I Need Help Deciding What Career to Choose

Asking what you want to do when you grow up generally stops in the teen years. But if you still have to ask yourself that question a few years later, then you haven’t found the right career.

You may have a job, even a well paying job, but you are missing out on career satisfaction. How well do you know yourself? To choose the right career, you have to be in touch with you deepest desires and genuine interests.

Choosing the Right Career

Some people only feel that they can express those in a hobby, and don’t even try to find those desires or interests in a paying job. That’s too bad, because with so many job types, there is often a way to match your personality and your interest with gainful employment.

Make a list of the five work tasks that you most enjoy and the five work tasks that you dislike. Do you see any similarities? Did you notice that the enjoyable tasks included some level of people contact and the least enjoyable tasks were paperwork and computer time?

That says you are a people-oriented person who would be much happier in a public contact job than back it the cubicle shuffling papers. The next question is, how could you stay with your current employer and move into a different type of work so that you have more public contact?

Talk with the HR Manager and ask about possibilities for internal transfer. Companies much prefer to help good employees progress from within rather than lose them to the competition.

When searching for a job that can become the right career for you, don’t guess or follow your friend’s advice. In the classic movie, The Graduate, bewildered graduate Benjamin had no solid answer for all the well-wishers who congratulated him on earning a college diploma and wanted to know when he was going to work to use that knowledge.

Then along came a family friend who told Benjamin the right career move was “Plastics.” That’s all, just Plastics. It was a time when the use of plastic materials in packaging and parts was soaring, but that alone wasn’t much of a help to Benjamin.

Would he be satisfied as a plastics designer, plastics engineer, plastics artist or salesman for a plastics company? What works for one person may have nothing appealing to another.

One thing about the “Plastics” advice was useful - it identified an up and coming new industry of the time. In choosing the right career, you would be smart to check out the U.S. Government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook which is also available online at
http://www.bls.gov/OCO/.

This annually updated free resource shows trends in industries and jobs for hundreds of occupations. You can search by job title or industry. The Occupational Outlook Handbook also gives an analysis of each job including both the current situation and future opportunities as well as salary range and areas of the country to find the most jobs in this category.

Another great aspect of the Occupational Outlook Handbook is to give new ideas about jobs within a certain industry. Perhaps you have dreamed of working with animals but didn’t want to run away to join the circus so you took a bookkeeping job that you don’t like.

Becoming a veterinarian sounded wonderful until you found out how much education was required for this profession. Now you feel like dream is out of reach again. Not true. You will find in the Occupational Outlook Handbook and other career research sites that there are several ways to fulfill you ambition to work with animals; Vet Tech, Vet Assistant, Dog Groomer, Dog Trainer, Small Animal Trainer, Large Animal Trainer, Horse Groomer, Zoo Assistant and more.

You may also find that there are more job openings for Vet Techs than for Veterinarians. Keep an open mind as you search for ways to work in the area you care most about while being flexible as to the job title and training options.

Consider following the job you want. As you research job openings, you may find that few exist in your area while moving just 100 miles away would triple your opportunities. If you are serious that this change is the right career for you, then decide if you are willing to move out of town or even out of state for that career.

In some jobs, you can spend several years training in a larger urban area then bring your skills back closer to home. Or you may want a career that simply does not offer the best opportunities in your area. If you want to get in to television or video production, you’ll have more job possibilities in a major city than in a small town.

Think about the future of your new job. The right career needs to have an upwardly mobile potential otherwise you’ll be career searching again in just a few years. Spend time to research companies or professions that match your interest.

Cross check what you learn with the Occupational Outlook Handbook that has new information posted every year. If the trend is downward for an industry or job type, then you can make an expensive mistake to train for that field. Technology is taking over many jobs particularly those in manufacturing, design, data management and others.

Get to know several people who are in your chosen career field. You can meet them individually by visiting their workplace and asking for a short conversation to help you firm up your career goals.

Or you can encounter them at networking meetings. Look in the local newspaper and you’ll find various groups that network either among many occupations or that are occupation specific.

Attend frequently and listen more than you talk. To being with, do you like these people? Are they similar in personality to you? If you got into the field, would you be happy having these people are your colleagues? If the answer to any of these questions is “no” or “I’m not sure,” then you need to rethink whether this really is the right career for you.

The right career is more than a job or a way to earn money. The right career is a public expression of who you are inside and the depth of your dreams and goals.