Whether you are first establishing your professional path or wanting to make a career change, you have a variety of options available. This can make narrowing your choices difficult. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to decide what you want to do. Then, you can create a plan to gain the education, skills, and experience needed to advance.
Follow these guidelines to determine which career path you want to pursue.
Establish Your Goals
Clarify what you want from your career. Be sure to consider your core values, strengths, abilities, interests, hobbies, favorite activities, volunteer work, and desire to take on specialized skills or management roles. Then, use this information to research potential career paths. If you find one that interests you, you may be able to pursue a temporary position to get a feel for the work.
Consider Your Personality
Your personality traits impact how successful you may be in a certain career. For instance, how you respond to different situations may influence your desire to develop specific strengths and interests more than others. You can uncover your personality type and common career choices for each through tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, or the Jungian Type Index. Taking more than one test and finding common career choices may indicate the ones you should focus on.
Create a Plan
Consider what you want your career path to look like for the next 5 to 10 years—for instance, research where professionals in your field are at during these points in their careers. Also, write down their job titles and what has to be done to earn them. This may include participation in training programs, taking on specific responsibilities, or having held certain previous positions. Then, use your findings to determine which milestones you want to reach in your career and when.
Review Your Experience, Skills, and Education
If you have work experience, write down the skills you gained and the parts of each role that brought you satisfaction. It could be beneficial to seek a career involving these characteristics. Next, look for jobs in the area you choose. Find out what the education requirements are. If this is a path you want to pursue, consider ways you can gain the necessary certification or degree.
Talk with a Recruiter
A recruiter from Corps Team can help guide you along a career path. See which jobs interest you today.