What Career is Right for Me?

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Step 1: Self-Reflection
  • What are your Passions and Interests?
  • What are your strongest abilities and skills?
  • What are your core values and beliefs?
  • How would you describe your personality?
• Step 2: Explore Career Options
  • Research Online
  • Seek Networking Events and Informational Interviews
  • Explore Internship and Shadowing opportunities
  • Look into the required training and qualifications
• Step 3: Time to choose!
  • Consider the pros and cons
  • Build a tentative Career Plan
  • Prepare a Resilient Mindset
• Conclusion

Introduction

Feel like everyone has found their dream job, goals, and plans, except you? While these feelings are truthfully far from reality (career confusion is more widespread than you think!), the best way to deal with them is to get to the root of the problem: identifying the right career for you!

In this simple career guidance strategy, you will understand how to figure out your dream job in just three steps!

Step 1: Self-Reflection

The first step to choosing the right career is thinking about yourself. Feel free to take a sheet of paper and note down your responses to these questions:

• What are your Passions and Interests?

Start by thinking about what you enjoy doing the most. Consider hobbies like cooking, photography, design, or any creative arts. You can also think of activities you spend the most time doing. Do you enjoy initiating and planning events? How about working with children? Like teaching and tutoring? Or babysitting?

Take a moment to note these hobbies and interests down.

• What are your Strongest Abilities and Skills?

The next thing to ask yourself is, what skills and aptitudes do you possess? If this matches with the answers to the previous question (i.e., having both the skill and the love for the activity), you have hit the jackpot! 

Alternatively, you might find yourself being skilled at something you do not really consider a passion. Hold on, because you might come to enjoy working with this skill, too. There are more points to consider when picking the right career path. 

• What are your Core Values and Beliefs?

It is important to identify the beliefs, principles, and values you hold dear. Are you passionate about rescuing animals? Promoting sustainable living? Offering representation to women or people of color? Providing affordable and accessible education?

Think about the impact you would like to leave on the world and consider if your strengths and passions align with this vision. 

• How would you Describe your Personality?

Are you introverted or a social butterfly? Do you prefer a fixed routine of 9-5 work, or do you like unpredictability and challenging roles? How would you describe the way you work as part of a team? Are you patient, collaborative, and prosocial? Or do you prefer a role where there is minimal social interaction and maximum control? 

Considering these factors can help you understand what role suits your personality the best. 

Step 2: Explore Career Options

A combination of your interests, skills, values and personality styles can point you towards your dream job. For example, a person who enjoys teaching, likes children, values education and is patient would be best suited to teaching roles. Similarly, a creative person with the ability to inspire, lead teams, take risks and lead innovative projects would be suited to entrepreneurial roles. 

Of course, it may so happen that you might find a career that aligns with some of these responses, but not all. You might also find multiple career pathways you could pursue. In this case, it’s time for the next steps of this career advice. 

• Research Online

Look deeper into the dream jobs that emerged from your self reflection. What are the industry projections for these roles? What are the career growth opportunities in this field? What does a day in the life of a Professional in this career look like?

Look into these aspects for one or all the ‘dream jobs’ on your list. 

• Seek Networking Events and Informational Interviews

Information online can only get you so far. To truly find the best career for you, you will need to talk to the professionals in this field. Look up upcoming Networking events, exhibitions and other events involving the industry/career you are interested in, and try to attend. 

If you prefer a less social approach, try hunting industry experts and professionals from this field on LinkedIn. You can send a message introducing yourself and request an informational interview with them. Many will be happy to help you out and can give you a more accurate impression of the careers you are interested in pursuing. 

• Explore Internship and Shadowing Opportunities

If your research and professional interactions have promising results, it’s time to experience the role. Look for internship and shadowing opportunities. You could always request this from the Professionals you connected with before.

This is a good way to predict how you would experience being in this field, as opposed to presuming solely based on others’ opinions. 

• Look into the Required Training and Qualifications

Explore the training and qualifications that are required for an entry-level role in your field. You can also look into institutes offering beginner-friendly courses and certifications. 

If you prefer online training and skill-building opportunities with minimal to no budget, UniAthena’s a great place to start. Our 600+ Short Course collection features over 10 in-demand domains. Featuring free-to-learn, self-paced and flexible mini courses, this can be the perfect opportunity for beginners to build a foundational knowledge base. We recommend our Basics of Neuromarketing,  Basics of Cyber Law and Mastering Practical Psychology courses. 

Step 3: Time to Choose!

Now that you have assessed one or all of your dream jobs, it is time to pick one! 

• Consider the Pros and Cons

If you are still divided between options, try making a ‘Pros and Cons’ list. Take a sheet of paper and note down all the advantages and disadvantages of each career choice. Account for variables like interest, growth, pay, work-life balance, social impact, and other factors that are important to you. You will already know all these aspects, but it helps to write them out and compare them side by side for more clarity. 

• Build a Tentative Career Plan

Once you have picked the right career pathway for you, it’s time to make a career growth plan. Use all the information you accessed from your online research, interactions with industry professionals, educational requirements, and other aspects of the career guidance to make this plan. 

For example, account for your budget, accreditation and personal requirements to finalise a degree and university. Perhaps you could choose a university that also offers career growth pathways like placements, expert faculty or internship opportunities. Similarly, look into the organisation you would like to join post-graduation and understand the  skills you would need to build in order to enter this company.

While your career growth plan doesn’t need to be quite this detailed, having at least some of these aspects figured out will direct you toward the areas you need to develop during your skill-building phase. 

• Prepare a Resilient Mindset

Even dream jobs are difficult to pursue. Every industry is competitive, and you are likely to face ups and downs in your career. Be mentally prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. 

Identify how you would deal with stressors. For instance, if you prefer to lean on a friend, keep a strong social support system. If you tend to feel anxious or overwhelmed, find calming activities like meditation, exercise, or long walks. 

The most important thing is to not lose sight of your ‘why’, or the reason you are pursuing this career. This will help you to keep going even when things get difficult. 

Conclusion

In this blog, we outlined a simple yet comprehensive career guidance strategy that will help you find your dream job. The first step to choosing the right career is to self-reflect. This must be followed by researching online, interacting with professionals in the field, exploring educational requirements and gaining as much experience as you can. With all the facts on hand, you can move on to finalising your dream job, building a career growth plan and preparing for the challenges that lie ahead.