Deciding on a career is a pivotal moment in anybody’s life. Whether you are a high school leaver, a college graduate or somebody looking to make a career change, it’s a decision you need to get right.

Chances are, you’ll be spending more time at work than you will at home so being happy in your career will have a huge bearing on your general happiness in life. You’ll want to find something challenging that you have an interest in, that you will enjoy and that gives you an obvious path for progression.

Here’s our guide to choosing the right career for you.

Identify your skills and interests

What skills do you have and what interests you? If you are good with the English language and enjoy writing, then perhaps you could turn those skills towards becoming a journalist or a paid blogger. If you like numbers, then a career involving accounting or math might be an option. There are different jobs for mechanically minded people, creative people and those who enjoy helping others. Once you’ve identified your strengths and interests, you can identify a number of occupations that will potentially suit you.

Explore the careers that fit your skillset

You’ve got the occupations you are interested in, but how much do you actually know about them? A little further research will tell you a lot more – you’ll need to know what the jobs actually entail, how easy it is to break into the market and how much you can expect to get paid which is information you can find out from Salarysite.Com. From this, you can compile a shortlist of five to 10 jobs that may be of interest. If you are still unsure, then consider finding an unpaid internship which will give you a hands-on and practical idea of just what the job will be about, allowing you to see if it is right for you.

Make a decision

It’s decision time. Combining what you’ve learned about yourself through the process so far with which career you think will suit you, decide which occupation interests you the most. You can do this by asking yourself questions such as will you enjoy the job on a day-to-day basis? Do you have the correct skills? Is it a career that you will realistically be employable in? If the answer is yes, then you’ve found your career. Of course, you don’t have to limit it to one career. It can be good to have a back up plan so if your first choice proves impossible to break into or isn’t what you thought it would be, you’ve got a number two option ready and waiting.

Plan for the future

You might have your eyes set on an industry that you want to be in for the rest of your life. You need to consider, however, whether your industry will still be around in 20 years time, or will it have been replaced by something new? Technology especially is prone to this – those in the music industry have found that they’ve been usurped by the likes of Spotify, whilst fossil fuel companies are scrambling to modernise as green technology takes over. Traditional carmakers, for example, are having to adapt to the electric revolution, and they may find themselves needing to adapt again when driverless cars become mainstream. Driverless technology is up and coming, so you might want to get some additional info if you’re interested in a career in the car industry.

Set achievable goals

You’ve found yourself the career you want to get into. That’s the first step. Next you need to decide how you want to progress in it. Do you need to undertake training for the role and if so, how will you go about getting the qualifications you need? Set yourself goals to get yourself up to speed. In the short-term, these might be getting into a training school or an apprenticeship. In the medium-term, it might be completing the training and qualifications. Then the long-term goal can be achieved – breaking into the career that is right for you.

Share.

About Author

Hi Im Eddie. Ive been working in finance for most of my life so I thought I would start to show some or my learnings. Hope you find it useful. I have dogs too and cats. When Im not feed them Im running.