Learn About Nailing Down the Career Objective for You
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011Are you satisfied with your career? Stress at work can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life. Naturally, just like everyone else, you are at work some 8 hours a day or more. That could easily be 1/3 of your day if you don’t count sleep. That’s a long time to be dissatisfied.
If you genuinely feel that you’re at an unwanted career, here are 6 great ways to find your ideal career:
Jot down on a notebook – Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in the form of a question. And then next, just list as many answers as you can. E . g ., how ’bout writing “What I want to do for work?” And then stay seated for a half hour to an hour compiling a list of answers to the question . This is an exercise that you can easily repeat every day until you find the right answer (at least on paper).
Talk to people who know you – From time to time our friends and relatives have greater intimate knowledge of us in ways we’re not able to for ourselves. When hanging out with a close friend, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and career. Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing. There’s a good chance that they can zero in to your strengths and abilities and report a perfect job area.
Talk to people at work – Not always obvious but your boss and coworkers most likely see you in a way you do not see yourself. Think about this for a second, people at work are likely most familiar with your strengths and weaknesses in the work environment. Look at the list of answers and see if there are any common threads you can explore.
Call a headhunter – Most professionals, like you, maintain resumes, sometimes, up-to-date. Sometimes you may get lucky and get a hold of a recruiter during their slow times and discuss with them your career goals. These have happened to me before and some, not all, have been open to talk. The result are usually good.
Complete a career assessment evaluation – Keep this in mind: to succeed in a profession, you’ll need to go through its own training and/or education process. Easy to illustrate, benefits of nursing career require a different route from a video game designer. In the age of the Internet, there are websites with services where these tests are available to you at your convenience. From the previous tip, most recruiters and headhunters own a career testing program and don’t mind you taking the test in their office. I’ve taken these tests two times in my life and they usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough. They ask you to answer a series of questions regarding your professional expertise and goals. It’s a good evaluation to receive hints of what you want to do.
Maintain a notebook of ideas – Having a record of your thoughts is fantastic especially when browsing for what you liked doing or what made your day. Look out for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like. Keep in mind that finding things you don’t like is just as important as things you don’t like. For example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position.
Understanding your career goals is the most important decision you can make. After all, we spend a big portion of waking hours working. Thus, being in the right job is important.