How to Make the Right Career Choice and When to Start?
posted on Feb 21, 2024
Discover the keys to making informed career choices and the optimal timing to embark on your professional journey. Start shaping your future today!
Choosing a college major, a career, or deciding whether to stay in your hometown or move to a new one — are all difficult decisions. We all spend a significant amount of time at work and want (and deserve) to enjoy what we do. However, getting that job isn't always easy. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to assist you in determining what is best for you.
With thousands of options, how will you choose the right career for yourself? If you don't know what you want to do, the task may appear unsurmountable. Thankfully, it isn't. You will increase your chances of making a good decision if you follow an organized process.
1. Assess Yourself
It is important to introspect and find out about yourself before selecting a career option. Because of your values, interests, soft skills, and aptitudes, as well as your personality type, some occupations are a good fit for you while others are completely inappropriate.
Use self-assessment tools and career tests to gather information about your characteristics and, based on them, generate a list of occupations that are a good fit. Some people prefer to work with a career counselor or other career development professionals who can guide them through the process.
2. Compile a List of Occupations to Research On
You have probably got several lists of occupations in front of you right now, one from each of the self-assessment tools you used. You should combine them into one master list to keep yourself organised.
First, copy any careers that appear on multiple lists onto a blank page. Call it "Occupations to Investigate." Your self-evaluations indicated that they are a good fit for you based on several of your characteristics, so they are worth investigating.
Next, look for any occupations on your list that interest you. They could be careers that you are interested in learning more about. Include professions about which you know little. You may discover something unexpected.
3. Explore Each Occupation on Your List in Great Detail
You will be pleased that you were able to reduce your list to 10 to 20 options at this point. You can now learn the fundamentals of each of the occupations on your list.
In published sources, you can find job descriptions as well as educational, training, and licencing requirements. Discover your options for the best education schools. Use government-produced labour market data to learn about earnings and job prospects.
4. Create a Shortlist
Now that you have gathered more information, it is a good idea to start narrowing down your list even further. Begin eliminating the careers you don't want to pursue further based on what you've learned so far from your research. This "shortlist" should ideally comprise of two to five suitable occupations.
If your reasons for disliking a job are non-negotiable, cross it off your list. Remove any responsibilities that you dislike. This is a good time to let go of those careers options that offer poor job prospects. Remove yourself from any occupation if you are unable or unwilling to meet the educational or other requirements, or if you lack some of the soft skills required for success.
5. Conduct Informational Interviews
When you're down to a few occupations on your list, start doing more in-depth research. Plan to meet with people who work in the fields that interest you. They have first-hand knowledge of the jobs on your shortlist. Find people to conduct these informational interviews using your network, including LinkedIn.
6. Make Your Career Choice
Finally, you are most likely ready to decide after conducting all of your research. Choose the occupation that you believe will provide you with the most satisfaction based on the information you have gathered. Recognize that you can change your mind about a decision at any point in your life. Many people change jobs at least a few times in their lives.
7. Identify Your Goals and Targets
Once you have made a decision, determine your long- and short-term objectives. This will eventually assist you in charting a path toward getting placed in your chosen field. Long-term goals typically take three to five years to achieve, whereas short-term goals can usually be completed in six months to three years.
Use your research on required education and training as a guide. If you don't have all of the information, do more research. After you've gathered all of the necessary information, set your goals. A long-term goal would be to complete your education and training. Short-term goals may include college applications, apprenticeships and internships, and other training programs.
8. Write a Career Action Plan
Make a career action plan, which is a written guide that details all the steps you must take to accomplish your objectives. Think of it as a route that will get you from A to B. List all of your short- and long-term objectives, along with the actions you must take to accomplish each one. Include any obstacles that might stand in the way of achieving your goals, along with solutions.
This might seem like a lot of work, and it actually is. But when you know what you want, carving out a career path becomes much simpler. You will avoid a lot of trouble and uncertainty later on by taking these actions now.