The Ultimate Guide to Making a Career Choice When You’re Undecided

The Ultimate Guide to Making a Career Choice When You’re Undecided

You’re reading The Ultimate Guide to Making a Career Choice When You’re Undecided, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Choosing a career path is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult decisions you’ll ever have to make. That’s because it will influence the course of your life. While it is true that we can change our minds and our careers several times in life, it is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. And when you are undecided, you might feel as if you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. The decision is even more difficult for college graduates. Nonetheless, you can narrow down your choices by considering a range of essential guidelines. Let’s proceed! Analyze Your Capabilities Evidently, before you can make an appropriate career choice, you should assess your capabilities and skills. Doing something you are good at will bring you a huge sense of satisfaction. While some people fail to take this into consideration, being good at what you do makes you passionate. And being passionate about something makes you feel happy. To that end, take the time to identify your aptitudes, skills, interests and how they combine with your personality. In fact, the latter is just as important in determining if you’re fit for a certain job or not. It might be a good idea to use career tests. And don’t get discouraged if the result is the exact opposite of what you had in mind. Make sure you remain flexible and, if anything, you can always consult with a career counselor or a career development professional that will guide you in this process. At the end of the day, you might discover that you have the right skills for becoming a personal injury attorney or a French teacher – who knows? Comprise a List of Occupations that Appeal to You In order to narrow down your career choices, you should have a list with what you like to do or are good at? As opposed to aimlessly browsing through endless lists of careers and occupations, you should cherry pick the ones that represent you. This should be easy, considering that you use a range of self-assessment tools. In order to remain organized, you should include your desirable occupations into a singular list. You might title the list: occupations to explore. Bear in mind, we’re talking about occupations that are characteristic of your personality and skills. So, don’t be scared to include occupations you know little about. Conduct Some Research The next step is, of course, researching the occupations present on the list you’ve previously made. This applies especially if there are several careers on the list you aren’t really knowledgeable about. The truth is that many times, we have vague ideas and preconceptions regarding various professions. By doing some research, you can eliminate potential doubts you might have and get your facts straight before making such an important decision. Evidently, you should understand the way in which the job market works, as well as the potential income you could earn by choosing a particular profession. The income you generate through a profession isn’t something that should be overlooked. Financial earnings definitely contribute to motivating us to improve ourselves and advance on the professional ladder. Narrow Down the Initial List After conducting proper research on the careers you’re interested in, it’s time to narrow down your choices. At this point, the feeling of indecisiveness should be diminished. Most definitely, the research pointed out the careers that are least suitable for your skills and personality. So, start by eliminating these from your list. Ideally, your short list should comprise less than five occupations. These should be 100% representative of your personality. To be more specific, you should be able to visualize yourself pursuing that career. Make sure you eliminate any career that comes with duties that are unappealing to you. Concurrently, factor in the skills needed for that career – if you don’t have them and you’re not willing to learn them, it’s best to cross it off the list. Expand Your Comprehension of Your Chosen Career So, what more can you do to understand what a specific career entails? Essentially, you should arrange meetings with people that work in those domains. This will show whether you’re actually suitable for a specific job or not. Many times, an individual working in a field will be the only one that can offer you an in-depth and reliable feedback on that type of career. For example, it might be a good option to access LinkedIn and get in touch with professionals on this platform. Are You Ready to Make a Choice? After checking all these steps, you should be ready to pick a single career that seems to be the most suitable for you. You should make your decision considering all the information you gathered and the informal discussions you’ve had with various professionals. Also, remember to pick the occupation you are most passionate about. At the same time, bear in mind that the work you do should offer you a sense of satisfaction. Don’t overlook the fact that many people end up with depression because they aren’t pleased with their jobs. Still, this decision isn’t the end of the world – you can change your mind if you discover another career path that makes you happier. As a matter of fact, most people change their career at least a couple of times throughout their lives. Last, but not least, try to answer this question: what goals would you associate with the career choice you’ve made? In order to remain motivated and focused, it might be a good idea to set a few goals – short-term and long-term. This way, you’ll know what you’re working towards. Essentially, your career defines you. This is what makes this decision so important. Do consider the guidelines mentioned in this article in order to narrow down your career choices and you should be on the right path. And remember, you are allowed do-overs if things don’t work out as you’d expected them to.

You’ve read The Ultimate Guide to Making a Career Choice When You’re Undecided, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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