Deciding on the right career for you is one of the biggest decisions you'll make in life. Your career shapes your identity, income, lifestyle, and personal fulfillment. Your career is a big part of your life. If you're in the wrong career, stress and burnout can negatively affect your physical and mental health. Being in the right career can bring joy to many areas of your life. So, it's vital to reflect on a path that will bring you fulfillment. Don't let others' opinions or expectations sway you. This is a decision only you can make for yourself.
The good news is that there's a straightforward process to narrow your ideal career path. This way, you don’t have to stress about the endless options.
What Is a Career Path?
Your career path is the sequence of jobs and roles you'll progress through to advance in your chosen field or industry. It’s the sum of your professional journey. People choose their careers for different reasons. They want to get more experience, challenge themselves, or earn decent salaries. Before picking a career path or pivoting, reflecting on your interests, skills, and goals for your life can help you gain clarity.
Keep in mind that your interests and goals change with time. As a result, your career will shift throughout your working life. According to a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people tend to spend an average of 4 years in each job before leaving. The job market is always changing. So, it's even more reason to take time to be intentional about picking the right career path for you. Although it takes time, it's worth every ounce of effort you put into it.
Being intentional when deciding your career path, or the path to pivot to, helps inform which school to attend, the types of entry-level positions to go for, or whether or not you want to pursue additional certifications. These factors mark the beginning of your career or how to leverage the experience and skills you already possess.
5 Ways You Can Choose a Career Option
Choosing a career shouldn’t be taken lightly. Letting the expectations or opinions of others sway your thinking can lead to frustration, misalignment, stress, and burnout. In the end, you're the only one who can advocate for your career. So, when it's time to start or make a move, spend time examining your interests, values, skills, and goals. This will help you gain the clarity needed to choose a career you'll find engaging and rewarding.
1. Know Yourself First
Developing self-awareness through purposeful self-reflection is a great way to start. Ask yourself some guiding questions. They will help you find your core interests, traits, and motivations. Here are some to help you get started:
Interests: What activities energize you? What hobbies or tasks do you look forward to and find energizing? Identifying your genuine interests can reveal clues about potential career fits. If you're looking to pivot careers, you can ask these questions about the tasks and projects you work on.
Values: What's most important to you at a deeper level? Top values could include creativity, security, integrity, autonomy, or helping others. Ensuring your career aligns with your key values leads to greater fulfillment.
Personality: Are you more introverted or extroverted? Do you thrive on variety or prefer routine? Your personality type can steer you towards complementary work environments and cultures.
Once you've gained these self-insights, you can use them to evaluate career paths. Careers that overlap with your interests, values, and personality traits are likely to be more satisfying in the long term.
2. Assess Your Skills and Strengths
Next, take an honest inventory of your skills and strengths. Make a master list of both your technical and job-specific skills as well as broader transferable soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and teamwork.
You can gain further insight by seeking input from others. Ask colleagues, managers, mentors, or loved ones to describe the talents and strengths they see in you. An outside perspective can reveal strengths you may be blind to.
The goal is to identify the skills and abilities you most want to utilize and grow in your career. This will allow you to target opportunities that are a natural fit while noting any key skills gaps to address through additional education, coaching, or training.
3. Prioritize Your Career Criteria
With a clear view of your inner drivers and existing capabilities, it's time to get grounded on the practical factors that will determine career satisfaction by establishing your priorities and non-negotiables, such as:
Income Needs: While money shouldn't be the sole motivator, earning a salary within your desired range is important for the lifestyle you want. Research roles that are either entry-level or match your current skill set and check out their salary data. Compare the long-term earnings for careers you're considering.
Work Environment: Do you prefer working collaboratively or more autonomously? Are you energized being around people or would you disengage in an overly extroverted culture? Get clear on your ideal settings.
Work-Life Balance: If work-life balance is crucial, note how factors like travel requirements, regular overtime demands or inflexible schedules could impact that for various career paths.
Location: Some roles can only be performed in certain geographic areas, while others may allow more flexibility. Determine how tied you are to a specific location.
Getting honest about your "must haves" up front will steer you towards more compatible and sustainable career paths and allow you to be more focused in your search.
Connecting with a career coach, especially if you're looking to pivot your career, will help you determine your transferrable skills and experiences and see what paths are available to you.
4. Explore Different Options
With your self-exploration complete and decision criteria defined, it's time to evaluate real-world career options. A few key areas to research:
Job Availability: Check if jobs in your top career interests will grow, shrink, or stay steady. Look at market data and hiring outlooks from individual employers.
Growth Potential: Are there clear paths to advance in your ideal career? This may matter to you. What do typical career trajectories look like?
Competition Level: Some careers are very competitive. This means you need more resilience, hustle, and strategies to land opportunities in those fields. Assess whether you're willing to go the extra mile.
This career landscape data, coupled with your priorities, will allow you to weigh the pros and cons of various options. When you find a career path that feels like a total fit across all factors, you'll know you've landed on a winner.
5. Get Support And Experiential Insight
While the exploration process begins with self-reflection, remember you don't have to go it alone. There are plenty of valuable support resources to leverage:
Taking advantage of tools like these will only strengthen your clarity and confidence in mapping out your career path.
When deciding on a career, thinking pre-emptively will help you avoid worst-case scenarios and get you closer to a career that brings fulfillment both in and out of the office. In the end, remember, you will grow and change as you grow throughout your career. What might be a dream job for you today might not be a dream job for you in ten years. Being adaptable and resilient are skills you'll use in any career. Finally, the skills and experience you gain in your career path, whatever you choose, can be leveraged if you're looking to pivot. If you find yourself unfulfilled or misaligned, it's not too late to explore a path that's right for you.
