Carley
How do I know what job is right for me?
How do I know what jobs are good? Do I judge it by the benefits or the job itself? #job #first-job
4 answers
Cathleen Crane
Cathleen’s Answer
Hi Carly,
That’s a great question and it really depends on what’s most important to you.
If it’s a job to make money while you go to school then the schedule, type of work, and work environment may be most important to you – do you like a lot of interaction with the public (for example server) or do you prefer behind the scenes?
If it is the first job in your career then you want to know how well the job responsibilities will give you the chance to learn and gain experience in the field of your interest. Entry level jobs may not have pay as a strong suit, however, they should give you the experience you need to begin in a field.
If you’re not sure where to begin, look for people on social media that are in the jobs or field or company that matches your goals and ask them what’s important to consider for your first job.
When I was looking for my first journalism job, I knew the pay would be low and the experience was more critical than the benefits. The things I considered then were – circulation size, the quality of the paper, their reputation in the community, and how much opportunity I would have to produce much-needed writing samples in the process. I turned down a job in my dream location because they didn’t use AP style (an industry standard), the quality of the paper was poor, and there were a number of complaints from the community about their accuracy and objectivity. That online research spared me a bad situation. It’s important then to consider the applicable aspects for your field.
If you are looking at jobs that are relatively equal, consider the company culture, pay, benefits. Is it an environment you would enjoy working in? Is your take home pay more important than a benefit package? Does the company offer a 401K with matching funds?
Regardless of where you go, participate in a 401K and contribute enough to get the full matching amount from the company. You may need to do a little research to understand what it’s about but the bottom line to remember is that if you start contributing early and stay with it and don’t cash it out when you change jobs, you can stop contributing by 40 and still have a good retirement fund. If you don’t start until you’re older (I got serious at 28), you will have to contribute your whole working life to get what you need. Look up info on 401K contributions and compounding interest. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself!
I hope this helps and wish you all the best!
Rachel Weinheimer
Rachel’s Answer
One way to decide whether you like a job is to just start working for a while. Many people in the work force change jobs several times before finally settling into a long-term career. Ideally you would have a job you enjoyed that also provided reasonable benefits.
Karen Cayea
Karen’s Answer
Jacobo Crespo
Jacobo’s Answer
My name is Jacobo and I am from Spain but live in California now. Here is what I would recommend: The first thing I would do if I were you it's really understand what motivates you; what you really love and enjoy doing. What are you good at. If you're able to find a job where you can do something that you love, eventually you will get really good at it. Most of the people that I know that are successful and really good at their jobs it's because they really love what they do so they don't mind doing it for a long time they don't mind investing the time needed to get better at it and as a result, they end up being exceptional at it. They turned they hobbies into their professions.
During you working life, you will have many jobs. It's going to be very difficult to find a job that you love every single time you apply for one. I would recommend that when you look at a job opportunity, you need to find what that job is going to represent in your career and the WHY you want to take it; a lot of jobs you might not love but it might teach you a specific skill or it might serve you as a steppingstone for that future job that you love, that you have not found yet, and that you will one day apply for.
Find what you are good at. Find what you enjoy doing. Look at the adults in your life and around you and evaluate if you could do what they do and if you think you would enjoy that job. We spend around 40 years working for many hours a week. Life if too short to do something you dont enjoy but at the same time, success requires studying, hard working, commitment, discipline, and doing things others dont do, in order to make it happen so the time you will invest in a job and in getting good at it is normally proportional to the success you will get in that job. Effort, grit and sacrifice will pay off.
All the best in your adventure and I hope this was helpful,
Jacobo