How to Choose a Career

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  • If you're like most people, you spend the majority of your week—and a good chunk of your life—at work. If you find the right profession, this time will be neither wasted, nor miserable. How to choose a career will help point you towards the proper career path.

  • Introduction

    • Selecting a career can be one of the most difficult decisions of your life. You have to find the right balance between financial gain and personal fulfillment. For some people, having a career that creates wealth is much more important than having a job that builds individual enrichment. Each person needs to choose according to their own specific needs and life goals. Many experts agree that selecting a career you're passionate about usually leads to happiness.

  • Step 1: Know Your Interests

    • Before you can select a career, you have to get to know yourself well enough to define your interests. You can't reach for something unless you know what it is you're seeking. Is there a field you've always wanted to pursue? What types of job duties seem interesting to you? What issues are you passionate about? What types of financial plans do you have? In order to the right job, you should first identify your ultimate goals and which careers are most appealing to you.
    You can't do it all: getting ahead requires making a choice. (Creative Commons photo by Justin Cormack)
    • Write it down:
    1. Create a list of things you're passionate about.
    2. Write down everything you love doing. What jobs would you do for free?
    3. Make a list of your qualifications and skills. Be specific and list every job responsibility you have previously mastered.
    4. Create a list of your long-term goals. What do you want your life to be like in 20 years? How much money do you expect to make?
    5. Make a list defining the type of lifestyle you want. Decide whether you want a job or career. In other words, do you want to be able to leave the office behind every night when the clock turns 5:00pm? Or are you a workaholic who wants to be the next multi-millionaire?
    6. Write down every possible career you can envision for yourself. Include the jobs you dreamed about as a child.
      • Rate each career on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the careers you are most interested in and 10 being the jobs you are least interested in).

  • Step 2: Get Professional Guidance

    • Once you've asked yourself the important questions, you should enlist the help of career development experts to guide you through the process.
    1. Schedule a meeting with a career counselor—If you're currently a student, you can do this for free at your school. If you're no longer a student, check with your local community college for referrals to free or affordable counselors in your area. Bring all the lists you created to the meeting.
    2. Read career advice books—A great place to start is What Color Is your Parachute?, which has sold millions of copies since its publication in 1970. Remember that choosing a career takes time, so the more research you do, the better your ultimate decision will be.
    3. Visit an employment agency to test your skills—Agencies will test your computer knowledge and typing skills for free, as part of the interview process. This will also give you some insight into your marketability.
    4. Use government resources—Some of the best free resources at your disposal include the employment and vocational services that you pay for with your own tax dollars.

  • Step 3: Assess Yourself

    • In order to narrow down your choices, you need to gain some insight into your own character. Some careers require extroverted people who have good communication skills, while other jobs are better performed by introverts. Before you can choose a career, try some self-assessment exercises.

  • Understand Your Personality

    The right career can offer a healthy balance between work and other pursuits. (Creative Commons photo by Alan)
    1. When you see a career counselor, ask for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This is a psychological evaluation exam based on the work of Carl Jung. The test has been widely used in educational and professional institutions. You can also take the exam online for a fee.
    2. Ask your friends, family and co-workers—the people who know you best—for their impressions of your personality. Have them suggest careers for which they think you're ideally suited.
    3. In addition to the advice you get from professionals and people who know you, conduct as much self-directed study as possible. Take advantage of the numerous personality tests available online:
      1. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter—Available in several different languages, this online questionnaire assesses people's temperaments and how that influences the careers they choose.
      2. The Ennagram Institute—Offering several different types of personality and self-awareness exams.
      3. Human Metrics—Exams on everything from personality traits and business style assessments.
      4. Fee-based exams—There are numerous extensive assessment tools online that require a fee. Some offer free samples.

  • Play matchmaker

    • You have a better chance of being successful if you choose a career that best utilizes your skills and personality. Your career counselor will use several tools to properly match your personality and apitude with the correct career path. However, you can also take some exams online that will choose professions for you based on your personality.
    1. The Princeton Review Career Quiz—This simple quiz gives you a list of professions that correlate to your work style.
    2. The Career Interest Game—This is a simplified version of "The Party Exercise" from What Color Is your Parachute?, a game to match your skills with potential careers.
    3. Career Values Test—This quiz can help identify what you value most in a career and which industry will match your needs.
    • Remember that self-assessment tests are just a basic guide and shouldn't discourage you from choosing a certain career. Furthermore, such evaluations have plenty of critics, some of whom consider them to be pseudoscience. However, they may lend you some self-awareness and help to narrow down the field.

  • Step 4: Research Your Top Choices

    • Once you've gotten some professional guidance and done some self-examination, you should have an idea of the kinds of careers you're interested in pursuing. But before diving into one of them, you need to understand the marketplace. Your next step is to gather specific information about each of your top choices.

  • Get organization

    • It's just as important to keep a clear mind as a clear desktop—computer desktop or otherwise. As you research each career, keep an orderly catalog of the material you find.
    • Online organization
      1. To catalog online info, open a free account with ma.gnolia. Once you've activated your account, you can use it to store and organize any useful career sites you find.
      2. When you come across a good resource, copy the URL.
      3. On your ma.gnolia homepage, paste the URL into the field labeled Add a bookmark and click GO.
      4. In the form that opens, under Description, note any important information you've found on the page.
      5. Select the box labeled Keep bookmark private, so you can conduct your research without being subject to eavesdropping by other inquiring minds on ma.gnolia.
      6. Lastly, and most importantly, go to the field labeled Tags. For each page you bookmark, you're going to input three "tags" (essentially, subject headings) to this field, separated by commas.
        • Tag 1: The first tag you'll type in, in all cases, will be "Careers." This will serve as a general index for all your online career research.
        • Tag 2: The second tag will identify which career the page concerns, such as "Nurse Practitioner," "Journalist," or "Veterinarian."
        • Tag 3: The third tag will correspond to the specific subject matter of the page, such as "Job Description," "Salary," or "Educational Requirements."
      7. Now that you have a virtual filebox, your online research will be easy to access and use.
    • Offline organization
      1. If you'd prefer to keep print-outs and photocopies of your material, go with a traditional three-ring binder, which band be found at any office supply store.
      2. Get binder index tabs and label them according to career and subject matter.
      3. File hard-copies of your research material in the appropriate sections.

  • Research

    • Regardless of your organizing method, your research on each career should cover all of the following categories.
    1. Basic career profile—Find resources that outline the main responsibilities, skills, educational requirements and average salary in each field.
    2. Career prospects—The financial rewards of most careers vary in cycles, while others go into permanent decline (telegraph operator, for example). Though you can't tell the future, you'll want to know whether or not a given career is expected to expand and thrive.
    3. Know the cost of relocation—Some industries, such as publishing and finance, offer more opportunities in certain parts of the country than in others. Keep in mind you may have to relocate in order to pursue your career. Using your projected earnings, do a cost of living comparison to see if a move makes sense.
      • Use CollegeGrad.com's Cost of Living Wizard to compare living expenses between your current location and others.
    4. Specific companies—Do some background research on the major employers in each of the fields you're considering.
      • For major companies, use Fortune Magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2008 as a resource.
      • For others, try Wikipedia's list of American companies, which allows you to search by industry or location.
      • Your research on each company should include the following:
        1. whether it requires special training or skills of its employees.
        2. the nature of its corporate culture
        3. the benefits each company offers its employees, including health care, retirement funds and stock options
      • See Fortune Magazine's list of companies that offer the best benefits. For other companies, search Google for their official sites; many contain detailed employment information.
    • After completing this research, you might cross off any of the careers on your list that won't meet your financial or personal needs. There's no need to replenish your list with new options. Remember, you ultimately want to narrow that list down to just one.

  • Step 5: Get Up Close

    • You've researched the top careers on your target list and you have an understanding of your personality and skill set. At this point, you should have in mind—at least tentatively—one career that stands out above the rest. But the best way to know whether a job is right for you is to observe it up close. More so than research, practical experience will help you make a final decision about your career.
    Each workday is 24 hours of your life—choose the right career and spend them wisely. (Creative Commons photo by Till Westermayer)
    1. Talk to people—Interview a few people already employed in the occupation you are seeking. Search online, or contact companies directly, to find people who have attained the position that interests you. Ask your career counselor for further guidance about finding and approaching interviewees. When you find some subjects, ask them following questions:
      • Could you tell me, candidly, what you think are the best and worst aspects of your job?
      • Can you describe your typical day at work?"
      • Where did you start and how did you attain your position?
    2. Apply for an internship—Internships are a great way to gain firsthand experience, particularly if you can afford to have a non-paying job for a short period of time.
    3. Get your foot in the door—Consider support positions or entry level jobs in your chosen field. If you're interested in law, try scoping out the field from the mail room of a law firm. If your career goal is to become a nurse or doctor, getting a job at a hospital will give you an inside view of the medical profession while you complete your education.

  • Conclusion

    • People's needs and abilities do change over time, so remember to examine your career every few years. You may start out in one profession, but eventually find your best match in something completely different. Selecting a career involves many different aspects of self-assessment and business knowledge. If you focus on your needs and keep researching your options, you'll find a career that's fulfilling, both creatively and financially.

  • Resources for How to Choose a Career


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