9 answers
Ben’s Answer
Also put some quality time and reflection into how you choose to define what a "satisfying career" means to you, so that you can unpack and assess your experiences accordingly.
Ely’s Answer
Finding a career that you're passionate about can be difficult! Do you have interests or hobbies that you'd like to see translated into your career?
The good news is that most people change careers throughout their lifetime, so you're going to have plenty of time to find what's right for you, even if you don't know now. The important part will be getting the education and skills so you're able to adapt and find out what fits you long term.
College can also be an excellent place to learn a bit more about what you want to do over the longer term. You won't need to declare a major upon starting at a University, and even when you do, you will still have some flexibility to change it later on.
I personally had no idea of my career trajectory upon leaving University with my degree, and have since found a career path that fits my skills, passion and ambition.
Ely recommends the following next steps:
Kara’s Answer
Finding a career that is satisfying is so important. My best advice is to experiment and try different things. You might start out in one area and find you are not as satisfied as you once were. Try something else. School is a great way to take different classes to see if something you never thought you were interested in is something that is satisfying to you. Dive more into your hobbies and see if something that you love doing is work pursuing as a career.
Kara recommends the following next steps:
Rohit’s Answer
You have to understand what you want out of your career to become satisfied. Work out your end game and reverse engineer the steps towards achieving your goal.
Improving your Emotional Intelligence can help you understand yourself better. Ask someone who knows you well enough to describe your strengths and weaknesses. Also, making a list of your values in order of importance can estimate your success within a company - is it career progression? Salary? Opportunity for accreditation/further education? Company culture? You want to see if your current/future employer can offer you these and go from there.
Have a plan and work towards achieving it. It’s the people who float around that often end up feeling lost or downbeat about their career path.
Michelle’s Answer
I think this is a question we all have asked at one time or another. I believe a satisfying career is directly tied to doing something that interests you, something that you are passionate about...
A simple starting point would be to make a list of things you like to do and things that interest you -- this list might be really wide-ranging, and that's okay...it is a starting point. From there, I would continue to add to this list, as you have new interests that come up...maybe something that was said in a class, or that you read in a book. As this list builds over time, you may start to see an "affinity grouping". This is where two or more things on the list are 'like' each other-- and will allow you to zone in on groupings-- once you have a few in mind, you may want to consider career shadowing to explore what the day to day position might look like. Then ask yourself: Could I see myself doing this as a career? I would encourage you to explore different options by career shadowing so you can really see what the profession is like.
uma’s Answer
Finding a career that will be satisfying to you involves a lot of experiments as well as experience. It needs some time to think what are the fields that you are good at and if they interest you. The best part of being a student is that you can explore.
Try finding out your hobbies and spend some time on them.Imagine doing that stuff as a career. I would advice to keep your favourite hobby as your hobby.Choosing your second best hobby as a career will definitely satisfy you.
Tyler’s Answer
This is a good question, my recommendation would be to look into careers that sound interesting to you and be open to switching careers/job if you end up not liking something you are doing. I personally had no idea what I wanted to do after high school and ended up trying several different things before I found one that I ended up finding a career that I found fulfilling.
As for college, it depends on whether or not that sounds interesting to you. I started college right out of high school and ended up dropping out to try a different career for a couple of years. Then I realized that I was unhappy with what I was doing and went back and finished college. While in college I also switched majors multiple times in an attempt to find something that I felt happy doing. College is a good place to experiment with careers and to try and find something that will make you happy.
Tom’s Answer
Hi Long. Boy that is a question nearly everyone has had.....since careers started. One early test to find out, what are you passionate about? There are most likely career opportunities in that if you prepare well. Ok....so there's a problem, right? What if you don't know yet what you are passionate about? Again, you are not alone. You are SO not alone that someone wrote a book to help people find their passion aimed at a career. The book is called "What Color is Your Parachute". I've used it for a career change and it is just as good starting out. Find a used copy. Good luck.
Tom recommends the following next steps:
Lance’s Answer
Aim for a goal (or goals), but be prepared to veer away. Chances are you have a career goal in mind, but often that goal is pretty specific...e.g. "I want to be an X." Lawyer, doctor, veterinarian, interior designer, actor, etc. It's better to think about the types of things you like doing first, rather than the thing that you may think fulfills that goal.
For example, "I like helping people" is a better starting place than "I want to cure diseases." Figure out what you enjoy doing - and why you enjoy doing it - before zeroing in on a career. "I like showing off" is perfectly valid, too. These are *your* goals, and you can be as dumb/silly/amazing as you want to be, but be honest. Don't put down what you think will impress others or will look good. This is just for you.
Once you have a job, it probably won't fulfill all your goals, but it will fulfill some. If it doesn't fulfill any but you took it because it paid well, you're not going to be happy. Be prepared to shift gears when you discover something you enjoy more, or you become burned out or frustrated where you are. With that in mind, SAVE YOUR MONEY. When you have some money put aside that will allow you to take time away from work to figure out your happiness, you won't feel as rushed or pressured to stay where you are.
Finally, if you're unhappy where you are, figure out why. Is it the job itself? Is it the people you're working with/for? Is it your boss?
You only control one thing in life: Yourself. You can't change the job you have, you can't change your boss or coworkers. You're responsible for you, so always aim for happiness. Take chances when something sounds interesting to you, even if you don't feel qualified. And keep learning stuff. Every talent and skill has value. I mean, there are professional video game players (just not many of them).