How To Choose A Career
One of the most important decisions you can ever make in your life is how you will spend your time earning your livelihood. While purposefully choosing a career affirms that old adage, “Do what you love and the money will follow,” many people still seem to leave that decision to happenstance and end up, years later, realizing that they’ve spent their entire career at a job that was meant to be just a temporary role to earn some extra summer cash or until they graduated from college. While it is ideal, of course, to choose a career at an early age and then make focused educational, professional, and personal decisions that will lead directly toward that goal, the good news is – it is never too late to work in a position that is rewarding, fulfilling, and of service to others. In fact, it’s easy to find many people who have been downsized or have retired who are now, finally, working in the field that they had always imagined – even if that means it is in a volunteer position, in a totally different geographic area, or in the launching of their own business.
How to choose the right career is simple.
Know your interests.
Ask yourself, “What do I love to do?” “What natural skills do I have?” “When I am not working (or in school), how do I choose to spend my time?” The answers to these questions will be as varied and unique as the career opportunities out there in the universe. Perhaps you love the great outdoors and love to camp, fish, raft, ski, and hike. Maybe you enjoy reading or gardening. Possibly current events or politics keeps you at the edge of your seat. Or maybe it’s painting, photography, planning parties, teaching children, or helping senior citizens. Whatever it is you enjoy doing during your own free time is what you ought to be doing to earn a living. And, just to be sure before you launch full-time into an academic or professional pursuit of that field, talk to others who already are.
Interview professionals currently in the field.
Meet with people who are already working in the field that you are interested in pursuing. If you enjoy designing websites, for example, talk with several different web designers and find out what they had to learn not only to produce a quality product, but also to secure and maintain a loyal client base. If you want to be a lawyer, meet with private attorneys and representatives from corporate law firms and explore the demands and rewards of the job from those who live it. If you want to own your own flower shop, volunteer or work part-time for your local florist and observe all the intricacies involved in running an organized and successful small business.
Meet with professionals retired from the field.
Of the three ways to help you choose a career that will enable you to become everything you were meant to be during this one, brief, beautiful life – perhaps this is the most important action you can take. Interview and meet with people who have retired from the field you are interested in pursuing. They will undoubtedly welcome the opportunity to talk about their career and share with you things they may have done differently, milestone moments, and insightful advice that you can’t get anywhere else except from someone who has been there.
Life is too short to simply accept a job just because it has been offered to you. Purposefully choose how and where you spend your greatest and most important commodity – your time.
