How to Choose a Career

How to Choose a Career - "A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe." Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Building a career of choice does not have to be difficult. Once you know how to choose a career that's a great fit for you, you'll be well on your way.

When you consider all aspects of your new career and the ways in which it will impact your life, you'll be prepared to make smart career choices. Before you dive in and start writing your resume, take some time with the decision making process. Think through and plan exactly what you need and want from your next job.

How to Choose a Career - Nine Simple Tips

Aptitudes
What are your natural talents? Understanding your aptitudes and how they match with the aptitudes required for careers that interest you will help you to make choices that fit well with your strengths and to market those strengths to employers. Also, if you understand your aptitudes, you'll be aware of skill areas that may require extra time and effort for you to learn or avoid careers that would require you to struggle with learning skills that may not come as easily to you.

Skills
Skills are different from aptitudes. Aptitudes are the things that you could potentially learn easily, while skills are the things that you have already learned. You probably have a much longer list of marketable skills than you realize. Understanding the skills that you have will help you to see the broad range of jobs you could pursue.

Interests
You will spend countless hours at your job, so ensuring that your work is a good match with your interests is important to career change and decision making. Do you spend hours reading about history or painting or maybe you love being outdoors and active. Whatever your interests may be, you would be wise to take them into account as you make career choices and decisions.

Personal Style
It's important to account for your personal style or work preferences when you are considering how to choose a career. Even if a job is a good fit with your interests, if the major work tasks do not fit with your work preferences, it will likely not be a good fit for your needs.

For example, you may love music. You may spend hours practicing, studying music theory and listening to your favorite musicians. So, it might seem logical to conclude that a career as a musical performing artist would be a great fit for you.

Before you make that conclusion, imagine also that you are quite introverted and prefer to deal with people one on one rather than in large groups. Although work in the music industry may be a great fit with your interests, in this case, a career as a performing artist would likely not be a good fit with your personal style or work preferences. You might find that pursuing a career as a composer or a music librarian or researcher would be a better fit that matches both your interests and your personal style.

Values
Considering your values is a crucial aspect of career change and decision making. The biggest cause of career burnout happens when your values and your work are in opposition with each other. So if you're wondering how to choose a career that allows you to achieve work-life balance, know that the first step is to consider the way your career fits with your values.

Your values may change as you reach different stages in your life, and your career may change in response to that, so it's important to think through your primary values to ensure they fit with your career choices.

For example, if you value flexibility and family and personal time, pursuing a career with a demanding schedule will likely not be a good fit for you. If you value achievement, advancement and status, you will probably feel stifled working for a company with a very flat organizational structure.

Family and Personal Needs
There are basic, practical needs that you will probably have to consider when making a career choice. The choices you make could affect where you live, how you spend your free time, the amount of time you'll need to spend in school and many other facets of your life. All of these factors will impact other goals and they could also impact your family or other significant people in your life.

Physical Needs
Ensuring that a job is physically safe and suitable for you will help to ensure a long career. If, for example, you've had concerns with injuries with your hands or shoulders, then a career that requires a large amount of data entry or heavy lifting may not be a good fit for you.

Goals
Both career and non-career goals can be impacted by your career choices. Do you want to retire early, start a family, buy a home in the country, travel extensively, start a business, be a work at home parent or support your partner in being a work at home or stay at home parent? The career choices you make may impact many of these goals. Of course, it's not possible to predict and plan for every event in life, but the more you think through your goals and needs, the more likely your chosen field will be a good match for you.

Financial Needs
Do you need to make a full time income immediately? Maybe you are able to invest some time in your career by pursuing further education or building a business. Your immediate and long term household financial needs will be a consideration in your career choices.

Understand how to choose a career and carefully consider all of the facts to build a career of choice. There are many factors that impact your ability to do a great job, build a successful career and be happy in your work and the way it interacts with and impacts the rest of your life. When you are able to carefully weigh all of these considerations, you'll know exactly how to choose a career that is a great fit for you.