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Career

How to Choose a Career 

How to Choose a Career 

Picking a career always proves the most complex of decisions, especially for individuals without a clue on what to pursue yet. Should you go purely with your passion, or should you factor in the money, for example as ghostwriting jobs? You may check rules for good writing speech for this kind of work. The career possibilities will always get laid before you, and picking the right one or the wrong career will always prove your call.

Because of the high stakes in picking a career, what do you have to consider first?

Guidelines for Picking a Career

  • Assess yourself. Try and learn as much as possible about yourself, including your interest, values, aptitudes, and soft skills. In coming up with a personality type from your attributes, select career options that can prove ideal to your personality and those that cannot cut. You can also utilize self-assessment techniques or indulge the help of a counselor to help piece your personality and the best possible career trajectory.
  • List all the occupations you can explore. Once you complete the process of self-assessment, you will have a list of possible career options. The next step involves evaluating the potential careers for those that appeal to you the most. It should entail careers that you have some insights on or those which you know nothing about.
  • Explore the career options in your reduced list. The stage involves researching about each occupation listed. It should include details on the job descriptions, training, licensing, and educational requirement. Also, study the options of advancing these careers, and information on the job outlook besides the remuneration data.
  • Make a candidate list or shortlist of the career options to consider. You have to condense your list further based on the gathered information. It’s good to start eliminating occupations you don’t want to consider further. Eliminate careers you cannot consider based on some of the job requirements listed. Additionally, also get rid of careers with a weak future outlook. Lastly, eliminate careers you cannot qualify for based on the educational or skill requirements.
  • Carry out informational interviews. The process entails doing in-depth research on the last three to five careers making your shortlist. It’s advisable to meet individuals in those careers for first-hand information and insights concerning the occupation. Also, explore your LinkedIn account to connect with professionals for such information.
  • Pick a career option. Well, everything culminates to this point where you finally settle on one of the career options based on the extra information gathered. The choice you settle on should become the most satisfactory based on your research. But remember, you can always change at this point.
  • Ascertain your goals. It always proves useful to identify your long and short-term goals after settling on a career option. The process will assist you in charting a successful course in realizing your dream.
  • Develop an action plan for your career. It should encompass all the details and steps to take in realizing your goals. The action plan should act as your career roadmap with highlights of the milestones set.

Conclusion

Settling on the right career can prove one of the most important decisions of your life. All you have to do entails observing the guidelines provided and working smart. After all, you can settle on a career path, set all the goals, but fail to succeed as a result of failure to put in the hard work.