STEPS TO FINDING OUT YOUR PERFECT CAREER

02 May 2022

By spending most of our hours working, choosing the right job might just be one of the most important decisions of our lives. Your chosen job will be either depressing or inspiring depending on how you feel about it. Because it will not only determine your future financial stability, but your happiness and satisfaction will also be affected in the years to come. But with thousands of options, how do you know what career is best for you? Read until the end to find out!

  • Assess Yourself

All career paths depend on who you are, what you like, and who you aspire to be. So you must learn about yourself before you move further. Assessing your interest, values, skills, and passion to combine with your personality type is very important.

First, you can start by knowing your interests. In this matter, it’s not the things you like but your common vocational interests inventories that are based on psychological research by John Holland. According to Holland, there are six types of a person’s interest in work-related activities:

  • Realistic: People with realistic interest often prefer to do physical, athletic, tactile, or mechanical tasks. Their traits are persistent, genuine, practical, stable, and independent. So they prefer to work outdoors, with tools, operating machines, etc.
  • Investigative: Investigative people are thoughtful, intellectual, and analytic. They like to experiment, solve problems, and research, so they are avid readers.
  • Artistic: They are innovative, original, and unregulated. Artistic people are very intuitive and creative. They are often expressive by relying on their imagination, feelings, and inspiration. They can be open-minded and spontaneous. They also like to work with concepts, ideas, and abstracts.
  • Social: Social people can socialize very well. They like to help and teach others. They are someone who is cooperative, helpful, emphatic, and friendly. They prefer tasks with teamwork, relationship building, and social interaction.
  • Enterprising: Ambitious, assertive, enthusiastic, and confident individuals. They enjoy being in charge and taking risks. They are influencing others by being motivational, persuasive, and dominant.
  • Conventional: People with conventional interests are organized, efficient, logical, and orderly. They like to do quantitative measurements and practical tasks in a structured environment, since they value accuracy and precision.

  • Identify your work style

This type of assessment is different from the previous one, as it will specifically identify your preferred work personality style. This process will make you find out who you are at work and how you work best. Factors such as working hours, the people we work with, and the structure management of the career will matter in your preferred work environment. Here are some of the ways to identify your work style:

  • Independent: Independent style prefers to work alone. They prefer to follow their instinct, and excel in creative or scientific fields being visionary and entrepreneurial.
  • Cooperative:  The opposite of an independent, cooperative style likes to work as a group. They are diplomatic and have excellent communication. The cooperative style likes to share responsibility along with the team and appreciate getting feedback. Positions with relationship-oriented roles are their preferences such as HR or account executives.
  • Proximity: This style is a combination of the previous two. Proximity working style likes to work in a team while holding sole responsibility. In other terms, they are in charge but not alone.
  • Supportive: Supportive style goal is to have deep connections with members and provide team interactions. They like to collaborate and celebrate successes together rather than alone.
  • Big picture: The big picture style is always on track with the company’s vision. They are agents of change who can bring diverse ideas and objectives together into a single, creative plan.

  • Take a career test

You can use self-assessment tools and career tests to consider the traits you have and make a list of occupations that fit best for you. There are many online career tests that are available for you to take. You can also use professional help, such as career counselors or career development to guide you through the process. There are 4 tests you can take to ultimately know all the necessary traits to consider:

  • Interest test: identify careers that you are interested in.
  • Aptitude test: check the skills you currently have.
  • Personality test: assess your personality in general and can suggest careers that best suit your personality.
  • Work personality career test assessment.

These online tests are easy to access online and convenient for free of charge. Moreover, they can give you a report analysis of your results that can provide your best jobs that suit you.

  • List possible jobs

After taking career tests, you’ll have multiple lists of jobs to consider. So combine them into one master list to keep it organized. From this, you can shortlist jobs that appeal to you by finding out about their job descriptions, job salary, and future career developments. Gather as much information about your career list from research and interview someone from their fields.

  • Decide your career choice

This will lead you to the last step, which is to finally decide your chosen career. Based on the information you’ve acquired, choose the occupation that you believe will provide you with the most satisfaction. Along with deciding your career choice, determine your short-term and long-term goals so you can continuously develop your skills and excel in your career.

These are the steps in finding the career that suits you best. So, you must be willing to go persistently towards your best option, no matter how good or bad it may seem at first since it will be worth all the effort. Having a job that you enjoy while also allowing you to make a reasonable living is an important part of living a life you can be proud of. You will undoubtedly be able to reach the maximum degree of life satisfaction, happiness, and success after you have found a way to blend passion with practicality.

References

CareerFitter. (n.d.). What is the Perfect Career For Me? Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.careerfitter.com/career-advice/what-is-the-perfect-career-for-me-2/

Fard, S. (2018, December 21). What Career is Right for Me? Career Explorer. https://www.careerexplorer.com/what-career-is-right-for-me/

Mckay, D. R. (2019, November 20). How to Make a Career Choice When You Are Undecided. The Balance Careers. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/steps-to-choosing-career-525506

O*NET. (n.d.). Browse by interest. O*NET Online. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/1.B.1

Robbins, T. (n.d.). WHAT IS YOUR WORK STYLE? Tony Robbins. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/whats-working-style/

Katryn Tania Tannady