There are thousands of career options out there in this world. How do you make a career choice when you don't have any idea about what to do? Does it seem like an titanic task? It's not. Yes, you will have to put some time and energy into making your decision, but your effort will be well worth it in the end. Some may follow their parent's advice and some may follow their peers. By doing this you may land up in a career for sure, but it may not be the right career for you.
Why it is important to make a right career choice?
Because if you find a right suitable one for you, you need not to work for rest of your life. Work will be like play and you will love mondays than sundays!
Following are the step by step process in making a right career choice.
Know who you are:
Before you begin the journey, you have to learn about yourself.
In a nut shell, you need to know your deep interest, your value system, skills and your personalilty.
All of these in combination will help you to make a right career choice.
Some people may be interested to go to same office every day and some people may be interested to visit new places and people every day. This depends on your personality. You can use self assessment tools, often called career tests or psychometric tests, to gather information about your interest, values, skills and personality and subsequently, to generate a list of career options for you.
In a nut shell, you need to know your deep interest, your value system, skills and your personalilty.
All of these in combination will help you to make a right career choice.
Some people may be interested to go to same office every day and some people may be interested to visit new places and people every day. This depends on your personality. You can use self assessment tools, often called career tests or psychometric tests, to gather information about your interest, values, skills and personality and subsequently, to generate a list of career options for you.
Free Career Tests
Many opt to use free career tests that are available on the Web. As you know, something comes free will not add value to you. Professionals don't give their services for free. I would suggest you to take up a paid psychometric tests or career tests. Ensure that the number of questions asked to you during the test is not less than 150 when you take the career tests. Without which the test or assessment may not be worth anything.
Many opt to use free career tests that are available on the Web. As you know, something comes free will not add value to you. Professionals don't give their services for free. I would suggest you to take up a paid psychometric tests or career tests. Ensure that the number of questions asked to you during the test is not less than 150 when you take the career tests. Without which the test or assessment may not be worth anything.
Scientifically proven Career Tests
This career test result is the first step to finding out who you are. Do not hesitate to spend few penny before investing thousands of dollars in yourself in form of further education. Also, it is important to consider a single test, which finds your interest,values, personality and skills in one go. Do not attempt to take multiple tests for each of this. You may end up with misinterpretation while consolidating these individual test reports to make a decision. The good psychometric test available in the market today is "Career Quest", which covers all these parameters.
Psychometric Test report
A professional psychometric test will have the report not less than 10 pages explaining and pointing where you stand in various scales of four parameters, which are your interest, skills, personality and values. This will also provide list of career options which will suit to you. Psychometric test report will give you the best suiting career options based on your answers. After taking up the test, the next step is to understand the report and narrow down the list of possible career options provided by psychometric testing tool you used. You may do it by yourself or you may choose a career counsellor to sit and think along with you.
Look over the lists of occupations generated through your use of the self assessment tools. They are probably rather lengthy. You want to come up with a much shorter list, consisting of between five and ten occupations. Circle occupations that appear on multiple lists. Circle occupations you may have considered previously and that you find appealing. Write these occupations down on a separate list.
Now you need to learn about each of the occupations on your list. For each one, you will want to look at the job description, educational and other requirements, your interest and job aspirations, job outlook, advancement opportunities and earnings. You can now begin to eliminate those careers that you are no longer interested in based on what you now know.
Continue Narrowing Down your List of possible occupations based on what you learned from your research. For example, you may not be willing to put the time and energy into preparing for an occupation for which an advanced degree is required, or you may consider the earnings for a particular occupation inadequate. At this point you should only have a few occupations left on your list. You now have to gather more in-depth information. Your best source of it are people who have knowledge of the occupations in which you are interested. Identify who they are and conduct informational interviews (Click here) with them. Choose the occupation that suits your interest, skills, personality and values.
A professional psychometric test will have the report not less than 10 pages explaining and pointing where you stand in various scales of four parameters, which are your interest, skills, personality and values. This will also provide list of career options which will suit to you. Psychometric test report will give you the best suiting career options based on your answers. After taking up the test, the next step is to understand the report and narrow down the list of possible career options provided by psychometric testing tool you used. You may do it by yourself or you may choose a career counsellor to sit and think along with you.
Look over the lists of occupations generated through your use of the self assessment tools. They are probably rather lengthy. You want to come up with a much shorter list, consisting of between five and ten occupations. Circle occupations that appear on multiple lists. Circle occupations you may have considered previously and that you find appealing. Write these occupations down on a separate list.
Now you need to learn about each of the occupations on your list. For each one, you will want to look at the job description, educational and other requirements, your interest and job aspirations, job outlook, advancement opportunities and earnings. You can now begin to eliminate those careers that you are no longer interested in based on what you now know.
Continue Narrowing Down your List of possible occupations based on what you learned from your research. For example, you may not be willing to put the time and energy into preparing for an occupation for which an advanced degree is required, or you may consider the earnings for a particular occupation inadequate. At this point you should only have a few occupations left on your list. You now have to gather more in-depth information. Your best source of it are people who have knowledge of the occupations in which you are interested. Identify who they are and conduct informational interviews (Click here) with them. Choose the occupation that suits your interest, skills, personality and values.
By now you should have made the career choice you want to pursue. It's time to put a plan into place so you can eventually find a job in that field.
