Get set for a fulfilling career

Don’t you aspire for a successful career? The answer, without any doubt will be in the affirmative. You may, or perhaps may not, regard your career as very significant in your life, but it is not a trivial affair for sure because you spend nearly one-fourth of your time there, given that you work five days a week. So, the question is why shouldn’t be your career satisfying?

It is all up to you to make your career a satisfying experience. Before you actually make a decision to get into one, it is essential that you ask yourself if you will be comfortable doing whatever you would be doing, day in and day out for a couple of decades. You should appreciate that your life is not too long to waste it wishing that you would have been better off doing something else.

With scores and scores of career options at your disposal, you would not be sure of which one is best-suited to you and hence making a decision will appear to be rather difficult, though in actuality, it may not be truly so. However, you will have to exert yourself to pick and select a career. And the process should begin by evaluating yourself for what you are. You have to know more about yourself, in particular your inclinations, talents and personal qualities that otherwise make some career ideal and some unsuitable for you. Taking help of career counsellors will facilitate identification of careers that you are cut out for. The list could well be long and you would like to prune it so that you narrow down to anything between eight to ten options.

Various career options that you now have in the pruned list ought to be explored further based on the charter of responsibilities, qualitative requirements, prospects for growth and remuneration offered. Based on whatever you gauge and weigh, you may eliminate some careers that do not appeal to you as much as they did before. The list will thus get pruned further. The pruning process can be repeated so that you are now left with, say, two or three options, but that will not necessarily imply that you can go in for any of them.  It is essential that you now gain detailed knowledge about them to facilitate making the final decision.

There is no better way to gain first-hand information than informational interviews. They necessitate tagging along suitable individuals for a day or two to gain a profound knowledge of the profession that you intend to take up. You can thus decide upon one occupation that you want to go in for and then make concerted efforts to get a job in that field. But simultaneously or perhaps even before doing that, you should set some objectives for yourself – what you want to achieve in the short term and likewise also in the long-term. Short-term objectives are those that pertain to the immediate future and long-term objectives are those that you would like to accomplish say, ten to twenty years hence.

Setting objectives by themselves will serve no purpose. You need to formulate lines of action to facilitate their accomplishment. These will be specific actions required to be undertaken by you. You will have to prepare a road map that you will utilise to choose an occupation to start with and then eventually help you to realise your long-term objectives by predetermined actions, including those to overcome possible impediments. The road map that you make is also referred to as a career action plan and which is always recommended to be reduced to writing.

There are some other issues that contribute to a successful career. You will have to be an eternal learner and make efforts to not only upgrade your current skills but also add on to them. Your vision about yourself and your career should be such that you are able to pilot all your decisions in the direction of attaining your objectives. It is essential that whatever portrait you envision of your career endpoint should be all-embracing with built in provisions for midterm corrections. Unless your vision is in harmony with your personality, you will never feel contented and never enjoy what is known as the competitive edge.

A satisfying career simply cannot be brought about by investing your complete life in one single anticipation or prospect. You need to do extensive planning and regular monitoring. Any tendency to get bogged down by with unnecessary doubt, reservations and reluctance should be got over because if you have any such proclivity, you will never be able to concentrate in the direction of success. You have to plan for every phase of your career.   

The fact about satisfaction and happiness with your career lies in finding one and then devoting yourself to it. You will have to fall in love with it. After all, the most horrible days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who do not.