Choosing a career

Apr 16, 2012 by     2 Comments    Posted under: Opinions

Many young people do not consider this but selection of a career is a decision which will have a huge impact or influence upon your future life. A large number of undergraduates, nowadays, are not concerned about what will they do or what career plan will they follow, after leaving their respective universities. Some people, who do care, are unsure about where to get proper guidance from and are quite confused but this is not such a difficult decision, once you start working upon it from the ground level.

To start with, just concentrate on the following questions:

  • What are my interests and where do they lie?
  • What am I good at and what do I enjoy?
  • What kind of personality do I have?
  • What is really important to me?
  • What are my values?

Learn about your career options; or in other words, fish around. It happens quite rarely that you find someone like a teacher or a student in your university who tells you properly about what really goes on in the career path that you select. You have to explore it yourself so you may know more about it. See if your university’s library has books describing different kinds of work, the typical qualifications needed for different jobs, considering a career, and the salary ranges for various occupations. Also try to get in contact with and talk to graduates, who are in the field that you are interested in, as they can tell you a lot about the opportunities that lie ahead. Try out different careers by taking internships or part-time jobs. The more career planning that you can do as a student, the better prepared you will be when you will start to look for your first job or when you go for post-graduation. Consider making a list of all the career options that interests you and then after learning about each of them, you will ultimately come down to one which would be your favorite.

Learn to sort out your priorities for a career. After scrutinizing, you will have some career options in your mind, which you will strongly prefer. You might learn you cannot adapt well in an office environment, or you might find that your interest in something would not sustain a career, so you can cross off any career options, related to such decisions, off your list. In the process of exploring different careers, you also get to know yourself better which is very useful when it comes to deciding a good career for yourself and otherwise too. Basically making discoveries about your personality and character is a major component of career planning.

Take any career-related tests your university’s career center might offer or attend any career guidance seminars that your university arranges. You can also take an on-line career assessment such as the Career Liftoff® Interest Inventory to help you out in choosing a career. Consider any of your life experiences on jobs, classes or other opportunities that you may have really enjoyed.

Remember that you should keep it all in perspective. You do not have to stick with any career decision you make during planning a career as a student. Most people change careers several times during their lives. It may happen that the first job you choose, after graduation, probably may not be a part of your career later, unless you want it to be. So do not put too much pressure on yourself to make the perfect decision and use all available resources in your journey to find out how to choose a career. Remember that this decision is all about you as it is going to affect your life only. Do it yourself and try not to let anyone else have a major influence on this decision.

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2 Comments + Add Comment

  • Thank you for such an excellent piece of knowledge. The major takeaway from this article is that all we have to do it by ourselves and by our own choice.

    • No problem!! i’ll try my best to keep producing such pieces!! thank u for ur encouragement!!

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