Choosing A Career Path

To be truly happy in your work you need to think long and hard when choosing your career path. One wrong decision now may leave you dissatisfied with your job and resenting those around you who find enjoyment in work situations. There are several things to consider when deciding upon a career and each should help you narrow down your options until you find the job for you.

Firstly, at this point in your life are you looking for the start of a long term career or are you simply looking for a job to cover bills, rent and to get you a bit of spending money? This is important as a simple stop-gap job can allow far more compromises if it is only going to last a year or two whereas a career is normally for life and so details matter greatly.

So you are looking for a career? Well the first place to start is looking at your life as it is now and writing down all of the things that you like doing and another list of things that you find tedious, boring and dull. When you are going through different career choices with an adviser or friend having these two lists will help you eliminate roles that are unsuitable.

If you know roughly what career you want you need to ask yourself what pay and working conditions you really want. Now this will be partly influenced by your qualifications and relevant experience but these things can both come with time so you should look at the salaries five years into your future as these are the ones which really matter. Furthermore, what sort of hours would you like to work? Is the standard working week what you're after or would you consider longer working days assuming it was fairly rewarded in terms of pay?

Choosing the organisation that you want to work for requires you to consider things such as whether you want to work for a large or small company. In a large business you might have more opportunity to move around and experience, in detail, various parts of the organisation whereas in a smaller company you might get more responsibility and a broad experience of all the day-to-day aspects of that company. Further thought should be given to training opportunities, culture and company reputation as they could all influence your long term goals and path.

Finally, are you after full time, part time, permanent or temporary work? Do you require flexible working hours to fit in other responsibilities such as children or charity work?

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