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Making Career Choices |
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In selecting a career, a lot is riding
on your decision. Consider an occupation that offers success for many years
to come. Pick an occupation that is suitable
for you, can support you financially far into the future with growth and
development potential. The topics at the right will lead you
through a process that will assist in selecting a career.
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Your Personality and Your Career Your Interests Help Choose a Career |
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Select a Career Carefully |
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Dawn Rosenberg McKay https://www.thebalance.com/what-not-to-do-when-selecting-a-career-525489 |
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There's
a lot riding on your career decision. You want an occupation that can be successful
for years to come. While you can change careers, it can be an effort. Pick
something that is suitable for you and can support you financially in the
future. Increase your chances of making a good decision by avoid these common
mistakes. Mistakes
to Avoid When Selecting a Career: 1.
Listening to People Who Tell You What You Should do.
Many people think they should have a say in your career - your
parents, friends, your significant other. In most cases, your decision will
have little impact on the other people in your life. You, however, will have
to deal with your choice for years to come. Make sure the career you choose
is something you want to spend your day doing. 2.
Following in Someone Else's Footsteps: You may be haunted by your parents'
expectations to go into the same occupation they are in. You may know it as
the one that put food in your mouth, a roof over your head and even paid your
way through school. It is hard to ignore the pressure you may feel to please
your mom and dad. Remind your parents, that they made their own choices and
now it's your turn. What
was right for them may not be for you. In the long run, they'd rather see you
happy in a career of your choosing than unhappy in one you picked to please
them. 3.
Not Doing Your Homework: Don't choose a career without taking
time to learn about it. In addition to a job description, you should gather
information about typical job duties, educational requirements, earnings and
job outlook. 4. Not Talking to Those in the Know: Your homework isn't complete if you
skip talking to someone who currently works in the career field you are
considering. Those who are engaged in an occupation can provide you with a
truthful account of what it's really like to work in it. Talk to a few people
to avoid individual biases |
5. Going for the Money: Bringing home a paycheck is important, but the size of it isn't actually a great predictor of job satisfaction. In other words, you can make six figures but if you hate the work you'll find it hard to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Look for a balance between making money to support yourself and work that fulfills you. 6. Ignoring Who You Are: Your personality type, interests, values and aptitudes make you better suited for some occupations than others. These traits are intrinsic, which means you can't change them. If you don't take them into account when selecting a career, there is an excellent chance you will wind up in an occupation that is unsuitable for you. 7.
Not Considering Location, Location, Location: Jobs in certain occupations are
concentrated in specific cities—New York or Los Angeles for example—or in
certain types of locations—such as cities versus rural areas. 8.
Not Looking Beyond a "Best Careers" List: Lists that tell you what careers have
the best opportunities of the year or decade or, can be helpful when it comes
to selecting a career. However, making a decision based solely on one of
those lists is a terrible idea. Even an occupation with a great outlook can
be a bad fit, so you have to scratch below the surface to find out whether
you and a career are a good match. 9.
Ignoring the Future: You shouldn't make your choice solely
on an occupation's appearance on a "best careers list," to ignore employment
outlook is careless. There's a good chance you don't have a
crystal ball that can tell you with certainty whether an occupation will
grow, or at least be stable, during the course of your career. However, you
can do more than hope for the best. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics makes
predictions about the outlook for most occupations. You should consider
whether a career has a promising future before you begin to prepare for it.
You can at least eliminate something if its future looks bleak. |
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The Career Planning Process |
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Dawn Rosenberg McKay Selections from: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-career-planning-process-524774 |
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Think about the amount of time you will
spend at work, it is clear this decision is a big deal. Over your lifetime,
this comes out to 45 years you will spend working, from beginning your career
until retirement. Select a career that is a good fit for you. To increase your chances of finding a
satisfying career, follow these four steps: Self Assessment You will identify careers that might be
a good fit for you during a self assessment. You will use a variety of tools to
gather information about yourself. Learn about your: Interests: The things you enjoy doing. Work-related
Values:
Ideas and beliefs that are important and guide your actions Personality
Type:
Your social traits, motivations, strengths and attitudes Aptitudes: A natural talent or an ability learned
through training and education Work
Environments:
The type of workplaces you prefer, for example, indoors or outdoors,
office or factory, and noisy or quiet Developmental
Needs:
Your cognitive abilities have an impact on the type of training or
education you can complete and what kind of work you can do. Realities: Circumstances influencing your ability to
train for or work in an occupation Career
Exploration Career exploration focuses on learning
about the occupations that seem to be a good fit based on your self assessment and any other professions that interest
you. Use online and print resources to get job descriptions; learn about
specific job duties; and gather labor market information including median
salaries and job outlooks. After preliminary research, you can
start eliminating professions that don't fit and get more details about those
that do. Conduct informational interviews and arrange job shadowing
opportunities. During informational interviews, you ask people who work in an
occupation that interests you questions about their jobs. Job shadowing
involves following someone at work in order to learn more about what they do. |
Match Finally, it's
time to make a match and decide which occupation is the best for you based on
what you learned during self assessment and career
exploration. Identify the
most interesting occupation and one or two alternatives on which to fall back
on. Give serious thought to how you will prepare to enter your chosen career,
the costs of education and training, and whether you will face any barriers.
With a chosen a career, proceed to Step 4, leading toward your first job in
your new career. Action Write
a career action plan. It serves as a guide to reaching your ultimate goal of
getting a job in the career you deemed to be a good match. Identify what
long-term and short-term goals you will have to reach to get to the ultimate
one. Investigate
appropriate education and training programs: colleges, graduate schools, or
apprenticeship programs. Then start preparing for admission. Be
ready to seek employment, develop a job search strategy. Identify potential
employers. Write resume and cover letters. Begin practicing for job interviews. What Else You Should Know It
is important your career planning process never ends. At points in your
career, you may need to go back to the beginning, or any phase as you
redefine yourself and goals. You may change your career or pursue better
options in your current one. You
can attempt to go through the career planning process on your own, or you can
hire a career development professional who will help facilitate your journey.
The way you decide to undertake this process—with or without assistance—is
less important than the amount of thought and energy you put into it. |
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Career Action Plan |
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Dawn
Rosenberg McKay |
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What
is a Career Action Plan? A career action plan is a road map that
takes you from choosing an occupation to becoming employed in that occupation
to reaching your long-term career goals. It is also referred to as an
Individualized (or Individual) Career Plan or an Individualized (or
Individual) Career Development Plan. Before
You Begin Writing a career action plan is the
fourth step in the career planning process. You must complete the first three steps
of the process before you can tackle this one. Steps one through three, in
order, are: Self-Assessment: During this step you
will use several self-assessment tools to learn about your values, interests,
aptitudes and personality type. Your goal is to identify a variety of
suitable careers. Ideally you should have between 10 and 15 occupations on
your list. Career Exploration: Now that you know
what occupations are suitable based on your self-assessment, you can begin to
explore the ones you are interested in. You don't have to investigate every
single career on your list but you never know what you may learn when you do.
The occupation that appears on the surface as something you wouldn't like
could end up being the one that interests you the most once you learn more
about it. Match: Armed with information about
several careers, you should start thinking about making a final decision.
Consider the pros and cons of each of your options and then choose the one that you decide is the
best choice for you. You should base your decision not only on what you would
enjoy doing the most, but also on what is a |
feasible choice in terms of the
requirements associated with it. For example, if it requires earning an
advanced degree, you will need to decide if you are willing to put in the
time, energy, effort and financial resources pursuing one would involve. Setting
and Reaching Your Goals When you know what you want to do,
career-wise, you can then set your goals. Your career action plan will be made
up of these goals and the steps you will have to take to reach them. Here's
what you need to do: First brainstorm to come up with a list
of all your goals. Then break your goals down into
short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals are those you can reach in
one year or less. Long-term goals are ones that are attainable in one to five
years. For example a long-term goal may be
completing your college degree. Completing your college applications would be
a short-term goal. Identify any barriers that could
threaten your ability to reach your goals and then figure out what solutions
can help you overcome them. If you can't find viable solutions, you may need
to reformulate your goals. An example of a barrier to your goal of earning a
college degree might be a learning disability. A solution that could help you
get past it would be learning about the resources available to you at the
college you plan to attend and then taking full advantage of them. Writing
Your Career Action Plan You can now write your career action
plan. It will list all the goals—both short-term and long-term—that you
identified. It will include the steps you will have to take to reach them,
the barriers that may get in your way and the solutions you have come up with
for dealing with them. |
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Writing a Career Action Plan |
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Dawn Rosenberg McKay Summary of: https://www.thebalance.com/writing-a-career-action-plan-525464 |
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Once you have identified an occupation to pursue, you should
develop an action plan. An action plan can be considered a road map that will
get you from A—choosing
an occupation—to B—becoming employed
in that career. You can develop a plan yourself. A plan is dynamic, amend your
action plan as your goals change, your priorities change, and your career
grows. Let's begin now to take a look at how to develop a career
action plan step-by-step. Create a worksheet you can use to outline your
career action plan. It should contain four sections. Here are instructions
for completing it. Employment History/Education and Training Title the first section of your worksheet "Employment
History/Education and Training." This is straightforward. List any jobs
you've had, in reverse chronological order—most recent to oldest. Include the
company, job title, and the dates worked at that job. When you eventually write your resume, having organized this
information will prove very helpful. Then—Education and Training. List the
schools you attended, the dates you attended them, and the credits,
certificates, or degrees you earned. Next, list volunteer or other unpaid
experience. these activities may be relevant to your occupational goals. You
may have developed skills that apply to your future career. Self-Assessment Results The next section of your worksheet should be
"Self-Assessment Results." If you met with a counselor or took a
self-assessment test, this is where you record the results, including the
occupations that were suggested to you. Out of all the occupations you explored, you narrowed your
choices down to one of them, the one you plan to pursue. You may even have
two occupations—one to aim for in the short term and one to strive for in the
long term. They should be related, the second being one that is a step up
from the first. |
Short Term and Long-Term Goals The next section should be a place for you to list your
occupational and educational goals. They should correspond to one another
since reaching occupational goals are dependent upon reaching educational
ones. Short term goals are those you can reach in a year or less; long-term
goals those you can reach in five or fewer years. For example, If your long term
occupational goal is to become a lawyer, here's what your short and long term
plans might look like: Year One: Complete my bachelor's degree (12 credits left to
go), apply to law school, get accepted to law school (a positive attitude is
a good thing) Year Two through Year Four: Enter law school, study hard and
earn good grades, graduate from law school with many job offers Year Five: Begin working in a law firm Barriers to Reaching Goals As you try to reach your goals you may face some barriers. In
this section of your action plan, you can list anything that may impede being
able to reach your goals. Then list possible ways to overcome them. For
example, being the primary caregiver of elderly parents interfering with your
ability to complete your degree. You can deal with this barrier by enlisting the help of your
spouse or another relative. Perhaps you can arrange for child or adult
daycare. You're on
Your Way A well-thought-out career action plan will prove to be a very
useful tool. You've gone through the career planning process carefully,
choosing a suitable occupation. Setting goals and planning what you need to
do to realize them will ensure that you reach your career destination. |
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Your Personality and
Your Career |
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Dawn Rosenberg McKay https://www.thebalance.com/personality-type-and-career-choice-526171 |
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Are you trying to decide what career to
pursue? You should find out what your personality type is. Certain
occupations are more suitable for particular types than others. Personality
should not be the only factor considered in choosing a career. A
self-assessment should look at your values, interests, and aptitudes. These
factors taken together serve as a way to find the right career than any one
of them alone. Career Personality Tests The best way to learn about your
personality is through the use of "career personality tests." We can more accurately call them
personality inventories. A career development professional, such as a career
counselor, can administer a personality instrument and help you utilize what
you learn from it. This information with what you learn from the other parts
of your self assessment can help you choose a
career. The career development professional
will choose from among several personality inventories. The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular. Most personality inventories
consist of a series of questions that you answer by filling in circles on a
scan sheet or selecting responses on a computer or other device. Your practitioner may have you complete
it in the office or at home. While personality inventories are often called
"career personality tests," there are no right or wrong answers as
there would be on an exam. No personality type is better than any other, so
it is important to be completely honest when answering the questions. Getting Your Results After you complete the inventory, you
will return it to the practitioner to score. He or she will either send it
back to the publisher for scoring or will do it him or herself. Once that is
complete, the career development professional or the publisher will generate
a report that the practitioner may discuss with you at this time. He or she
may choose to wait until all other assessments are finished since, as
mentioned previously, the personality inventory is just one of several
assessment tools. |
Your report will tell you what your
personality type is. It will probably also explain how this conclusion was
drawn based on your answers. Also included in your report will be a list of
occupations that are suitable for those who share your personality type. Does
this mean that all of these occupations are right for you? Absolutely not. Some will be a good
fit, while others won't be, based on characteristics other than your
personality, such as the aforementioned values, interests, and abilities. The level of training you are willing
to undertake to prepare for a career will also affect your choice. You may
not want to earn a Ph.D. Other things that could rule out a particular
occupation are a weak employment outlook or a salary that is too low for you
to live on. When you finish your self assessment,
you will move on to the exploration stage of the career planning process.
During this stage, you will research occupations and eventually choose your
best option based on what you learn. Online Personality Inventories You will find some personality
inventories offered online, sometimes for free and other times for a fee. There is a version of the Myers-Briggs
offered online, for a fee, by the Center for Applications of Psychological
Type (CAPT). It includes one hour of professional feedback. Since Isabel
Myers Briggs, one of the MBTI's developers, we can be fairly sure the online
version is as accurate as one administered locally. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said
about all online self assessment tools. Some may
not be as accurate as those a career development professional would use and
will often not be accompanied by adequate feedback. However, you can still
benefit from using them, particularly if you can't, or choose not to, hire a
professional. Use common sense when looking at your results and always
thoroughly research any occupations that the results of self
assessments indicate could be "right for you." That is true
whether you are working with a professional or using an online tool. |
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Your Interests Help Choose a Career |
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Dawn Rosenberg McKay https://www.thebalance.com/interest-inventories-526168 |
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Would you rather build a bookshelf or
balance a checkbook? Which sounds better to you: completing a project
independently or doing it as part of a team? There are no right or wrong answers to
any of these questions. Your responses merely indicate your likes and
dislikes, for example, which activities you enjoy or don't, what type of work
you like to do or prefer not to, and how you want to work. These preferences are called interests. How to Take an Interest Inventory A career counselor or other career
development professional can administer an interest inventory as part of a
complete self assessment which should also look at
things such as your personality type, aptitudes, and work values. You will
have to fill out a questionnaire containing a series of items about your
likes and dislikes. These items may measure, for example,
your interests regarding leisure activities, work-related activities, people with
whom you prefer to work, and school subjects. To get the most accurate
results, it is important that you respond to each item as honestly as
possible. There are no right or wrong answers, and the counselor won't judge
you based on your choices. When responding to items related to
work-related activities, do not worry about whether or not you have training
or a particular skill. For the purposes of completing an interest inventory,
that doesn't matter. All you are being asked at this point is whether that
activity is of interest to you. There will be plenty of time later on, as you
begin to explore your options, to decide whether or not you want to become
skilled in a particular area. Getting and Understanding Your Results After completing an interest inventory,
you will receive a report containing your results. The professional who
administered the inventory should go over it with you |
and help you make sense of it. Your
report should include a list of occupations that may be suitable for someone
with your interest Some of those occupations will appeal to you while others
won't It is important to remember that just
because an occupation shows up in the results of an interest inventory or
other self assessment tool, that doesn't
necessarily mean it's the best choice for you. Before you choose a career,
you must carefully explore your options. An occupation may not be suitable for
you for a variety of reasons regardless of the fact that you share interests
with other people who work in it. How to Discover Your Interests on the
Cheap If you want to try using an interest
inventory on your own, there are some free or low coast ones available. The
Self-Directed Search (SDS), published by PAR (Psychological Assessment
Resources, Inc.), can be accessed online for a small fee. After completing
the assessment, you will receive a printable report containing a list of
occupations that most closely match your interests. The O*Net Interest Profiler is a free
assessment that is one of the several tools that are part of O*Net Online, a
project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training
Administration. There are a few versions of the Interest Profiler including a
short-form web-based one, a mobile one, and a pen and pencil version that you
can print out at home. Career Cruising is an assessment tool
that many public libraries make available to their patrons. It generates a
list of occupations after a user answers questions about his or her
interests. One can then explore those careers from within the Career Cruising
database. Check with the reference staff at your local library to see if they
subscribe to this resource. |
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