10 Things to Consider When Choosing a Career

Imagine how it would feel to have career clarity, to feel like you know where you are heading and what your next steps should to be in your career. Instead, at the moment your not quite sure how you are supposed to decide what it is you want to do with the rest of your life when you have no idea what the rest of your life is going to look like or how to go about making a decision like that.

On average one third of our lives are spent at work, seems like a lot right? Getting career clarity doesn’t mean deciding right now what the rest of your life is going to look like because that’s just not possible, instead its about getting a plan (a career path) in place so that you can start to take steps towards your career goals.

In order to choose a college course, apprenticeship or take the first step on your career ladder you have to know what it is that you want to do. This doesn’t mean that the plan you make is where you are going to end up because life happens and things change but it helps us to get started off on our career path. To help you choose what career is best suited to you I have set out 10 steps that you need to consider when making the choice on what career is right for you, these 10 steps will set you up to get the well deserved career clarity that you need and so badly want.

Each of these topics needs to be looked at and considered individually and as a whole in order to get a better understanding on what your career choice will be.

Goals and Priorities

Setting your goals and priorities for your personal life and work life is a great place to start and you can come back and reference these as you get deeper into your exploration.

What are your priorities in your career? Is your goal money orientated or is it that you want to be able to work part time? Is working remotely something you want to do? Is an office environment important to you?

You will need to look at what are your goals for the next 5 -10 years and do they align with the career that you are considering.

Try!

Write down your 10 goals for the next 10 years for your personal life and 10 goals for your career and keep these hung up somewhere where you can look at them throughout your exploration process.

Personality

There are many tests out there that identify what personality type you are and give you an indication as to the traits that you have that might suit certain careers better than others. Your personality type links in to how you will get on in a certain role and what traits come naturally to you that are an asset in certain roles.

In my opinion you can develop new traits along your career so these tests should be an indication but should not make you feel that you are boxed in to choosing a career that the test indicates.

Your Interests/Passion

Consider what it is that you like to do with your time, you might have a passion that you enjoy or something that you have a keen interest in. This can range from having an interest in playing sports to a passion for politics or something as small as enjoying talking with people.

Working doing something that you are passionate about and interested in will help with overall job satisfaction.

Its important to take into account that you can have hobbies and passions outside of work also, so all of your hobbies may not line up with the career that you are considering.

Try!

Writing down your passions and interests and any jobs that springs to mind that relates to those passions.

Skills

Identify the skills that you have and play to your strengths. If one of your skills is that you are very strong in maths or you can write code then you should consider roles that play to these strengths as this will help to give you a competitive advantage in that career.

If you find yourself saying “I don’t have any skills” STOP! We all have skills, consider day to day things that you do like helping others, public speaking etc. these are all skills that you can play to in a career and will be an advantage to different careers.

Training

Identifying what qualifications you need in order to get into a certain career is very important, lets say you decide college is not the path for you then its fair to say your dreams of becoming a doctor are not going to happen.

When considering certain careers research the requirements that are needed to work in that career. Ensure that the requirements are also recognised abroad and what level of the NFQ must you be at in order to gain a job in that career. Eg In order to practice as a physiologist in Ireland you need to have your Doctorate.

Useful Tool

The National Framework of Qualifications can help you to better understand the different levels attained for certain courses. https://nfq.qqi.ie/

Lifestyle

When you picture your future how do you see it? Does travel have a lot to do with your future plans, do you picture yourself making 6 figures in your career? Your career has to align to how you picture your life or you may already be accustom to a

You need to ensure that the career that you choose can fit in with the lifestyle you plan to have and the means by which you live at. If you want to work part time or work remotely in the future then this is something that must be possible in the career that you choose.

Salary

The taboo topic of money. This is something that is not often discussed and it links in closely with the previous topic of Lifestyle. If your lifestyle plans consist of spending a lot of money well then its simple… you need a career where you have the potential to make a lot of money.

It can be hard when starting out in your career to get an idea of what a good salary is and what to expect in certain roles as this can fluctuate with time and depends on location, role, industry etc.

Useful tool

LinkedIn have a salary tool that helps give you an idea of the salary of a certain roles depending on location.

https://www.linkedin.com/salary/

Career Prospects

When considering any job you need to consider if there are jobs available out there in the industry. There is no point in doing a 4 year degree to come out and have no open jobs available in that discipline.

What does a career look like in this role down the line? When looking at certain careers it can be helpful to look at career paths in that role so you can see what role you start off in and what the different roles along the way are as you grow in that role.

Speaking to someone who works/worked in the role you are considering can be very helpful and can give you an idea what that role is like and where they have gotten jobs in that career.