In determining a career path, we go back to 5th grade or the first career day at your school……what do you want to do when you grow up? Here is where the circus of pilot, doctor, firefighter come in for the amusement of young and eager children. The teacher becomes the “MC”, bringing in from distant lands the protector of the city – “The Police officer”. And in this other arena the healer with a thousand remedies – “The Nurse”. All the showmanship of careers and the exciting dream of what these eager young minds could become when they are older. This show of possibilities gets minds churning with the child asking themselves, what do I want to be? If the speaker’s exciting and persuasive the kid will know. “I want to be an astronaut” or “an Engineer”!
But the real question that does not come until sometime later in high school is ……who are you? And what do you want?
Who are you?
To determine what career you want, there will be a small internal conversation in your head trying to find out who you are, and do not think this is a one-time thing, with life changes, come career changes. You may have answered the question “I am doctor, but later in your life you come to terms you want to be a chef, very few of us see our career as what they are…… a “path”. Paths twists, bend, break or even change direction. The main point to remember is that the path is not set in stone. Which bring us to the next point.
What do you want?
So now the question come to the forefront, what do you want to do with your career? As simplistic as this question is, it must be answered to have a guide to what jobs you will be looking to do in your life. As you read this you may have already answered “I want what everyone wants, to make money!” Not everyone answers these questions the same way, money is not the driver as it used to be in the past. Now-a-days the call from younger workers and some older workers is to live your life as full as possible, the so called “balance of work and life”. This question really drives at how happy you will be with your given career and about what you want to get out of it. This question sets your path my action, it sets what type of jobs you will look for, how far you can go with your job and how much money you can achieve.
But do not forget as each of these two sections change who you are or will be your wants will change as well. If it is what was said at the beginning of our journey, the path will change, bend or even intersect with another’s path, our responsibility is to take hold of our careers and know how to make them work for us.
Good Luck.