Find a career

Examine Yourself

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Getty Images / Thomas Barwick

You must first learn about yourself before you can select the correct job. Because of your beliefs, interests, soft skills, and aptitudes, as well as your personality type, certain careers are a fantastic match for you while others are entirely wrong.

Use self-assessment tools and career tests to collect information about your characteristics and, based on them, build a list of careers that are a good match. Some individuals choose to work with a career counselor or other career development specialists who can guide them through the process.

Make a List of Potential Careers

A woman at a desk makes a list in a notebook.

You've probably got many lists of vocations in front of you right now, one from each of the self-assessment tools you used. You should integrate them into one master list to keep oneself organized.

First, duplicate any professions that appear on numerous lists onto a blank page. Call it "Occupations to Investigate." Your self-evaluations showed that they are a good match for you based on numerous of your characteristics, so they are certainly worth investigating.

Next, look for any careers on your list that interest you. They might be jobs that you are interested in learning more about. Include occupations about which you know nothing. You may discover something surprising.

Investigate the Jobs on Your List

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You'll be pleased that you were able to reduce your list to 10 to 20 alternatives at this stage. You may now learn the fundamentals of each of the vocations on your list.

In public sources, you may find job descriptions as well as educational, training, and licensing requirements. Discover your options for progression. Use government-produced labor market statistics to learn about incomes and employment prospects.

Make a "Short List."

Notepaper with lines and a pen on crumpled paper

Now that you have additional information, try narrowing down your list even further. Begin eliminating the occupations you don't want to pursue further based on what you've learned so far from your study. Your "short list" should consist of two to five vocations.

If your reasons for disliking a job are non-negotiable, strike it off your list. Remove any responsibilities that you dislike. Careers with poor employment prospects should be avoided. Remove yourself from any career if you are unable or unwilling to meet the educational or other standards, or if you lack any of the soft skills required for success.

Conduct In-depth Interviews

An interview between a man and a woman

Getty Images / Mark Edward Atkinson

Start performing more in-depth study when you just have a few jobs left on your list. Make plans to meet with individuals who work in the professions that interest you. They may share personal information about the jobs on your short list. Use your network, particularly LinkedIn, to discover individuals to do these informative interviews with.

Make a Career Decision

A group of individuals, each dressed for a different job.

Finally, after doing all of your research, you are most likely ready to make your decision. Based on the facts you have acquired, choose the profession that you believe would provide you with the greatest pleasure. Recognize that you have the option of changing your mind about a decision at any time in your life. Many individuals change jobs at least a few times.

Determine Your Objectives

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Once you've made a choice, determine your long- and short-term objectives. This assists in charting a path toward finally getting job in your chosen sector. Long-term objectives normally take three to five years to achieve, but short-term goals may usually be completed in six months to three years.

Allow your research on needed education and training to serve as a guide. Do extra research if you don't have all of the information. Set your objectives when you've gathered all of the necessary information. Completing your education and training is an example of a long-term aim. Applying to college, apprenticeships, other training programs, and internships are all short-term aspirations.

Prepare a Career Action Plan.

Create a career action plan, which is a written document that outlines all of the measures you will need to follow to achieve your objectives. Consider it a road plan that will take you from point A to point B, then to points C and D. Make a list of all your short- and long-term objectives, as well as the measures you'll need to take to achieve each one. Include any potential roadblocks to reaching your objectives, as well as strategies for overcoming them.

This may seem to be a lot of work—and it is. However, it is much simpler to carve out a professional path when you know what you want. Taking these actions now can save you a lot of trouble and ambiguity later on.