studies looking into this exact problem. The conclusion is from their research, not mine. You’re also making my point, that expressions of joy, happiness etc vary between cultures. This article talks about some of the research but I recommend reading the original studies or Barrett’s book.

Article

We actually don’t have the same emotional expressions. The early studies on “universal” emotional expressions (joy, disgust etc) were extremely biased. The researches paid western actors to make facial expressions, took pictures of those expressions, then showed those pictures to various uncontacted / low contact tribes. However, the researches tended to ask the tribes what expression they saw repeatedly until they gave the answer the researches expected.

Even smiling isn’t universal. Think about cultural differences between smiling even in modern day Russia. There’s evidence that smiling might have been an expression of joy but was deemed socially inappropriate in Ancient Rome.

Emotional expressions in the brain differ between individuals and even differ within the same individual on separate occasions of the “same” emotion. Lisa Barrett has an excellent book on this topic: How Emotions are Made.

You could consider getting a psychological assessment that will give you an idea of your cognitive strengths and weaknesses. They can also administer instruments like the Strong Interest Inventory if you’re still looking for help deciding on a career.

It’s frustrating that an assessment is so expensive. And the psychologist will probably only get reimbursed for 4hrs of testing so your report will be short and cursory anyway… I’ll avoid going on a long angry insurance rant here.

Do you have any Universities near you? See if they have graduate psychology programs. Those students need people to practice giving assessments to and are supervised well. They usually give assessments for very cheap because it’s a training program.