How to Choose the Right Career Path: 7 Steps to Help You Plan Your Future

Introduction

Thinking about the next 30-40 years of your working life can be very daunting, especially when you have to do it with a blank screen in front of you. Some people have many interests but are directionless. Others know what they don’t like but are apathetic to what they do like. On top of that, there’s the pressure from family, finance, education, and the fear of making a decision you can’t come back from. All of these things can make you tired just at the thought of going on a job searching website.

When it comes to choosing a career path, the end goal isn’t to find the one happy forever occupation. You should look for a direction that incorporates your skills, interests, financial requirements, values, and lifestyle. It’s important to recognize this because your first career choice won’t necessarily be your last.

You can perfectly validly flip flop interests between graphic design and software development. You can also be drawn to a career in healthcare but be put off by the training required. You can even be influenced by your family wanting you to pursue a specific career while having your own interests in other career fields.

All of these situations are common, and you should frame career choices as multiple, smaller, answerable questions rather than one all encompassing behemoth of a question.

What Does It Mean to Choose the Right Career Path?

To choose a career path is to find the professional route that integrates your skills, desires, values, circumstances, and the constraints of the job market. This goes beyond choosing a single job title, as one path can contain many titles, roles, industries, and specializations.

Let’s say there is a person who is very good at organizing groups. This can take many forms from planning trips to organizing their friends, and can even include managing complicated tasks. This person could be very successful in many roles from project management to operations to event planning to administration, to name just a few. The important part is realizing that this person excels at organizing and managing tasks, and this can be valuable in many careers.

This can also be true for many interests. A person who enjoys explaining ideas to others could be a good candidate for a career in teaching or in writing, but could also be successful in sales or training. On the other hand, a person who enjoys solving riddles could be a good candidate for a career in troubleshooting or in quality assurance but could also be successful in an analyst role.

Of course, you need to take your entire life into consideration when choosing a career. A career in a very foreign field that offers a high salary can be attractive, but if it requires constant travel and you have family, it is a poor fit. A career in a heavily supervised role can be very frustrating if you value independence. Taking into consideration the life you want to build can help you make better career choices.

A career path can change, so the choices you make in your life, especially in your early twenties, do not necessarily need to be the same choices you make at 30 or 40. Initially, you want to make choices that help you develop skills and gain experience that you can use to make informed choices for your future.

Why Do People Find Making Career Choices Difficult?

Being able to make a choice usually has nothing to do with being lazy or having little ambition. The number of choices in the current job market has increased and with that that the social and economic pressure has also increased, making virtually every choice seem life or death.

Having too many choices leads to being unable to make any choices at all (analysis paralysis). There are so many jobs that did not exist or were not as developed a generation ago, such jobs as cybersecurity, data analytics, UX research, cloud computing, and many other fields. Having so many choices means that in order to pursue one, you feel like you have to rule out many others. It leads to a paradox where you end up researching many choices and ultimately paralyzed to make any. You don’t need to research and evaluate every single profession. Narrowing your choices to a manageable number will allow you to research and evaluate them thoroughly.

Family expectations can become hidden influences. Relatives and parents want to help by recommending careers, and usually, they want to help you achieve something they see as stable, but their definition of a good career may conflict with your goals. For example, your parent may want you to have a career in medicine or law, or engineering, but what if you want to pursue a career in design or entrepreneurship or a given trade? Your parent means well, but ultimately you are the one who has to work that career for many years, so you should choose what you want to work on.

People are paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice. Some people act like a career choice is a life-long commitment. That’s not how a career should be viewed. People change careers, and interests, and may even move on to management. A “bad” career choice that is pursued is better than a “good” career choice that is researched for years and never acted upon.

Most people can identify their interests but not their strengths. Just because you like something doesn’t mean you’re meant to do the related profession. Just because you like movies doesn’t mean you like doing the tedious task of editing. Just because you like cooking doesn’t mean you like doing the stressful task of managing a kitchen. The question you should be asking is “what activities do I enjoy doing enough to do them repeatedly, and which of those can I improve to become skilled at?”

Financial constraints provide an additional challenge. Having concern for money is a good thing, because it impacts where you live, your family, and how you spend your free time. But if you let money be the only factor for your career choice, you could end up unhappy. You should consider how in demand a job is, how difficult the training is, what the working conditions are, and how satisfying the job will be.

Finding a career that fits you seems overwhelming, but the next step is replacing guesswork with small experiments and research. This will help you understand career choices on a deeper level and reduce the confusion surrounding them.

7 Steps to Choose the Right Career Path

1. Audit How You Spend Your Free Time

Consider your hobbies, because they can be a good indicator of your interests and can help direct your career. For example, electronics repair, researching how businesses make money, or organizing trips can all be indicative of a future in business, and someone who researches hardware may be interested in a career in IT or in systems administration. Someone who enjoys organizing complicated trips may be interested in event planning or in operations. It is important to distinguish between enjoying an activity and enjoying the process of that activity. For example, if you enjoy photography but hate editing, photography may not be a good career choice.

2. Make a List of Career Dealbreakers

Sometimes it can be easier to tell what you don’t want, rather than what you do want, when thinking about your career goals. Determining your dealbreakers can help you eliminate careers that you would never want to pursue. For example, you may determine that you cannot do shifts that include overnight hours, or you may determine that you cannot do careers that involve a lot of public speaking or a lot of travel. Determining that you cannot do shifts that include overnight hours may help you eliminate a lot of careers that involve being a server, but it may help you determine that you want to pursue a career that is in business. It is important to keep dealbreakers to a minimum, because a career that has a lot of growth or is very lucrative may warrant a slight inconvenience.

3. Look at Actual Job Descriptions

Career websites can make jobs seem glamorous. Look through current job postings for each career option and see if there are common requirements or day-to-day tasks. You may find a job that you thought was very creative has a lot of administrative work, or that a job you thought required a masters has many openings at the entry level.

4. Speak With People Who Currently Hold Your Target Jobs

Look for people who have been in the field for a while and ask if they would be willing to answer a few questions. You should focus on learning and not making the questions seem like you are asking for a job. Ask what a normal day is like or what parts of the job surprised them. An aspiring real estate agent may think that most of their time would be spent looking at nice property listings, when in reality most of the time is spent prospecting, doing paperwork, and making follow up calls, thanks to an Agent who gave good real world advice.

5. Test the Career Before Paying for Expensive Training

One of the most important pieces of advice is to do a low-stakes test run. If you are considering a career in software development, try building a simple app. If you are considering a career in marketing, try setting up a mock campaign. If you are considering a career in teaching, try tutoring. You don’t need to enjoy the career path to the extreme to justify pursuing it further, you just need to find it moderately enjoyable. It is much better to find out that you don’t enjoy programming by trying it for the first time for free, than to find out after spending thousands of dollars on a programming boot camp.

6. Use Career Assessments as Clues

If you have a difficult time expressing your interests and strengths, career assessments can help. They can also help by giving you suggestions based on the outcomes. You have to be careful not to take the outcomes of the assessments as answers. If an assessment leads you to believe that you enjoy analytical problem solving, you have to look into careers that contain that element, compare a few, and then go try them out. An assessment can help you open a door, it can’t give you the answer to what is on the other side of the door.

7. Consider Your Ideal Work Environment

You can enjoy the work, but if the role doesn’t fit your environment preferences, it can still be a poor career choice. Do you prefer working alone, or do you like being in a work environment with a lot of interaction? Are you okay with an unpredictable work schedule? Knowing your ideal work environment can help you identify careers that you would be successful in, even if the work is different from career to career.

Consider the Financial Cost of Pursuing the Career

Every career has an up-front cost, whether it be time or money. You should consider the cost of training or education and determine if it is worth it. A long and expensive degree may not be worth it if there are little to no job opportunities once you graduate. On the other hand, a short and cheap certification may be worth it if the career has good job prospects and employers recognize the certification. You should consider the cost of a career, but it is also important to consider the trade-off, like flexibility and enjoyment.

You Can’t Predict the Future Beyond the Next Step

You will have to make those steps one at a time eventually. Don’t think about your career in terms of what you will do for the next four decades. Think about what you will do for the next year or two. You should be able to pursue a new direction every year or two. You should be able to gain new skills and acquire new work experience every year or two. With new skills and work experience, you can make more informed decisions about your career.

Consider Your Future Manager During Interviews

Many focus on company reputation while ignoring the person they will report to. How many times have you heard “measurement of performance”? Once you understand how your manager will give you feedback, you can understand how they will develop you and turn a given role into an enjoyable one.

Keep a Career Experiment Journal

Lastly, keep a career experiment journal. After completing a course or project or even after an interview, capture what you were informed, what you were frustrated by, and what you wanted to repeat. You will eventually seepersonalty tests cannot reveal.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Following salary blindly. Money can’t buy a good fit. Consider how a role will affect your overall well-being.
• Choosing a career to satisfy your parents. While their input is valuable, it is you that will live by the decisions you make. Investigate for yourself.
• Waiting for perfect certainty. You likely never will be certain. A small test can give you more information than endless planning.
• Turning every hobby into a career. You may enjoy a hobby but that doesn’t mean you will enjoy it when you have to do it for your job.
• Ignoring actual job duties. A given job title may be exciting but the day to day tasks may be boring. Read job descriptions and talk to people in those roles.
• Paying for education before researching the field. Career research should come before expensive training. Make sure you know what employers actually require.
• Assuming your previous experience is useless. Experience is transferable. Focus on communicating your experience in a way that is related to the new role.

Pros and Cons of Career Planning

Benefits of Career Planning

There are so many potential careers that it can be difficult to decide on exactly which one to pursue. Career planning can help with this by providing direction, reducing the number of options, and helping you avoid costly mistakes. It can help you figure out what you actually enjoy doing, and can be used to improve your skills that are related to your career of interest.

Drawbacks of Career Planning

There are a few considerations to keep in mind as well. It is possible to become so focused on researching careers that you fail to take any action. There are many external factors that can affect the career you have chosen. It can take a significant amount of time to gather information on a career of interest, and no career planning process can ensure that you have chosen the right career.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Choose a Career If I Have No Idea What I Want?

Think about what you already know about yourself. Make a list of things you enjoy doing, things you are good at, the kinds of things you like being around, and things you don’t want to be responsible for. You don’t need to find just one answer. Come up with a few options and then test them out. You can do this by taking a class, volunteering, or seeking out an informational interview.

I Have Both Passion and Financial Needs. Should I Rely on One More Than the Other When Choosing a Career?

You need to strike a balance between the two. Everyone has a breaking point. If you can’t make a living doing what you love, you’ll eventually grow to hate it. On the other hand, if you hate what you do, you’ll never be able to master it. You don’t need to be head-over-heels for a job to find it satisfying.

Are Career Personality Tests Valid?

They can be useful, but you can’t take the results you get and run. Take what you get and research it. Compare what you get to what is actually required for the job.

How Can I Identify the Skills I Have?

Make a list of everything you think you’re good at, both the skills you’ve learned and the things you think you’re good at doing. Once you have your list, compare it to what is required for a job and see where your skills apply.

What Careers Have the Best Prospects?

There is no career that is totally safe. Conditions can change from country to country and industry to industry. Don’t look for what you think you should do to protect your career. Look for what you want to do and research it using labor market data.

Is It Too Late to Change Careers at 30 or 40?

It’s certainly possible to change careers at 30 or 40. It may take more planning because you may have more family and financial obligations, but the experience you have gained can be very helpful when trying to make the career change. The important thing is looking at the skills needed for the new career and trying to see where you might have gaps, rather than assuming you have to start from the beginning.

Should I Go to College If I Am Undecided About My Career?

College is a good investment if the career you want to pursue has a strong training program or if the career requires a degree, but if you are not sure about your career, you don’t want to waste money on something that may not benefit you. Explore different careers, and if you think you may need a degree for that career, you can look into programs that may interest you.

How Do I Know Whether I Would Actually Enjoy a Career?

You can’t really rely on your imagination to answer this question. You have to go out and see for yourself. You can talk to people that do that job, you can do projects related to that job, or you can even follow people that do that job. You have to look into the small details of a job and see if you can enjoy doing that. You have to see if you can enjoy solving those problems, because liking a job title is not enough.

I Feel Stuck About How Much Time I Am Supposed to Spend Thinking About Careers.

There isn’t a stop date, but looking at things from too many angles can become a way of justifying inaction. Take some time to consider a few options and try a few things out, but don’t get too caught up in making a decision. You can always come back to this crossroad if you end up needing to make a different decision based on what you learn along the way.

My Family Members Disagree With My Career Choices. What Do I Do?

You need to figure out what it is that they are worried about (usually it is how much it pays, how secure it is, etc.) and look into that. You can bring up the things that you have resear, and that you have trained for, and that you are good at. In the end you have to consider your game plan the most, they are just giving you input.

Final Thoughts

I feel a lot less anxious about making decisions for my career when I tell myself that I am never actually deciding my entire future. There is not going to be one career that is going to define your entire life. You are allowed to take action without being completely sure.

Write down your most glaring strengths and weaknesses, and then think about your financial situation and what you absolutely can’t stand doing. Once you have all that, you can start thinking about what you might want to do for a living.

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