Have you ever wondered, “What career is right for me?”
Today we are going to the real heart of the entire dream career launch process …figuring out your ideal career!
Finding out what direction you should go into is where the rubber meets the road. If you’ve been reading my blog posts and listening to my podcasts, then you already understand yourself much better and you now have the right mindset to go after your goals. I am here to help you find not just your next paycheck but also that career that will make you jump out of bed every morning!
Even if you have no idea what you want to be when you grow up and are still a bit overwhelmed with the job search process, you are going to love today’s blog post. Keep reading!
What Career Is Right For Me?
The first step in our job search system is to self-assess and really know everything you can about YOU. We recommend personality assessments such as the Strengthsfinder and doing a lot of brainstorming about what your ideal workday is. You’ll also want to brainstorm about what your ideal companies would be to work for.
After you have done this required self-assessment, then you’ll dive into discovering the ideal career for you. In today’s blog post, I’ll teach you how to outline your ideal career, how to research potential career fields, how to target careers, how to meet with the RIGHT people, and how to narrow down your career choices. It’s also important at this step to determine if becoming an entrepreneur is the right path for you and to see if any issues may come up with your potential career field choices.
I’ll give you my top tips to figure out what you should be when you grow up so you can be well on your way to more clarity and clear direction. Don’t get frustrated. Remember, you have the plan in front of you. You don’t have to worry about what you should do or be stressed. Just walk step by step through the system.
The Wrong Way To Find a Job
Most job searchers skip all of the steps we are going to cover today. Instead, they go online, find a job that looks interesting or might fit them, and apply. They might get called in for an interview, maybe get a job offer and suddenly they have a new job!
But wait, what if that job isn’t their ideal career fit and it doesn’t fit all of their motivations, values, purpose, and skills? Then they are in trouble and they will eventually find that they aren’t the right fit for the position. If you follow this wrong way to get a job, you’ll get stuck again and again and never actually find the ideal career that you were BORN to do. It’s out there and we’ve got to find it!
Some people do this their entire lives and keep getting stuck over and over! It can be so frustrating!
Fortunately, you have already done a lot of work by evaluating your prior experiences, your favorite skills, motivations, and values. Now it is time to narrow down your dreams and ideas of what you want to do and put them down on paper!
First, you are going to start out brainstorming all of the careers and jobs that you would love to have.
Then, you are going to narrow down the right job for you.
You are already way ahead! Why? Because you have taken the time to carefully evaluate who you are so that you can pick the right job for you, a job that will be a perfect match and that you will actually ENJOY!
“Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.” – Greer Garson
7 Steps to Figure Out What Career Is Right For You
Step 1: Identify potential career fields that would lead to your career satisfaction.
Begin by spending some time browsing and narrowing down your career field choices to your top 20 career fields. Be open to new ideas and for right now you can ignore considerations about money, location, education, experience, licenses, and so on – we will do this later. Don’t let anything hold you back!
You can also include non-traditional jobs like being a consultant, a freelance writer, or an entrepreneur if those sound interesting to you. This is where you dream and don’t let anything hold you back. This is a step most people miss when they just start out applying online before brainstorming a long list of ideas.
Step 2: Research your potential career targets to narrow down your ideal career fit.
It is time for some exploration. The world of potential career fields and possibilities is totally open to you. You can do any career you want so now is the time to keep an open mind and to do some research.
If you aren’t excited, then you haven’t found the right career fit for you yet! So get ready to explore all of the opportunities that are out there for you.
4 Areas To Research:
- Identify careers that match your skills, interests, and values.
- Identify the occupational climate and current supply and demand of particular fields.
- Identify possible pay expectations in different careers.
- Research the companies that will allow you to create your ideal workday.
Step 3: Prepare for and complete an informational interview.
The best way to narrow down your options and figure out what your ideal career fit is to get out from behind your computer and start talking to people. It’s time to fall in love with a strategy called an informational interview to get information about a field of work from someone who is knowledgeable and experienced in it.
We can’t tell you enough how important these interviews are. It is so much better to learn if you like a certain profession before going into it and informational interviews are a great way to do it.
[RELATED: How to Use an Informational Interview To Get a Job]
Step 4: Evaluate if you want to be employed or if you want to be the employer.
Do you want to be employed or do you want to be the employer? Starting a business is not the right path for everyone. Deciding whether to remain in a job or build a business should be done with less emotion and a lot of thinking. Giving up the security of a full-time job to start your own business is a very risky move. But whatever decision you make, you’ve got to do what you’re passionate about.
[RELATED: 10 Signs You Should Be an Entrepreneur]
Step 5: Narrow down potential career fields that could lead to your career satisfaction.
Don’t rush narrowing down your career targets. It is not going to happen overnight. This is when the lightbulbs happen all the time for our CLASS students.
Consider first the choices that sound like the most fun. Second, consider those that are consistent with your hobbies and passions, favorite job tasks, and natural skills. In this part of the exercise, you may take into account such things as education, location, and other“practical” considerations to some extent – but don’t limit yourself too much. Mark those that sound fun as well as being within the realm of practicality.
Step 6: Identify any issues associated with your potential career targets.
At this point, we are getting very close to identifying your ideal career fit! Great work! Now, we have to take a look at some of the issues that could come up. It’s always good to know the issues BEFORE you take the job.
Step 7: Define your ideal job.
Now it’s time to consolidate your answers and create your ideal career outline. Create a document that you can hang on your wall that shows you exactly what you are looking for in your ideal career.
The ideal career outline will help you answer interview questions and apply to jobs. Every time you consider a new opportunity, make sure you review your ideal career outline to ensure that it is the right career fit for you.
