In today’s world of work, finding and knowing your career path is essential; it can bring you clarity, motivation and satisfaction all of which lead to happiness in your life. Having more fulfillment can bring make your days filled with fulfilling work, you will be engaged and feel more competent and promotions and money can follow. But if deciding and being committed to a career path is so positive and rewarding, why is that so many people have such a hard time making a decision on which path to go?
Career options seem so elusive these days; alot of jobs that may bring one passion are being pushed aside it seems in favor of more lucrative ones; the internet and technological advances have replaced some career paths and it seems the preference of employers focuses more on fields in the STEM careers. Hiring practices are slower and preferences for candidates is of a higher caliber which is taking a lot of people out of the market, either by chance or by choice But hope is not lost – it is possible to find a job but with the right focus and strategy. Often, that starts with jumping off the fence and making a decision on which path to go. But, before you do, career exploration is a must:
- Do your homework – if you have some idea of what you want to do for work, you need to research everything you can find about that particular position, including the job tasks, needed skills and education, and salary ranges; you can google just about anything and find it so look at the results that come up and go to those sites. Look for industry-specific sites and delve into them. Go talk to people who may be in that particular field and see if they are willing to have a short talk with you so you can learn more about their particular job tasks and how their days go, both good and bad.
- Explore and asses your skills, talents, abilities and experience to see if they match up against the criteria you uncovered; compare and contrast to see what you may be lacking and write out what you will need to do to go about getting it. Plan out a time-line that it would take you to obtain that position and determine what you are willing to do to get it
- In order to be fully satisfied with your work you need to be in an environment where you can thrive, so another step in career exploration is to do due-diligence on both the industry and companies that hire for that position; this will help you to learn if your path will lead to the ‘pot of gold’ or to a dead end as far as career advancement opportunities and wages. This step can also help you find the ‘right’ organization that will align with all you stand for.
Once you are armed with all this information, you should now be able to make a more informed and ‘correct’ decision that you can live with. You can either stay on the fence and get what you get or you can take precise steps to get what you want – it starts with a decision.
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