With thousands of options, how will you choose a career that’s right for you? If you have no idea what you want to do, the task can seem insurmountable. Fortunately, she is not. Follow an organized process and you will increase your chances of making a good decision.
Evaluate yourself
Before you can choose the right career, you have to get to know yourself. Your values, interests, soft skills, and aptitudes, combined with your personality type, mean that some professions are a good fit for you and others are not a good fit at all.
Use self-assessment tools and career tests to gather information about your personality traits and, subsequently, make a list of professions that suit you. Some people choose to work with a counselorcareer guidance or other career development professionals who can help them navigate this process.
Make a list of professions to explore
You probably have several lists of occupations in front of you at this point, one generated by each of the self-assessment tools you have used. To stay organized, you should combine them into one main list.
First, find careers that appear on multiple lists and copy them onto a blank page. Title it “Professions to Explore.” Your self-assessments indicated that they are a good fit for you based on several of your characteristics, so they are worth exploring.
Next, find the professions on your lists that appeal to you. Perhaps these are careers that you know a little about and want to explore more. Also include professions you don’t know much about. You might learn something unexpected.
Explore the professions on your list
At this point, you’ll be glad you managed to narrow your list down to just 10 or 20 options. You can now get basic information about each of the professions on your list.
Find job descriptions and education, training and licensing requirements in published sources. Ask about advancement opportunities. Use government-produced labor market information to obtain data on wages and job prospects.
Create a second, shorter list
Now that you have more information, start narrowing down your list even further. Based on what you’ve learned from your research so far, start eliminating careers you don’t want to pursue. You should end up with two to five professions on your “short list.”
If the reasons why you find a career unacceptable are non-negotiable, cross it off your list. Remove anything that has tasks that don’t appeal to you. Eliminate careers with poor job prospects. Get rid of any profession if you can’t or won’t meet the educational or other requirements, or if you lack some of the soft skills needed to succeed in that profession.
Conduct informational interviews
When you only have a few professions left on your list, start doing more in-depth research. Organize meetings with people who practice the professions that interest you. They can provide you with first-hand information about the careers on your shortlist. Use your network, including your social networks and more specialized sites like LinkedIn, to find people with whom you can have these informative interviews.
Make your career choice
Finally, after you’ve done all your research, you’re probably ready to make your choice. Choose the profession that you think will bring you the most satisfaction based on all the information you have collected. Know that you have the right to change your mind about your choice at any time in your life. Many people change careers at least a few times.
Identify your goals
Once you have made your decision, determine your short- and long-term goals. This will help you chart a path forward to finding a job in your chosen field. It typically takes three to five years to achieve long-term goals, while you can usually achieve a short-term goal in six months to three years.
Be guided by the research you have done about the education and training required. If you don’t have all the details, do some more research. Once you have all the information you need, set your goals. An example of a long-term goal would be to complete your education and training. Short-term goals include college applications, apprenticeships, other training programs, and internships.
Write a career action plan
Create a career action plan, a written document that outlines all the steps you will need to take to achieve your goals. Think of it as a road map that will take you from point A to point B, then to point C and point D. Write down all your short-term and long-term goals and the steps you will need to take to achieve them. Include any obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your goals and ways to overcome them.
This may seem like a lot of work, and it is. But it’s much easier to form a career plan when you know what you want. By taking these steps early, you will save yourself a lot of trouble and uncertainty in the long run.
