Explore your career options

“Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.”

--- Orison Swett Marden

Like any other activity or pursuit, before you pledge yourself to a career, you ought to have a crystal clear image of what you are embarking upon. This would entail obtaining precise facts and figures; and assessing them decisively for their suitability.

The start-point should be gathering information about various careers that appeal to you. You can do so by reading books that offer descriptions to include the qualitative requirements, nature of work, specific training, and remunerations besides prospects. Researching on the internet can also be resorted to; online research will also connect you to various websites that will provide detailed and unbiased information. But such research, through books or the internet has limitations too.

You could also explore various careers through practical acquaintance with them; the knowledge that you get can indeed be extremely stunning to facilitate exploration of related aspects that concern you the maximum. Since experience is invariably a protracted process, you will, more often than not utilize pragmatic and practical erudition after you trim down your options of likely areas of your interest to few.

The best line of action is to work in an environment similar to that of the career that you are thinking about. Should you be unable to manage a regular job there or because of time constraints cannot join, you can take up work as an apprentice and work part-time. You will be able to get hands down learning about responsibilities and working atmosphere. You could also see a work location from close quarters; for this you will have to make use of your network or take initiative to establish contact with some companies for the purpose. It may be required of you to possess specified clothing and take an insurance policy to adhere to working conventions and safety obligations. You should make it a point to not falter on punctuality and to note down in your diary all your observations. During the period of your apprenticeship, your aim should be to learn and get a practical insight; undesired activities like gossiping and unnecessary raising doubts should be avoided. On completion of your attachment period, make it a point to send a communication expressing your thankfulness.    

You can also resort to informational interviews. These entail talking to somebody who is practicing a career that you intend to pursue. It is human tendency to be happy while talking about a subject that happens to be your passion; and any work involves passion.  Informational interviews can help you widen your list of contacts; people that you meet and add on to your network can be valuable references or influence wielders during your job hunt subsequently. You must make a record of whatever is spoken about and ensure that you get to know how the other person went about preparing for his career. Perhaps, if you adopt the same tactics, you may get into a career and job of your dreams.

The final step is to make a holistic assessment of your career. You should reflect on all possible positive and negative aspects; and simply be happy if you happen to get a good remuneration package. You should catalogue all significant features like your fitness and contentment intensities; arrays of work and prospects; and opportunity to make use of your ingenuity and inventiveness. If you set precedence, you will be able to obviate the likelihood of laying undue stress on unimportant and inconsequential issues. As the process of assessments moves ahead, you should try to discern what is essentially and in reality distinctive. You should be relatively more cautious if you are going to make conclusions on the basis of your special encounters. It is likely that some atypical and extraordinary   workplace circumstances may portray an incorrect notion of a career and its effects on those pursuing it.

Making a right career choice is always plagued with difficulties, whatever planning and preparation that you may do. If you make mistakes, you will learn something. But in the process, you will be able to refine your thoughts and better your capacity to make sound decisions. But remember that unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can. You can pursue any career and there will be numerous rules for success, however, none of them will work unless you do.