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There are many career paths that I am interested in: Marketing, Psychology, Ultrasound Tech, etc. How did you know which occupation was right for you, and how has it affected your life?
I am curious about occupations and would love to know a little more about how you chose the right job for yourself. #career #psychology #marketing #nursing #curious
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8 answers
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Doc’s Answer
The old saying "find a job you love and never work a day in your life"
WHAT DO LOVE ISOLENA?
Maybe you love numbers, advertising, public speaking, event planning, design, debate, helping others…make a list of everything. List all your career options, including the ones you wanted as a little child or became interested in during your high school education, to even the most bizarre or strange ideas that come across your mind. Your first list will help you make sure that you haven’t missed anything when you make the final choice.
LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF
The primary step is to discover who you really are. Figuring out what you are good at is a must for career planning. What you enjoy doing? Which things tend to make you happier? Which subjects do you love the most? Which activities take your undivided attention such that you don’t even notice how much time has passed? This is absolutely the right time to think about what you love!
EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS
Make a summary of what is important to you and what will contribute more to your personal satisfaction. The more you know about your capabilities, skills, and competencies the more effective you will be in making career choices. Learning about yourself is one of the most important career planning tips and defines what exactly a student wants from their life.
Take time to explore all the possible careers, however different they might be. You never know what may appear dreary at first, might seem appealing once you start exploring it! Remember you need not rush into any decision but all you need is to keep an open mind.
DUE YOUR HOMEWORK
Ask other people casually what their jobs entail and what they love about them. We are generally not exposed to a lot of the different interests of the working world – so much of our education is focused around primary subjects like math, humanities, and science. So get curious. People who have the first-hand knowledge about choosing a career path can help you make the right decision. Start with people you have in your surroundings, and then widen your search for others who work in your fields of interest. You can always use networking for this purpose, especially platforms that are career-focused, such as LinkedIn.
PUT YOUR CAREER CHOICES TO THE TEST
If you have narrowed down some specific jobs or careers, you can find a wealth of information online, from description of positions to average salaries and estimated future growth. This will also help you figure out the practical priorities: How stable is the field you are considering? Are you comfortable with the amount of risk? Is the salary range acceptable to you? Different online tools can guide you through the process of self-discovery. Questions, quizzes, and personality assessments can’t tell you what your perfect career would be, but they can help you identify what’s important to you in a career, what you enjoy doing, and where you excel.
KEEP EXPLORING
Stay flexible when it comes to thinking about your future, while a certain career may seem like a good fit for you now, think about how different you may be in five, ten or twenty years. As you get older and have more experiences, your feelings about what you want to do may change. If you’re not happy today, you don’t have to be permanently stuck. Nor do you have to wait until a certain age when it suddenly “makes sense” for you to switch careers. Each day is an opportunity to try something new, explore your creativity, and build a career that you’re proud of.
This is your time to pursue your dreams Isolena, don’t let anybody else take control.
WHAT DO LOVE ISOLENA?
Maybe you love numbers, advertising, public speaking, event planning, design, debate, helping others…make a list of everything. List all your career options, including the ones you wanted as a little child or became interested in during your high school education, to even the most bizarre or strange ideas that come across your mind. Your first list will help you make sure that you haven’t missed anything when you make the final choice.
LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF
The primary step is to discover who you really are. Figuring out what you are good at is a must for career planning. What you enjoy doing? Which things tend to make you happier? Which subjects do you love the most? Which activities take your undivided attention such that you don’t even notice how much time has passed? This is absolutely the right time to think about what you love!
EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS
Make a summary of what is important to you and what will contribute more to your personal satisfaction. The more you know about your capabilities, skills, and competencies the more effective you will be in making career choices. Learning about yourself is one of the most important career planning tips and defines what exactly a student wants from their life.
Take time to explore all the possible careers, however different they might be. You never know what may appear dreary at first, might seem appealing once you start exploring it! Remember you need not rush into any decision but all you need is to keep an open mind.
DUE YOUR HOMEWORK
Ask other people casually what their jobs entail and what they love about them. We are generally not exposed to a lot of the different interests of the working world – so much of our education is focused around primary subjects like math, humanities, and science. So get curious. People who have the first-hand knowledge about choosing a career path can help you make the right decision. Start with people you have in your surroundings, and then widen your search for others who work in your fields of interest. You can always use networking for this purpose, especially platforms that are career-focused, such as LinkedIn.
PUT YOUR CAREER CHOICES TO THE TEST
If you have narrowed down some specific jobs or careers, you can find a wealth of information online, from description of positions to average salaries and estimated future growth. This will also help you figure out the practical priorities: How stable is the field you are considering? Are you comfortable with the amount of risk? Is the salary range acceptable to you? Different online tools can guide you through the process of self-discovery. Questions, quizzes, and personality assessments can’t tell you what your perfect career would be, but they can help you identify what’s important to you in a career, what you enjoy doing, and where you excel.
KEEP EXPLORING
Stay flexible when it comes to thinking about your future, while a certain career may seem like a good fit for you now, think about how different you may be in five, ten or twenty years. As you get older and have more experiences, your feelings about what you want to do may change. If you’re not happy today, you don’t have to be permanently stuck. Nor do you have to wait until a certain age when it suddenly “makes sense” for you to switch careers. Each day is an opportunity to try something new, explore your creativity, and build a career that you’re proud of.
This is your time to pursue your dreams Isolena, don’t let anybody else take control.
Thank you so much for the response. I will look into the careers that I am interested in and will definitely do some research on the salaries!
Isolena
Good Luck Isolena. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
Doc Frick
Thank You Dexter. “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain loving one another.” – Erma Bombeck
Doc Frick
Updated
Karen’s Answer
Hello Isolena,
I cannot tell you how choosing the right career will effect your life since I choose a career outside of my interests, but I can tell you what I should have done and some of the difficulties of choosing a career for the wrong reasons. I excepted my first "real" job because I needed a job. However, I majored in psychology and found the topic very interesting. I also enjoyed sociology and learning about people as individuals vs people in groups. I didn't know anyone who was in these fields or where to start looking for experience. I also had parents who were expecting me to get a job, so that is what I did, I accepted the first "real" job offered to me which was in the mortgage industry.
You can make any career work for you and find something to enjoy about it, however if the topic is not interesting to you, it will make the difficult times at work, more difficult. There have been times in my career when I had a hard time seeing any worth in what I was doing. I was just going through the motions of the job. I have now found a company I appreciate working for so I am able to enjoy my work more. This took about 15 years.
If I had it to do over, I would have talked to my guidance counselor more. I would have asked for help in finding books or personality tests that would help guide me to types of work suited for me. I would have reached out to companies, schools, hospitals or other places of businesses with jobs in those fields and looked into internships and volunteering. This would have given me some experience to see if I enjoyed the work. Then I would have made appointments with the HR department to talk about directions and what would be needed from me to further my career.
Just remember, you can always change careers. I was too worried about getting a job that I did not take the time to enjoy the process of discovering who I was. Also, I waited too late to start figuring it all out. The earlier you start the better. It can take time to pinpoint your interests and have practical experience to see if it is a life time career for you.
Best of luck to you!
I cannot tell you how choosing the right career will effect your life since I choose a career outside of my interests, but I can tell you what I should have done and some of the difficulties of choosing a career for the wrong reasons. I excepted my first "real" job because I needed a job. However, I majored in psychology and found the topic very interesting. I also enjoyed sociology and learning about people as individuals vs people in groups. I didn't know anyone who was in these fields or where to start looking for experience. I also had parents who were expecting me to get a job, so that is what I did, I accepted the first "real" job offered to me which was in the mortgage industry.
You can make any career work for you and find something to enjoy about it, however if the topic is not interesting to you, it will make the difficult times at work, more difficult. There have been times in my career when I had a hard time seeing any worth in what I was doing. I was just going through the motions of the job. I have now found a company I appreciate working for so I am able to enjoy my work more. This took about 15 years.
If I had it to do over, I would have talked to my guidance counselor more. I would have asked for help in finding books or personality tests that would help guide me to types of work suited for me. I would have reached out to companies, schools, hospitals or other places of businesses with jobs in those fields and looked into internships and volunteering. This would have given me some experience to see if I enjoyed the work. Then I would have made appointments with the HR department to talk about directions and what would be needed from me to further my career.
Just remember, you can always change careers. I was too worried about getting a job that I did not take the time to enjoy the process of discovering who I was. Also, I waited too late to start figuring it all out. The earlier you start the better. It can take time to pinpoint your interests and have practical experience to see if it is a life time career for you.
Best of luck to you!
Thank you for sharing Karen! I appreciate the feedback!
Isolena
Updated
Megan’s Answer
Honestly, 3/4 through my program in college I realized I was not doing what I wanted but I had no idea of what I would do instead so I finished out my degree in Exercise Science. I had pursued it thinking I wanted to go into PT school or maybe even PA but one day I just realized it wasn't for me and all I really had left was an internship so I finished my program out and had a mini quarter life crisis and moved down to Orlando to do the Disney College Program because quite honestly I had no idea what else to do and I just needed to get away.
Throughout my 4 years in college I had a lot of part time jobs: several different jobs within my local parks and rec dept., I was a high school volleyball coach, I coached at the YMCA, and I was catering events just to name a few. Each of these different jobs helped me realize aspects of what I liked and more importantly, didn't like for a career.
When I finished up my time at Disney I went back home and did some real research on different careers based on the things I had learned about my part-time jobs. I started finding fields that would align with the things I liked and then started to doing indeed searches based on those items and then looking at the recommended jobs from indeed and that's actually where I found my perfect job working at a nonprofit creating support services for families facing a pediatric cancer or blood disorder diagnosis.
I knew from the start of college I wanted a fulfilling job where I could help people and that's why I started in a health field but if it wasn't for the jobs I held to help me find my niche and provide me with a lot of life and career experience in a lot of different fields I would not have even landed an interview for my current job. So moral of the story is try different jobs even if they are part-time, ask to shadow places, do an internship, talk to people and do some research. If you are unsure on what you want to do go into college undecided and maybe start at a 2 year college to save money until you know what interests you. And lastly, don't be afraid to change your mind, there is nothing in life that says you have to stay on one single course.
Throughout my 4 years in college I had a lot of part time jobs: several different jobs within my local parks and rec dept., I was a high school volleyball coach, I coached at the YMCA, and I was catering events just to name a few. Each of these different jobs helped me realize aspects of what I liked and more importantly, didn't like for a career.
When I finished up my time at Disney I went back home and did some real research on different careers based on the things I had learned about my part-time jobs. I started finding fields that would align with the things I liked and then started to doing indeed searches based on those items and then looking at the recommended jobs from indeed and that's actually where I found my perfect job working at a nonprofit creating support services for families facing a pediatric cancer or blood disorder diagnosis.
I knew from the start of college I wanted a fulfilling job where I could help people and that's why I started in a health field but if it wasn't for the jobs I held to help me find my niche and provide me with a lot of life and career experience in a lot of different fields I would not have even landed an interview for my current job. So moral of the story is try different jobs even if they are part-time, ask to shadow places, do an internship, talk to people and do some research. If you are unsure on what you want to do go into college undecided and maybe start at a 2 year college to save money until you know what interests you. And lastly, don't be afraid to change your mind, there is nothing in life that says you have to stay on one single course.
Thank you for the response, Megan! Hearing this from another person makes me feel much better about being undecided. Much appreciated!
Isolena
Updated
Timothy’s Answer
If you are in high school or college, use your alumni network! I spent a lot of reaching out to people in my school's network to find people that are doing interesting things and they were almost always happy to set up a call with you. The only time I didn't get a reply back was when they didn't see my message.
Go onto LinkedIn and use the search filters to narrow down people who graduate from your schools. Send them a message saying something like:
"Hi ___________, my name is Isolena and I also attended (or graduated) from ____________________. I saw that you are working in (marketing/psychology/etc.) and that is a field I am interested in going into but do not know much about. If you're free for 15 minutes sometime soon, I'd love to set up a call to learn about what you do and how you got there!
Thanks, Isolena".
Hope that helps!
Go onto LinkedIn and use the search filters to narrow down people who graduate from your schools. Send them a message saying something like:
"Hi ___________, my name is Isolena and I also attended (or graduated) from ____________________. I saw that you are working in (marketing/psychology/etc.) and that is a field I am interested in going into but do not know much about. If you're free for 15 minutes sometime soon, I'd love to set up a call to learn about what you do and how you got there!
Thanks, Isolena".
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the advice, Timothy! I will definitely look into that!
Isolena
angie azur
Writer | Artist | Death Doula | Yoga | Meditation | Psychology | Philosophy
78
Answers
Updated
angie’s Answer
Hello Isolena!
I am 45 and have changed my career multiple times since high school. I love learning and so have tried out many things that interested me - Lifeguard, Elephant Handler (Pgh zoo), Artist, Architectural Drafter (worked as Architect's assistant), Stay-Home-Mother (raised 2 boys, now teens), Psychology (worked with lifer's in the Pittsburgh PA Jail system), Writer and Editor (went back to college for my MFA in writing and worked at Andrea Brown Literary Agency in SF), Owner/Publisher of Paleo Magazine (with my husband as parter), Healer/Coach (have my own Coaching and Health company with my husband), and now I'm taking Phd courses in Depth Psychology (for my own curiosity and to help guide others in dream analysis and art work for healing).
You have LOTS of life ahead of you. Explore your interests!!! Try out everything that resonates with you, gives you joy and excites you. This allows you to grow in many fields and in many ways. Start by asking questions - what do you want to know about yourself? What do you want to know about others? What excites you? What makes you filled with curiosity? And if you had unlimited funds, what would you do?
Get curious about yourself! Life is here to experience ---- go for it all! And never be afraid to change it up.
Love that you are asking questions --- keep going!
I encourage you to meditate - ask yourself questions and then journal your answers. Going inward will reveal the answers you are searching for -- only you can answer them.
Love & Light,
Angie
I am 45 and have changed my career multiple times since high school. I love learning and so have tried out many things that interested me - Lifeguard, Elephant Handler (Pgh zoo), Artist, Architectural Drafter (worked as Architect's assistant), Stay-Home-Mother (raised 2 boys, now teens), Psychology (worked with lifer's in the Pittsburgh PA Jail system), Writer and Editor (went back to college for my MFA in writing and worked at Andrea Brown Literary Agency in SF), Owner/Publisher of Paleo Magazine (with my husband as parter), Healer/Coach (have my own Coaching and Health company with my husband), and now I'm taking Phd courses in Depth Psychology (for my own curiosity and to help guide others in dream analysis and art work for healing).
You have LOTS of life ahead of you. Explore your interests!!! Try out everything that resonates with you, gives you joy and excites you. This allows you to grow in many fields and in many ways. Start by asking questions - what do you want to know about yourself? What do you want to know about others? What excites you? What makes you filled with curiosity? And if you had unlimited funds, what would you do?
Get curious about yourself! Life is here to experience ---- go for it all! And never be afraid to change it up.
Love that you are asking questions --- keep going!
I encourage you to meditate - ask yourself questions and then journal your answers. Going inward will reveal the answers you are searching for -- only you can answer them.
Love & Light,
Angie
Wow, thank you for the feedback!
Isolena
Updated
Cristina’s Answer
Hi Isolena!
It is okay to have many career interests! In high school, I felt pressured to pick a career. I picked one but changed a couple of times along the way :) What really helped me was when I took a career exploration class in community college. In the course, I took several career exploration assessments and interest assessments to get to know myself and my interests more. I also learned about the careers I could go into. One of the websites that we used to explore careers was (https://www.bls.gov/audience/jobseekers.htm). It also really helps if you reach out and interview professionals that are currently in the fields you have interests in. They will be able to tell you more about the career on a more personal level.
Good luck!
Take personality/career assessments found online.
Visit: https://www.bls.gov/audience/jobseekers.htm to learn about careers.
Reach out to professionals for an interview.
It is okay to have many career interests! In high school, I felt pressured to pick a career. I picked one but changed a couple of times along the way :) What really helped me was when I took a career exploration class in community college. In the course, I took several career exploration assessments and interest assessments to get to know myself and my interests more. I also learned about the careers I could go into. One of the websites that we used to explore careers was (https://www.bls.gov/audience/jobseekers.htm). It also really helps if you reach out and interview professionals that are currently in the fields you have interests in. They will be able to tell you more about the career on a more personal level.
Good luck!
Cristina recommends the following next steps:
Thank you, Cristina! I will check out that website!
Isolena
You're welcome! :)
Cristina Martinez, M.S.
Updated
Riley’s Answer
I chose to go with major Computer Information Systems, which is basically a combination of business and software engineering. When I first when to college, I knew that I enjoyed math and working with computers so software engineering seemed like the way to go. However, my dad is the head of North American sales for Bacardi, and I have always been interested in hearing about how he contributes to the marketing and budgeting of the company overall. For this reason, I decided to go with CIS over engineering because it was a great way to be involved in any aspect of a company that I enjoy while still having a focus on computers. This has really benefitted me in finding a job because it opened me up to apply to many more positions than software engineering would.
Thank you, Riley!
Isolena
Updated
Shana’s Answer
There are many career paths that I am interested in: Marketing, Psychology, Ultrasound Tech, etc. How did you know which occupation was right for you, and how has it affected your life?
It's an exciting point to have all of those opportunities and interests ahead of you! I know for me when choosing my occupation, I took a step back and thought about what I was interested in (advertising, technology, business strategy) and why I was interested in those things (the chance to be creative, being at the cutting edge, and putting myself in the shoes of the customer). Rather than stack-ranking my interests, I researched jobs that combined some of my interests and researched people whose career path I admired.
By figuring that out, I realized product marketing was the right path for me, which brought me to my current job!
I would also say don't feel as if the occupation you first choose will be your only occupation in your life! As many people shift between fields and roles as those that stay in one occupation.
It's an exciting point to have all of those opportunities and interests ahead of you! I know for me when choosing my occupation, I took a step back and thought about what I was interested in (advertising, technology, business strategy) and why I was interested in those things (the chance to be creative, being at the cutting edge, and putting myself in the shoes of the customer). Rather than stack-ranking my interests, I researched jobs that combined some of my interests and researched people whose career path I admired.
By figuring that out, I realized product marketing was the right path for me, which brought me to my current job!
I would also say don't feel as if the occupation you first choose will be your only occupation in your life! As many people shift between fields and roles as those that stay in one occupation.
Thank you, Shana! I am super interested in advertising and getting people to but things. Raising money for fundraisers was one of my favorite things to do as a child, so I think that this career would be a great suit for me. :))
Isolena