When Should You Know What Career You Want

Do you remember being xviii and worrying that you didn't have an answer (or even an idea) when people asked you what yous were going to do for your first job, let alone an ideal career? That's totally normal — near of us don't only decide on a dream career right out of loftier school or settle on a field in college and stick with it for life. Then how practise you lot find your dream task when you don't know what you want to do?

The TL;DR is that y'all look at your strengths, remember virtually who yous are, talk to people, educate yourself, consider your needs, and practise what makes y'all happy at the terminate of the day. According to a contempo survey past Gallup, threescore% of millennials alone are looking to switch jobs. So, it'south non unusual at all to be thinking "I don't know what career I desire" or even "I need a career alter but don't know what to do."

Knowing that career change is possible (and probably even inevitable) is one thing. But, when you lot're prepare for a change, how do you know what profession or career path is correct for you? It's and then like shooting fish in a barrel to become complacent in a job or career you're not really happy with and miss out on a dream job without even realizing it.

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And so, how can you keep from getting stuck in a career dead-end? And, with all the opportunities out there, how tin you know what long-term career path is right for you?

This article (updated from the original written by Elana Gross) shares six tips for how to figure out what yous want to do, observe a career you love, and overcome the obstacles of indecision and not knowing what y'all desire.

FINDING YOUR DREAM JOB: HOW TO FIGURE OUT WHAT Yous Want TO DO, A CAREER Alter GUIDE

1. Lead with Your Strengths
2. Evaluate Your Past to Avoid a Dead End
3. Talk to People to Learn What Your Dream Job Is
4. Take Classes First, Figure Out What Career You Desire Subsequently
5. Consider What Work Environment You Demand
6. Do What Makes You lot Happy (Even If Yous Don't Know What That Means for a Career Yet)

i. Atomic number 82 WITH YOUR STRENGTHS

Just because y'all don't know what career yous want doesn't mean y'all don't know what you're adept at. A keen way to focus on your skills is to make a list of your strengths. If that doesn't come naturally to you, ask a friend or trusted co-worker their opinion. Or check out a cocky-analysis resource like the Myers-Briggs personality test.

Taking an active expect at what y'all're good at and what makes y'all tick personality-wise is a powerful style of assessing a career path that volition fit and complement those strengths.

Of course y'all can be proficient at anything if yous try hard plenty or put in plenty time. But you can save a lot of time and avoid frustration if you let your strengths pb you to what yous should exist doing instead of forcing yourself into a career that doesn't really fit.

For example, you might have convinced yourself (or let others convince you) that you're not a math person, but to find out that you dear using logic to solve problems.

In that case, you lot might really have a passion for something similar spider web development that you might have written off beforehand. It'due south easy to let preconceived ideas stop you from a successful tech career, but, if you take some time to look at your strengths, yous'll probably exist pleasantly surprised by what they tell you lot.

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2. EVALUATE YOUR PAST TO Avoid A DEAD Stop

To aid yous clarify your feelings nigh previous jobs, so you tin look for similar or different characteristics in the future, answer the post-obit questions about each place you've worked:

• What did I like virtually and least near the company?
• What did I like most and to the lowest degree most the industry culture?
• What did I similar virtually and least about my boss?
• What did I like most and to the lowest degree about the people I worked with?
• What was the about challenging matter about working there?
• When was I the happiest or the proudest?
• What was my biggest accomplishment?
• What did I like most and least about my responsibilities?

Evaluating your past tin can as well assist yous recall pivotal moments you might accept disregarded that would have made it articulate you weren't happy with your work. If looking dorsum starts to uncover negative patterns around a certain kind of job or career, that's a way to recognize that it'due south fourth dimension to motion on.

Yous may very well be missing out on opportunities elsewhere that would be a much better fit with your needs and abilities. Analyzing your past is a fundamental component to discovering the kinds of situations that will bring out your best work and happiest self.

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3. TALK TO PEOPLE TO Acquire WHAT YOUR DREAM JOB IS

Start taking some time in your task search to asking and schedule informational interviews with people in the fields you're interested in to learn about their career paths and go career advice. Inquire virtually their task, their professional past and aspirations, and the manufacture.

Just be sure to prepare with questions in accelerate so that you get the near out of these meetings or calls and, besides the no-brainer "thank you" subsequently, exercise all you lot tin can to find a fashion to repay the favor.

And don't limit yourself to people you know or take connections with. Network at conferences and workshops.

Bring together Twitter chats, other social media platforms, or Facebook groups. Continue LinkedIn and read people's job descriptions or read interviews and articles near people in jobs you lot admire. For instance, if you're curious near what a day in the life of a WordPress developer looks like, practice a quick Google search and you'll likely be able to find enough of info (including a podcast or two) and people to attain out to.

Earlier you set your eye on a correct career — or completely dominion something out — brand sure you get a sense of what the task is like twenty-four hour period-to-twenty-four hour period.

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4. TAKE CLASSES First, Figure OUT YOUR NEW CAREER LATER

Try something new whenever the opportunity presents itself. Take online classes, attend workshops, read books, and picket YouTube tutorials. By taking these chances, y'all may observe out that y'all're actually into UX design, digital marketing, Python programming — or something else entirely!

The point is that present there are so many options for learning new skills and, by taking advantage of them, you accept a fantastic opportunity to notice a passion that gives y'all more than flexibility in terms of career choices, helps you get a chore, or that you tin plough into a new career.

And, if nothing else, you'll have a new skill you tin utilize at your current chore (and mayhap even get paid more for!) or a new hobby that you lot can turn into a side gig.

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five. CONSIDER WHAT Piece of work Surround YOU NEED

Are people in the workplace you're because competitive with 1 another or collaborative? Are they friends outside of the office? Practise they work as a team or on their own? Tin can people work remotely or are they expected to work in the office? What is the piece of work-life rest like? What are the salary expectations?

These are all important questions for potential workplaces and employers when you're searching for that dream job to explore dissimilar career options or to change careers birthday.

Information technology's also good (and easy) to do some initial research on your own — both most industries in general and employers in particular — using some Google searches and chore boards to see what a typical job offer looks like from chore postings in your desired field.

If you know you work best as part of a team, and so it'due south of import to find a company that prioritizes a collaborative approach. If you're more than productive working alone or you don't like the total-time grind, and then you might be better served by freelance or contract work that allows y'all to manage yourself and set your own terms.

The same thing goes for scheduling and flexibility concerns. If yous thrive in a structured surroundings and prefer reporting directly to a manager for guidance, then you might look for a traditional, 9-5 job in an office environment.

But if y'all prefer the liberty of working from habitation or on the road as a digital nomad, and you're more comfy existence your own dominate or supervisor, then looking at remote careers will be key to your career happiness.

If you aren't sure where you stand with these things, y'all tin always endeavour taking upwards work on the side to help you figure information technology out. For example, if y'all work in a hierarchical environment now, endeavour doing some solo freelancing gigs and run across if you detect a difference in how you lot feel.

The same matter goes if you normally spend your workdays by yourself — try making some peer connections instead or work on a collaborative side project to examination if teamwork might exist more your matter.

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6. DO WHAT MAKES You HAPPY (EVEN IF Y'all DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT Ways FOR YOUR CAREER YET)

Two critical questions to consider when information technology comes to your career are:

What practise you love doing and then much that you'd be willing to exercise it for complimentary?
Recall about it: If you love something and then much that you'd exercise it without being paid, wouldn't getting paid for it be the definition of a dream job?

Effort to film what that "job you'd practise for free" is and then showtime connecting it to paid possibilities in the same field.

What would make you the happiest (i.e., NOT what would make y'all the nearly money)?
While nosotros all need to pay the bills and, hopefully, still have money left over for a comfortable life, you lot shouldn't necessarily choose the virtually prestigious job just and so you can print people at cocktail parties.

Instead, for greater long-term happiness, choose a profession that will make you the happiest and permit you to grow and learn.

So, retrieve about what truly interests you, non what necessarily sounds the most lucrative or loftier-powered on paper.

Endeavor to pin down those things that engage you in such a mode that you're always able to muster at least a spark of passion about them and utilize those interests to guide you toward an applicable career path.

Finding a dream job should never mean compromising what y'all correspond or what you want out of your work life, and the skilful news is, it doesn't have to.

By following the tips above you lot tin can develop a clear sense of what makes you lot tick career-wise then you lot'll be able to notice job opportunities and a career path that genuinely fits your wants and needs.

You may remember you don't know what you lot desire, merely with a little reflection and conclusion you'll shortly realize that it'southward actually right within reach.

📌 PS – If you've decided that coding could be your dream job, Skillcrush can help you lot get started! Our Break Into Tech course is a comprehensive program designed to assistance total beginners in tech start a new and fulfilling career.

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Is Tech Right For you? Take Our 3-Minute Quiz!

You Will Learn: If a career in tech is correct for y'all What tech careers fit your strengths What skills you lot need to reach your goals

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Source: https://skillcrush.com/blog/find-your-dream-job/

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