15 Ways to Decide What Career is best for you
This post shares valuable ideas on how to decide the best career for you, to help you achieve a successful and fulfilling career.
Please, read on:
One of the things that can bother a person while growing up is the choice of career.
This is because one’s career is what will define the direction the life of such a person will move in the future.
Most people find it difficult to make choices like this because they lack ideas on the prerequisites of choosing a career.
To help you out of this confusion, this article will be offering some eye-catching ways to know what career is best for you.
It will be important you go through each point and get the main idea. So let’s consider the best ways to decide what career is great for you.
15 Ways to Decide What Career is best for you
- Know your strength/skills
This is the first and foremost thing to factor in before choosing a career. You have to know your strength and skills.
That will give you a hint as to what career you should choose.
Choosing a career outside your strengths and skills will not make sense at all.
So, in choosing a career, you need to choose one that tallies with your natural skills and abilities.
Your skill is a pointer to what career to choose and which one not to go for.
You don’t do trial and error when it comes to choosing your career.
When you have a career that supports your skills, then your job becomes easier compared to when you are doing something that does not tally or supports the skills you possess.
Therefore, your skills and strengths should be the first parameter to determine what career you should choose.
- Know your personality
You need to understand your personality and know which job perfectly fits it.
For instance, if you are the type that enjoys talking to the public, then your career may not be far away from jobs that require public speaking.
- Take a career test
This is one of the most important ways to decide what career is best for you.
Career test is done or taken to know what your answer to certain questions are and from there you could be advised on the best career you can choose among others.
Career test tends to deal with questions that test your ability to identify your strengths and skills, and your passion.
Knowing your strength may not be sufficient to know the best kind of career you can choose among related fields.
A career test presents you with a good platform to understand yourself better and choose rightly.
Most people find this method to be better than all other methods. So, it can still work for you if you fancy taking it.
So, get a career test and know yourself better.
- Seek advice
If you are not sure of what career is best for you, then going for advice will certainly not be a bad idea.
It is necessary that you listen to advice from professionals before you choose what career you want.
This is one thing you should do before you make your choice.
The essence of going for advice from experts is that they give you advice from their wealth of knowledge and experience without bias.
They also help you know the pros and cons of the career you are interested in.
Another reason why you may have to listen to experts is that they will look at your basic natural skills and know where you fit in.
This is important because it is the set of skills you possess that should go a long way to determining what career you should choose.
- Apply for internship program
Internship programs afford you the opportunity to work and gain first-hand experience from a credible organizations.
In some cases, you could be paid in the process.
So it is a two-way benefit for you. You gain valuable experience and still earn some money in the process if the employer pays for internship.
In relationship to choosing a career, applying for internship programs can help you make up your mind on the best career you can choose for yourself.
It is one of the best ways you can know the best career for you while you are in the process of gaining the relevant experience.
Then also, internship could afford you the opportunity to kick start your career as early as possible.
This is because, passing through internship programs and doing excellently well could prompt the organization to hire you, thereby helping you start up your career in that organization.
- Understand your passion
Your career should not be different or far from what you have passion for.
Sometimes, one of the reasons for job dissatisfaction is when you take up a career that does not support your passion.
It can lead to regular frustration in your career.
So, in choosing a career, ensure that you understand your passion.
Your passion should come to the fore because that might be the only thing that may make you happy and keep you going when every other source of motivation fails.
In addition, you should learn to differentiate between your passion and your hobby.
Sometimes your hobby could be your passion while in some cases that might not be the case.
So, you have to be sure that what you want is a representation of your passion.
- Get details of the career you want
Never venture into any career without having good knowledge of it.
Not knowing what a career entails before getting into it can lead to frustration when it seems you are not getting the satisfaction that you expect.
So, to avoid frustration in your career, you have to go through the details of the career path and know what to expect both in the short and long run.
This will help you make adequate preparations and plans on how to go about the career.
One way you can do this is to meet a career counselor and seek for more details and clarifications about the job.
You just have to ensure that you are not moved by sentiments concerning the career but by facts.
- Remove the monetary factor
Remove the monetary factor from your career and know if you will still love to do that job.
It is important to note that monetary benefit should not be the most important determinant of the career you should choose.
Your skills, happiness, and passion are the first set of factors to consider before anything else in choosing a career.
If you remove the monetary value and discover that the career you are interested in is no longer exciting to do, then it is a clear indication that you might be looking at the wrong career.
So this is one acid test you have to carry out before choosing any career.
You should look out for other motivations other than the money you will make in the career.
This is not to say that salary or money involved should not be considered at all, but what we are saying in essence is that the pay check should not be the first factor to consider in making a choice for your career.
- Consider your qualifications
This is another factor you should consider before getting into a career.
Your qualifications go a long way to determine the type of career you should consider.
Your qualifications will give you a hint as to what to expect from a particular career that you are holding out for.
Sometimes, you may need to upgrade your qualifications or take extra professional courses to be qualified for certain jobs.
So, if you are seeking to get into a particular career, first of all take a look at your qualifications and confirm they are right for the career.
In case your qualifications are not up to standard, it will not be a bad idea to upgrade them.
There are two possible ways you can do this: going back to school or going for a professional course.
You can decide which one to go for depending on what you want.
- Continue your education
There are times you might need to further your education in order to get the job or career you want, especially if you are looking for a high ranking job in an organization.
You will need to upgrade your knowledge and experience in an area before building a career.
So, before choosing a career, one of the things you have to consider is the academic qualifications need by the organization you want to apply to.
If your qualifications are not up to standard or short of what is expected, then you have little or no chance of getting your career kick started there.
The essence of continuing your education is in your best interest as it will give you an upper hand in the ever competitive business world.
You will need to have what others don’t have if you want to get the lion share in that industry.
- Apply for jobs you have interest in
One way to usher in frustration in the long run is to choose a job you don’t have any interest in.
Maybe because of the pay you decided to take up the job, the truth is that you may not last long on the job because you will get fed up with it ij no time.
You need to do what you love and what you have interest in.
The job you should choose should be one that will give you opportunity to express yourself and explore more avenues to be happy.
From your school days, you should know what you want and where your interest lies.
It will help you to choose the right courses in school and also to apply for the right internship programs.
If you get it right from school, you will not struggle to get the right job.
- Check the interest of the company with yours
Yes you got that right. The interest of the company or organization where you desire to work can affect your own career.
This is because when you choose to work in a company, you are bound to follow the procedures and daily routines of the company whether it is beneficial to you or not.
Employers don’t normally put the interest of employees first before theirs.
So, your employer may not mind putting you in a tight corner just to make their profits.
That means if you are not ready to sacrifice your career for someone else, then don’t take up that job.
You don’t apply for a job in an organization simply because the job is available.
You have to gather your information and know if the organization where you want to apply can help make your dreams come true.
If no, then you have to try somewhere else.
- Know your worth
Knowing your worth can also help you to determine the best career for you.
Your worth is your importance or relevance either to yourself, your organization, or people around you.
Believe it friend that you have a great worth, you just have to discover it.
One of the ways to know your worth is to evaluate your experience and your certifications.
This is to avoid underemployment which is a situation where you are working below your qualifications.
This could be bad for you in the long run.
When you know your worth, you will know the type of career to choose for yourself.
You should not take something less than your worth except in a situation where you want to start from the scratch, then it shouldn’t take you long to move upwards.
- Acquire more skills
Some people say that time is money but that is not completely true. The truth is that it is more skills that can give you more money.
If you have 24 hours in a day and you possess no competitive skill then how do you intend to get some cash?
This means that the more skills you have, the more likelihood you will get better in your career.
And in the case of choosing a career, you will look at the prevalent skills you have in relationship to your passion and make out something out of it.
Sometimes, the passion may be there but the skills are lacking, what you need to do is not to switch career but to acquire the necessary skills.
There are various ways to acquire more skills; they include seminars, webinars, workshops, and experiments.
- Define your purpose
This is very important, especially to the young folks. There is one thing that people battle with when they are young and that is the inability to define their purpose.
This can result to delay in making the right choice of career.
From the time you find yourself in school as a young person, you should be able to navigate your path to lead to a clearer destination.
This will help you narrow your search of career.
But when you are not able to define your purpose, then it becomes difficult to choose the best career for yourself.
Then for the more matured people, defining your purpose will mean making basic decisions as to what you want and what you don’t want.
This will go a long way to determining the type of job you will take and how best to choose a career.
Conclusion
Making a choice of which career to choose is never an easy task.
But it could be made easy if you start early enough to define your purpose and acquire more skills.
This article provides you with the ideas you have to consider before making a career choice so that you will be able to make the best one.