If you are at a point in your life when you feel like you should choose a career or are making a change in careers, you’ve likely been considering the importance of choosing the right career. There are so many options out there and it can be a very difficult decision.
Some of the questions people often ask themselves include,
Should I choose a career that has room for advancement?
Should I base my decision on money?
Should I just choose something I love to do?
The truth is that no one can make your decision for you and sometimes that makes it even harder. But if you take some time to get to know yourself and you are aware of what values are most important to you, making this decision will be a little bit easier.
Knowing yourself well is the key to making the best decision about your future career. Most people think that they know themselves fairly well, but that is an assumption.
Have you ever really questioned who you are, what is important to you, what kind of ethical standards you have, and what values you hold? Most of us don’t until someone pushes us into thinking about those things. And if you’re coming right out of school, you might have some pretty big influences (like parents and teachers) that have pushed you towards a certain career (purposefully or not) that isn’t really suited to who you are.
Question Yourself
The key to really knowing who you are so that you can choose a career that you can enjoy for many years to come is asking yourself some hard questions. They seem easy but sometimes once you start thinking about them you may discover that there’s more to your answers than you previously thought.
Here are some questions to get you started:
- When am I happiest? Think back over the past few years of your life and figure out what you have been doing when you were happiest. Were you writing, working with other people, designing a website, or working with your hands? The answer to this will give you a good start on figuring out what career you should go into.
- What am I doing when “time flies”? You all know what this means. There are certain things that you do that make time go by really fast. What can you do for hours at a time and not even realize that you missed lunch? What kinds of activities get you so involved that you don’t even realize that it was time to go home?
- What do I want to do with my life? This is a more general question but it is still important? Don’t think about the career in particular but think about what you want to accomplish. Do you want to contribute towards a cleaner Earth? Do you want to make people’s lives better? What kind of people? Older people? Children? Families? Business people?
- Do I like spending my time outdoors or indoors? This is going to affect the type of career you choose. If you hate being under fluorescent lights, an office job obviously isn’t for you. If bugs and weather bother you then you shouldn’t choose a career as forest ranger.
- What can I talk about for a long time and never run out of things to say? Whatever it is, this is a topic that you are passionate about and passion will take you a long way in any career.
- Do I like people? I mean, generally, are the more people that you meet that you like to be around that people you don’t? Or do you find yourself getting annoyed with people? Knowing whether or not you like people will help you rule out a lot of jobs.
- How competitive am I? Some job fields are very competitive and take a lot of work to get into a career in that field. If you’re not a competitive person you’ll want to be sure to choose a career path that doesn’t require you to fight tooth and nail for every interview you get.
- Am I a gypsy or a nester? Nesters are the type of people that need to find one place to settle into and prefer to stay there for a very long time. Gypsies like to discover new places and meet new people. Some jobs are meant to keep you in one place where other jobs will have you travelling to new cities, states, and even countries on a regular basis. If you’re not ready to get up and go as needed, you can rule out certain careers that require a lot of travel.
- How much am I willing to invest in education? Most careers require that you get at least some kind of secondary education. The question is how much time and money are you willing to invest in this part of your career path?
- What movies and books have really touched my life and impressed me? Movies and books don’t seem to have much to do with careers but they can tell you a lot about who you are and what you want to be when you grow up!
It can be really difficult to answer these questions about yourself because you live with yourself every day. If you’re having a hard time answering these questions, go to your friends and family members. The can sometimes pick up on things that you don’t notice. They might be more aware of the fact that your face lights up after you’ve spent the day volunteering at the animal shelter or that you get particularly excited when you solve someone’s computer problem.
Get to know yourself really well and you’ll find it much easier to choose a career.
No comments:
Post a Comment