Leah writes:
I am a student in high school and I have no clue what I want to do when I get older, if you know of any sites or anything please inform me of them. Thanks a lot; this has really been bothering me lately and I really don’t know what else to do….
Leah, the good news is that you have many years to figure out exactly what you want to do with your life — and even then, most experts predict that people will change their careers five times over their lifetimes… so, take a deep breath and relax.
What you should really do is examine your strengths — that is, what you’re good at in school. And then examine what you enjoy doing. Then spend some time thinking about types of jobs that might incorporate these skills and strengths. You might also consider taking a few of these career assessments, which are another tool in helping you discover what you’re good at and what you like to do.
Are you planning to go to college? Most studies show that people with a college education make a much higher income than those with just a high-school diploma, so you should be looking in this direction. If you know you are going to college, then you need to look at colleges that offer majors or minors in the subjects that most interest you. For example, if you have an interest in journalism as a career, there are some fantastic journalism schools around the country.
There are lots of college sites, but I recommend you start at mine. If you go to College Planning Resources for Teens, you find original articles about choosing a college, strategies for visiting colleges, and choosing a college major — as well as links to the best college-related sites for teens.
Remember, no choice you make today is irreversible — you have plenty of time to discover what you really want to accomplish in your life.
Jay writes:
I graduated from college a year ago and have been working as a staffing specialist for a temp agency. It really isn’t making me happy, but I don’t know what else to look for. I’ve heard of these surveys/tests that you can take to give you suggestions on jobs that fit your personality. Do you know of anywhere I can take such a survey? Maybe a website?
Before you even take one of the tests I’m going to suggest, I would like you to sit down and make a list of the five skills you enjoy using and the five skills (or things) you really never want to do. Then do a similar list for the five things you like most about your current job and the five things you dislike about your job. These two lists should go far in helping you sort out what kind of work might make you happier.
Here are some other questions to answer: What was your major in college? Why did you choose it? Why aren’t you working in that field?
And now, I would suggest visiting Quintessential Careers: Career Assessment for the best career and self-assessment tools on the Web — some free and some fee-based.
Heidi writes:
Hello, I am a 36-year-old female wanting to get a “career.” I have one semester of college under my belt, as a history major, and have a 3.5 GPA. I would like to go into the museum field, but it is very hard to get a job in museum studies. Funding is bad, and most people have at least a master’s degree. I enjoy history, but I also love science and technology, computers, and have even thought of business. I don’t want to teach, and although I love science, I am bad at math! I am an army wife and am not able to just relocate to any city I wish. Any suggestions? Are there websites for finding careers based on some interest questionnaire?
The Career Doctor responds:
Well, first, don’t let your age be a hindrance to any career you pursue. It is NEVER too late to change careers. And while being a military spouse will make your job search a bit more difficult, it should not make it impossible.
You are on the first step of finding a career. Looking inward and evaluating your likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses is invaluable.
You have a couple of options for your next steps. You could go the career assessments route. There are quite a few of them — both online and in print — and your college career services office should have access to a number of them. While they are often helpful, remember that they are basically going to tell you the same things you already know — you like history, science, and technology. The counselors there should also be able to give you some direction. To me, some career options would be museum curator, city/county historian, historical tour guide, company archivist, reference librarian, and computer help desk technician.
Another option is to conduct some informational interviews to explore various career options. Schedule meetings with the director of the local museum, library, and historical society. You might also interview some chief information officers of local companies as well as park rangers of local historical sites. Informational interviews are great ways to learn more about careers and career paths — and build your future network of contacts in your new career field.
Finally, another option is to head online and conduct your career research on the Web. There are many sites with detailed information about careers… and most professional organizations also have Websites. You could start here, in the Career Exploration Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
Stephanie writes:
I am a career counselor for an IT training school. I am looking to find some information on assessment tests for locating transferable skills. Our students have already chosen a particular career path; therefore, I don’t need a “self-directed search” type of assessment. I am looking for something more along the lines of identifying their transferable skills from past work experience. Any information will be helpful.
I don’t know of any assessment tests for locating transferable skills, but I can give you an outline that I give my students for identifying their transferable skills. I think it’s fantastic that you are attempting to help your students be better prepared for the job market. And once your students have identified their transferable skills, these skills become a key factor in their resume, cover letter, and interview strategies.
And since you know the career field, you can also develop specific skill sets for that particular industry, which might include skill categories such as technical, adaptability, multi-tasking, etc. Have your students conduct research of job postings for their career paths; it’s from these postings that your students should develop their skills categories. My advice is to keep the number of broad skills categories to three or four, and then to have detailed examples of the experiences with those skills within each category.
If you are advising your students to stick to chronological resumes, they can still use this skills information to rewrite how they describe their work experiences… emphasizing these skills with keywords throughout their resumes. They could also consider developing separate pages to enhance their resumes — a document for transferable skills and for completed projects.
Learn much more, including specific examples of job-seeker transferable skills, in this section of Quintessential Careers: Transferable Job Skills.
Tanya writes:
I am looking to change industries. I have been in insurance for 10 years, and I have experience in several areas but I am bored and not very excited about my job. I am thinking of taking a personality test to match me in a job that will hopefully be more fitting. Can you tell me where to start and what services would be best? I really want it to be available online.
Career change is a big step, and while I believe personality tests have a place in the process, I believe you first need to spend some reflective time with yourself, examining your likes and dislikes. You also need to decide if you are simply bored with your job — or bored with your current career path. Literally sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and make two columns — likes and dislikes — and start putting activities into each column. Don’t just use work activities — include everything, from hobbies to volunteering. The key to this activity is to rediscover who you are and what you really like — to find what energizes you.
Once you have a better feel for yourself, then consider taking one or more assessment tests. Each one is different; some of these tests will give you results that give insight to your work or management style, others will show careers for people of similar types, and others will simply give you insight into who you are. For established job-seekers, my current favorite is CareerMaze (which you can find at CareerMaze.com). The results from this assessment include both a specific, career-relevant discussion of your workplace personality and a list of job types compatible with your personality. For high school or college students, I recommend the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS). The JVIS accurately measures your interests, showing how they relate to the worlds of study and work, and mapping out your route to an interesting career (and you can find it at JVIS.com).
If you do decide to make a career change, then your next steps are identifying your transferable skills and accomplishments. Transferable skills are skills you have acquired during any activity in your life — jobs, classes, projects, parenting, hobbies, sports, virtually anything — that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job. General categories of transferable skills include: communications; research and planning; human relations; organization, management, and leadership; and work survival.
Once you decide on a new career path, you MUST immediately begin building network contacts in your new field.
Finally, consider reviewing all the career change resources available at Quintessential Careers.
Jenna writes:
I am currently trying to chose a career path. I will be going to college soon taking medical radiography (to become an x-ray and ultrasound technician); however, I don’t think this is the career I really want (bad hours and too much human suffering). I want to do something that is a little unusual — not your average job. I want to retire early … comfortably. I want to learn a lot of new things on my way. Some ideas I’ve had are: commercial pilot, architect, something in astrophysics… What I really want are ideas for cool careers. Careers that when someone asks you what you do for your living, they feel intimidated by your answer! I don’t know what’s out there. Hopefully you do! So… any great ideas?
What’s out there as a career for you? It’s a cliché, but it’s true: if you have the intelligence, the determination, and the resources, just about any career path can be yours.
But, don’t think so much about one career shaping the rest of your life; think more about a series of careers that span your lifetime, some of which may be related.
So, the first big question is why are you majoring in something — perhaps even attending a specific college because of it — that you have no real interest in ever doing? Why not look into other colleges and careers before you make that final choice?
As for other careers…the best sources are your teachers and your family… you can also conduct a lot of career research online, using such sources as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Because you have a wide range of interests, it might also be helpful to take one or more career assessment tests; these tests work well in conjunction with you own assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your likes and dislikes.
As you think about majors, you might want to read my article, Choosing a College Major: How to Chart Your Ideal Path.
You also might find these two areas of Quintessential Careers especially helpful:
Kimberly writes:
I am in the process of going back to school to pursue a career as a nurse. I was hoping that you could give me a web site that offers career assessment tests. It would be nice to see if this is where my true potential lies.
I am a big believer in the use of assessment tests — but only as a small part of a much broader self-assessment, self-reflection exercise. So, while there are plenty of self-assessments tests (both online and in print; some free, some fee-based), I think you might be better served by spending some time looking at what made you consider nursing, researching nursing careers that interest you, and then if you still want to, taking an assessment test.
Nursing is one of those caring professions, where a big part of who you are must be about helping people — and their families. Besides the technical skills necessary, you must also have strong empathy skills. And even though nurses and other healthcare professionals continue to be in demand, you also need to expect to work long hours in almost any nursing situation.
According to the American Nurses Association: “Nursing has many definitions, but the essence of nursing is that nurses combine the art of caring with the science of health care. Nursing places its focus not only on a particular health problem, but on the whole patient and his or her response to treatment. Care of the patient and a firm base of scientific knowledge are indispensable elements.” Read more.
Is nursing right for you? Make a list of the activities and interests that excite and motivate you. Then make a list of those things you never want to do again. Then review your aptitude for science and medicine. From these activities, you should have a good picture if nursing is right for you. You also need to decide not only the type of nursing specialty you wish to pursue, but also where you want to practice your nursing.
And to help you better understand the specifics of different types of nursing careers, conduct some research. One of the best sources I have found on the many, many facets of a career in nursing is the career section of NurseWeek.com, where you can read details about more than 40 career paths in nursing. These details include things such as career overview, education and certifications needed, job outlook, typical venues, and more. A great resource.
Finally, you can review the types of job postings for nurses and other healthcare professionals by following some of the links we have in this section of Quintessential Careers: Jobs in Health Care, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Social Work.
Chris writes:
I just finished reading an article you wrote regarding interview preparation. You briefly mentioned potential employers using assessments, testing for personality and skills, to help in their hiring decisions.
I am curious to hear your honest opinion on the subject of assessments which attempt to measure potential — assessments that are supposed to be able to predict a candidate’s job performance and potential for growth and advancement.
Let me first state that I am a strong believe in using career assessment tests as a personal tool for career development and career direction.
And I think there is some value to assessments that employers use to measure skills vital to a job — typing tests for secretarial positions — but I am really against tests that demean job-seekers, especially low-wage job-seekers.
I am on the fence about personality tests. I remember one discussion with an employer that used personality tests almost exclusively to decide whether prospective job-seekers would “fit” the organization. The top management was convinced that only a certain personality type would succeed in their company and they only hired people who matched that profile.
In an era of diversity — however we define diversity — I think having employees of all personality types could only add to the creativity and decision-making of organizations.
As for tests that supposedly measure things like honesty and morality or future job performance, I say get rid of them. They are a liability to using people skills to evaluate prospective employees, and I do not support their use at all.
Anonymous writes:
I am 33 years old, and I have no idea of what to do with my life in terms of a career.
I have had one long-term job and was fired. The company had to downsize and my position was gone.
I have had to move back home. I am currently enrolled in school, earning a master’s in library science.
I am not that enthused about being a librarian. How do I figure out what to do?
If you don’t want to drift through your life — or least another 10 or 15 years of it until your next downsizing — you must immediately take a personal retreat and discover who you really are, what you like doing, what excites and motivates you, and where you want to go in terms or a job and career.
I don’t know what kind of work you were doing before you were downsized, but I can guess it wasn’t something that inspired you. My sense is that you are still in a bit of a shock over the downsizing and this master’s program was just something convenient or available, something to fill your time while you continued to wait and see what was going to happen.
You need to break the cycle by taking a break. Find a weekend — at least to start — where you can learn about yourself. Take time reflect on the types of activities that motivate and excite you; think about activities (work, hobby, volunteering) that you love doing and ones that you never want to do again. Once you have this list — and hopefully a better understanding of yourself — then you should consider one or more self-assessment tests; there are any number online, but there are also plenty of career assessment books.
Once you have a better sense of who you are and what interests you, your next step is researching careers that fit you. For example, with me, it’s activities that empower people to better their lives — so things such as this blog, my Website, teaching, and consulting all excite me and keep me energized. You need to find that niche for yourself. There are lots of career exploration resources — books, online sources, college career professionals, and career coaches and counselors.
Once you’ve identified some career options, the final step is organizing a career plan to achieve your goal — identifying employers, writing dynamic cover letters and targeted resumes, interviewing well, and following-up when necessary.
Some resources on Quintessential Careers that can help you with your quest:
Will writes:
I have a whole lot of experience, but not a tremendous amount of in any one area. How could I narrow down my choices so I know what kind of job to pursue? Also, what would be the best way to lay out my resume?
There’s good news and bad news here. As employers continue to downsize and have employees multitask by combining job functions, there is certainly a need for job-seekers who have multiple talents and abilities. On the other hand, job-seekers without a specific focus will rarely ever get a second look from employers.
So, as you mention, your task is to find a way to parlay your years of varied job experiences into some cohesive strategy that plays itself out on your resume. You don’t want to be seen as someone who does not know what you want to do, or one who gets easily bored.
What is it you want to do next? If you truly have no clue, take the time to conduct some self-assessment. First, spend some time reviewing all your experiences (work, hobby, etc.) and make two lists — one with activities you enjoy and one with activities you never want to do again. You could also consider taking one or more assessment tests, many of which you can find online.
Once you have a better picture of your likes and interests, the next step is researching careers that closely match your profile. Take the time to do this important career exploration. There are a lot of online and print resources that can help you in this process. My favorite is the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Once you’ve identified a career path (or paths), the next step is finding employers in that field — and developing a strategy for breaking into it. In any job market, but especially in this job market, your key to success is building a new network for your new career. Find and join professional organizations in your new career field, use alumni networks to find people in your new career field.
Use the Career Exploration Resources section of Quintessential Careers to help you.
And learn more about networking in the The Art of Networking section of Quintessential Careers.
And all sorts of great resume-writing tools can be found in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers.
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