Choosing a Career

It is a difficult task to get paid for what you enjoy. To figure out what career you wish to pursue you must analyze your skills, values, work ethic, the lifestyle you want to live, and what you enjoy.

1 ANALYZE

When preparing for a career search, you must understand your skills and values. This determines your compatibility with your desired job and how well you would work in the environment. For example, if you are the type of person to take your time while working you probably would not work well in a fast-paced environment. The value portion of your analysis determines what your values are and how your job meets them. If you value keeping the earth clean and your job is a nonprofit that reuses single use items that would have been thrown in the garbage, that job may be for you. Questions to ask yourself: Skills • How often do you like to work? • What are your strengths and weaknesses? • What soft skills do you already have? • Can you handle challenging projects or situations? Values • What is important to you? • What motivates you? • Is there a positive change you want to be a part of? • What are your priorities?

2 SKILLS

Everyone has something that they are slightly good at or that they can improve on. These could be hard skills ranging from computer technology: social media, Microsoft office, foreign languages, copywriting, etc.

3 WORK ETHIC

How often would you like to work and how long does it take you to complete a task?

4 LIFESTYLE

How expensive is the lifestyle you are trying to achieve and how much would it cost to live that lifestyle every month? Most jobs will not pay you enough each month to live a high-end life, you would have to climb the ladder at your job to increase your pay rate, but that could also take a long time.

5 WHAT DO YOU ENJOY

Think of what you enjoy or like to do and think of how you could make a living pursuing those interests.

To discover careers similar to what you enjoy doing, try to look in the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Occupational Outlook Handbook. This government website has a vast list of careers in different categories such as architecture & engineering, arts & design, building & ground cleaning. BLS also gives a brief job summary and what the job is like, the level of education needed for the job, the median-pay according to 2021 & wages by state and area, and the job outlook (how fast the occupation is growing). If you do a deeper dive into the website there is more information and resources it can provide you with. If you need more help to determine your career choice, here are three resources: onetonline.org, yourcareer.gov.au/ your-future-career, and mynextmove.org.

Shayla McClendon