7 Steps to Choose a Career That is Best For You When You Are Young
We have been asked what career we want to follow from our childhood in one way or another. Back then we used to answer whatever we found ideas at that time and those were generic answers as well, like doctors and engineers or pilots. The reason was that we did not know much about careers or professions at that point. As we grow up, we come to know that besides these generic ones, there are a lot of careers which we don’t even know about and some unusual ones as well.
By the time we graduate from our middle school and are ready to enter high school we have to make a decision on what career path to choose and study based on that. Admittedly we are quite dumb at that time so we don’t think much about that, well most of us don’t think much anyways. We know that there are a few who think deeply at that age. Regardless of it, we have to choose our studies based on your career plan.
Today we have got just the tips for you. Now while this article is meant for a younger audience, it is still not a waste for others as since this is Nepal where the unemployment rate is very high, we know that a lot of people who are older are facing the same thing as well.
Step 1: Know What You Can And Can’t Do
If you are going to choose a career, you obviously have to choose a career where you can work. Just choosing a career path that we wish to have but can’t work on is nothing but a path for disappointment. Well it is not to say that you can’t follow your dream though. If you know that you can do what you want to achieve your dream then you should go for it but more often than not people dream a bit beyond their own capacity and get disappointed when they fail to reach it.
So while choosing your career, take what you can and cannot do into consideration as well as what you are willing to do and are not willing to do for a specific set of job as well before doing anything else.
Step 2: Consider an Alternate Career on The Same Field as Your Dream Career
So you know what you can and cannot do, now it is time to know what you really want to do. The issue with the workforce of today’s generation is that they lack the motivation to do their job. Why is this the case? The answer to that is surprisingly simple and that is that people are doing things that they hate as their main job.
To be fair, not everyone can do what they want and we all know it. But we can do other things that we want as a career and the next best thing. Ironically the solution to being happy with your job is doing the next best thing that you want if you do not have the capacity to follow your dream career.
A short example is a person who dreams of being a movie star, earning money by running theatre shows. Both are related to acting and drama and that person will still feel connected to his/her dream but just in a bit of a different way. So you have to consider all the career choices which are related to your dream and find your place.
Step 3: Know The Pros And Cons of Your Career Field
You can say that this is among the most important steps in choosing a career at a young age and that is knowing the good and bad aspects of the career path. Admittedly we do not have too much insight on the career that we want so it will do us greatly if you can give a few hours to research the good and the bad aspects of your dream career. This way you can also know if your mentality is best suited for that career. And if you do this you will have plenty of time to adjust your mind before you join your job to the bad side as well as the good side.
Know what it takes to be in that career and how much suffering you will have to face in there. This will either make you more determined or dissuade you but when that happens since by now you already know different fields in your line of future work, you won’t feel as bad when you find out that the cons are more than what you expect or you are not suited for the bad aspects of your career line.
Step 4: What You Want is Not Always What You Need
This may sound a bit cliché and cheesy but this line is true in this regard. While choosing your career field, you should know what you need to be successful and not fall into despair in your job. This is something that happens a lot these days. A person goes on hard and strong into their dream job and soon they find out that it is not suited to them but by that time they are too deep to get out. So be sure that you know what you need. There are success stories that began like this but know that they are few and far between.
To prevent this from happening, understand your character and your behavior as well as habits and after knowing the pros and cons of the career, you have to ask yourself will this do you good, and is this what you need in order to be happy. At the time you may think that “it is indeed what is needed to make me happy” but our advice is that do not do these types of thinking when you are hyped up and in an optimistic mind but rather when you are in a calm and somewhat of a lazy mindset so that you can think without any biases.
Step 5: Can You Last in That Career?
Admittedly we have hinted at this a lot in our previous steps but we are going to explain in more detail here. So the basis of this step is analyzing how long you can last in that job before becoming tired of it. This is not an easy step and can take months because you have to consider your daily life in that working environment which includes small conflicts with your workmate, boring days, issues with your boss as well as days of overwork and lazy days. This is similar to how we think of our life in college when we are 14 or 15 years of age.
The only difference is that there will be no goofing off for the most part and you will have to work in order to stay there in a stricter environment than any colleges or you will get fired. To do this all you have to do is imagine your life there while trying to make it as realistic as possible. This is not a short process and this can take months which is what you need to take while choosing your career path at a young age and at that time you have lots of time so there is no better time to do this when you are young.
Step 6: Be Prepared to Grind
While this is not a separate point, you should be ready to grind your way up in the work field. Regardless of how qualified you are in your academics, practical work is very different from what we learn and if you haven’t done any jobs and reached a significant position, you will start at the bottom of the barrel and it can get demoralizing but as long as you are willing to grind hours and days to achieve your dream in that career field, you can achieve it if you are suited for it.
On a side note, this will be a bit easier for those who play RPG games which require you to grind months at a time to complete a certain goal as they will be more or less used to it.
You know what goes on to compliment the career, it’s skilled, so why don’t you check out our list of “5 Important Skills you have to Learn before Graduating“. If you already are past this age and are somewhat older than a teen, we have got you covered as well so you can check out our “5 Tips on How to Choose a Career” as well.