How to discover the best career for you
For some, such as myself, figuring out the career puzzle has been harder than a Rubix Cube. For others, it is like a hand going into the perfectly fitting glove.
I have always been envious of people that just knew what they wanted to do for a career. It has never “come to me” in an epiphany or any other message delivery service. I’m about to embark on my fourth career change. Although I do feel better about this one as I have approached it in a vastly different way.
I’ve seen my fair share of career consultants and taken online personality tests to determine what jobs are suitable for me. Over my time, if a career just doesn’t scream out at you, or you haven’t happened to fall into a career that works for you, you need to treat it like a puzzle.
To complete a puzzle, you must have all the pieces. Adding to the complexity there may not be one ideal job for you, there may be several.
Where are all the career pieces?
Unfortunately, all the pieces of the career puzzle aren’t nicely presented to you in the puzzle box with a picture on the outside to guide you. Which sucks!
Selecting the best possible career for yourself is a process in which you must go out and find the pieces of the career puzzle. This means, it’s an active process. Sitting there and contemplating it won’t work.
Being introverted and significantly more so when I was in year 12, I was just not inclined to think or act in that way. I thought that it should or would just come to me. It didn’t.
That led to bad decision making. Producing poor results.
Traditional career testing
Most of you by now would have undertaken some method of career assessment. Your personality, skills and interests are assessed, and a list of careers are produced that “match” you.
From that list you pick one of interest and go for it. Apply to a tertiary education institution, spend a small fortune on tuition and 2-5 years studying whatever it is. Then it’s time to be a … whatever.
I’ve known so many people get to university and after a couple of years change course. Back in those days, university wasn’t as expensive as it is today. My advice for those thinking of any expensive tertiary study is to not proceed until you know (with near 100% certainty) that it is the right path. Unless you think that $10,000 – $20,000 a year in fees is not a concern!
Well then, what do I do?
I wish I could go back, slap my 17-year-old face and say to myself that if you don’t do the following, your career will be a complete farce and disappointment.
Here’s what you should do ….
Determine what you want in life
I go into more detail here, but essentially, what do you want your life to look like 20 or 30 years from now?
Think high-level. For example …
I want to be help as many people as I can.
I want to be financially independent.
I want to have a big family and be a great parent, or to never have children.
I want to have changed the world for the better.
I want to be a pop star.
I want to be a billionaire.
I want to be leading a fit and healthy life.
Or some combination of the above or anything else you have thought of.
At this stage, don’t worry about how these can be achieved. Just focus on what you want your life to focus on. Think of it as your ambition in life.
This is very important because you are setting the direction for your life. This in turn affects the decisions you make. Not only for your career, but in the relationships you decide to enter into, where you want to live, possibly even your health.
Always remember that plans can be amended or even rewritten if circumstances change or if you change. But it is important to have a direction and that the direction aligns with your personal values (see here for discussion on values).
This is a big question that may take days, weeks, months or even years to answer. The most important thing is that you do answer the above question and that the answer really excites and inspires you.
How to fulfil your life ambitions
The most important thing is to know yourself.
This is where the career tests or a career consultant can add some more pieces to the puzzle. Looking at your personality, skills and interests, the tests provide a list of potential career options. These provide a good starting point. Don’t do these tests with a preconceived idea of what you might want and create the answers you think you want. You must be completely honest when doing these tests otherwise you’ll be guided in the wrong direction.
The key is that these tests are not all the pieces of the puzzle.
Regarding skills, take an inventory of your current skills.
Are you:
- Good with numbers
- Good with people
- Good at convincing people to follow your recommendations
- Good at problem solving
- Mechanically minded
- Etc
If you are coming from another career, what skills do you have and are they transferrable to a new career?
You also need to consider what you want in your working life. What are the attributes of a job that are important to you? This is a non-exhaustive list.
- Must work with people or prefer to work alone.
- Happy with an office, prefer outdoors or always on the move.
- Must combine creativity, problem-solving, analysis and logic.
- Must be on a computer as much as possible.
- Prefer variety during a work week or happy to do the same thing over and over again.
- You love chaos or thrive on predictability.
There is no right or wrong answer, just what is right or wrong for you.
The mistakes I have made in the past was to be interested in the material I was learning but when it came to the actual day-to-day work, it was just wrong for me.
The secret to the right career for you
The key to finding a suitable career for you will be to match up your life ambition, personality, skills, interests and the ideal job attributes. This will lead you to the sweet spot. These are the five puzzle pieces that will give you the best chance to find the right career for you. The more accurately you define each puzzle piece the clearer and more accurate the career picture becomes.
Now ask yourself, do these five puzzle pieces make sense for me?
I want to become a billionaire, I’m incredibly shy and prefer not to deal with people, I’m interested in cats and playing solitaire and I want to work alone. This is a tough one. Not impossible, but tough.
I love to help people, I’m outgoing and caring, really interested in medical science and I want to be constantly working with people because they energise me. A perfect doctor.
Write your story out and see if it makes sense. Ask your family or friends to read it and see if they think it makes sense.
If they say, “Wait, what?” with complete surprise, maybe how you see yourself is different to how others see you. You need to figure that out.
If they say, “Perfect!”. You might be onto a winner.
Do your research
Speak to your career counsellors at school or university. Hire a career coach if necessary. Seek advice from these specialists but evaluate their advice and implement it if appropriate. Don’t just take their advice blindly without doing your own research.
Other sources of information are YouTube, internet articles and LinkedIn.
In selecting my latest career, I watched videos and read articles on what people liked about the career, what they didn’t like, what they did day-to-day and how a career may progress. I also reached out to people on LinkedIn to discuss the profession and what they did day-to-day. This is called an informational interview.
An informational interview is where you arrange to speak to someone in a role that you want, or someone senior to that role. You must be prepared for the conversation and ask good questions so you can get the most out of the interview and don’t waste their time.
You will want to discuss topics like:
- What they like about the role,
- What challenges they face in their job,
- Potential career paths,
- What the working conditions are like,
- Study requirements,
- Ideal skills,
- What type of people would do well in the career.
Two important things. Don’t make it seem like an interrogation and DO NOT ask for a job. This is only a fact-finding mission. Show enthusiasm, be grateful, be prepared and you never know what may happen in the future with your expanding network. For more on networking click here.
It is critical that you know what you are getting into before you start studying for your new career.
Depending on your age and level of work experience, these puzzle pieces may be very fuzzy. You may not really know what you want out of life or a job. This is when you define your life ambition, understand your personality, interests, skills and your ideal job attributes the best you can, then take action, have a crack and learn from your experiences. As you go, you can fine tune the five puzzle pieces to better define your path in life.
It’s best to fail fast. That means if it doesn’t fit well, don’t waste too much time on the wrong path. If you are studying, consider cutting your losses and look for better options. If you are working, go back through the process to redefine the puzzle pieces to see what may be a better fit.
Create your career plan
Your career plan doesn’t need to outline what you’ll do your whole life. You may only know the first one or two steps. Start with what you have.
The first step is what you’ll need to learn to get into the career you want.
You should consider all possible avenues:
Do you need university or other tertiary education?
Is getting real-life experience going to be more valuable than study?
Are there internships you could do?
Can you teach yourself from internet resources for free?
Is the right option a combination of the above?
The answer to these questions is highly dependent on what you want to do. If you want to be a doctor or a plumber, then the path is clear. In business, what’s more important, education or experience? Do you study part-time while working? If you want to work in tech, does your career path even need formal qualifications? What about a sales career?
This is where your research can really pay off and put you on the most efficient path. Once you’ve created your plan you can go back to your original contacts and ask them what they think of your plan. They will no doubt provide valuable feedback.
Other skills beyond standard requirements
Don’t forget to plan for the other skills that may be important in your career beyond the technical knowledge. To excel, do you need skills such as public speaking, persuasion, sales, empathy, collaboration, project management, etc.
Your plan should include how you intend to develop these additional job requirements.
Also consider what you may need to achieve your life’s ambitions. If you want to be a builder that is financially independent, you will need to develop financial literacy skills.
What books will you need to read?
Have you gone through the personal finance training section at FIT Wealth?
Will you need a mentor, coach, adviser, accountant or other professionals to assist you?
If you really want to fast track your career or reaching your life’s ambitions, find a mentor whether it be paid or unpaid. This is something I have failed to achieve and have paid the price. Find people that are doing what you want to achieve and reach out to them. Some may not be interested but all you need is one person to say yes.
Venture outside your comfort zone
If you live life well within your comfort zone, you will never achieve your life’s ambitions. If somehow you do, then you did not dream big enough.
New skills and experiences will help you initially step out of your comfort zone and then your comfort zone will expand. Continue this process until you are the person capable of achieving everything you want in life.
I would advise to push your boundaries one aspect at a time. If you tackle too many things at once that can lead to excessive stress and anxiety.
For example, instead of taking on public speaking, doing an advanced course in your industry and putting your hand up for more complex work, just pick one and focus on that for a period of time. Then, when you’ve got a handle on the new skill, add another one to your skill set.
Build yourself deliberately and at a pace that extends you, takes you out of your comfort zone in some way and makes you more valuable over time but does so in a manageable way.
Track your progress
During your career, develop goals and track your progress. Are you doing the things that build your knowledge and skill base making you more valuable?
Are you reading X minutes per day?
Are you developing other non-technical skills that can enhance your career?
Are you doing any short courses?
Are you attending networking events and meeting the right people?
The Wrap
To discover the best possible career options for you, you need to craft together your life’s ambition, personality, skills, interests and job attributes.
First you will need to learn about you. What you want from your life, your personality profile, your current skills and interests.
Secondly, you will need to deeply research career options and job attributes.
Next, your career plan, based on your life’s ambitions will provide the road map for achieving all you want to achieve and all you want to be. Your plan will take you out of your comfort zone by adding new skills to make you more valuable to your employer or customer.
Don’t leave your career or life to chance.
“Life doesn’t get better by hope, it gets better by plan.”
Jim Rohn
Up next …..
Following your “passion” is often poor career advice.
Go to the Apple App Store and play My Fortune: Race to Financial Freedom (search “my fortune race”)