Trumped up delusions about career selection

Many people have incorrect perceptions about career selection. They think that they know everything, including related finer points and methodology required to be adopted. Such misbeliefs, more often than not, makes them exercise an incorrect career choice. The outcome that follows is extensive discontentedness, frustration and vexation throughout their career journey.

Making a career choice decision is actually a complex process and entails devoting time to it. You cannot assume that it is an easy affair. The truth is that it is a process that comprises many stages and which call for self-awareness and knowledge about the pros and cons of different career options. Some common trumped up delusions and judgments related to career selection are:

• All issues fall in place after you make a decision: When you select a career, it is just the commencement of a long voyage. As you move along your career path, you will take many actions that ought to be envisioned and catalogued. Such cataloging is nothing but making a career action plan. The entire range of activities from the moment you decide to exercise an option till the time you attain all your goals should actually be a part of your career action plan.  
• You get to know a profession only when you are in it: While a direct and personal practical experience is the best option, you can get to know about various professions and careers through other means too. Researching about them through online efforts or reading published works are a good source of knowledge. Meeting and interacting with people who are already in such a career can also be very beneficial.
• Job trends & publicised jobs should only be considered: Career specialists periodically predict several career streams and talk about the job market. It is absolutely in order to consider such prognostications, should they be of interest to you. However, you cannot allow such predictions to influence your selection. The predictions made could be based on factual statistics, but their permanent relevance cannot be taken for granted. Something that is popular and in demand today may not be same, say after five years. Hence, due caution has to be exercised in incorporating them in your decision; however, you cannot ignore your inclinations, principles and knowhow while selecting a career.
• Skills pertinent to one career aren't useful in another: The skills that you acquire over a period of time are exclusive to you. They should not be seen as specific or useful to your present job only. Their retention and application elsewhere is always possible, though some modifications may be necessitated.  Therefore, you should make certain that your skills, once acquired, are not frittered away. 
• Contentment is brought about by money alone: Your earnings that you seek are surely a very important part of your career selection. But they cannot be the only or the most important consideration. It has been proved that that issues like remuneration do not necessarily and always bring about job contentment. What matters more is the pleasure that you get at work. However, you cannot discount the significance of remuneration totally and it should be a matter of consideration before you take a plunge.
• Modelling oneself on a successful person surely pays: A person could be excelling at his work and consequently being happy about it No two personalities are alike and anything that works for one person may not necessarily work for another, certain commonalities between the two notwithstanding. Therefore, if there happens to be a person whose career interests you, you must understand that the same may not be really your cup of tea.
• Leisure pursuits cannot be taken up as a career: Hobbies cannot become a source of livelihood: There can be nothing more distant from truth than this. When you are going about trying to select a career, there is nothing wrong in deciding on one that offers you concurrent pleasure and contentment, particularly if it happens to be pertinent to your leisure. You can become very adept and accomplished in your leisure activities, though most of the dexterity that you develop is a result of practical acquaintances in that field.
• One shouldn't change careers or jobs: Those days are history when people took up a job and superannuated from it. There is nothing that should preclude you from making a career change if at all your level of job satisfaction has plummeted. It is no wonder therefore, that quite a few people change careers during their working span. Career counsellors can pinpoint the career that you ought to pursue, though no accurate prognostication can be made. At best, he or she can simply guide you in arriving at a decision to select a career.

The process of selecting a career Career has much more than merely deciding on a job. There are several factors that will influence your decision and many subsequent outcomes will be dependent on it. You will definitely like to see a career that holds out good prospects of success and hence it is essential that you go in for one that is appropriate to you. It is necessary that the career that you decide to opt for should have the potential to offer you longterm support.  You should guard against any proneness to succumb to myths that run the risk of nonfulfillment and non-success.