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Career Guide

This guide will help you find resources in choosing and preparing for a career, and in conducting a job search.

Finding the Right Career for You

Transcript for "How to Choose the Right Career Path in 7 Simple Steps"

When we are little, we are often asked the question ‘what do you want to be when you grow older?’, and as a child, the answer is usually something like ‘an astronaut’ or a ‘firefighter’. Still, when it’s time to make that decision in your late teens, or even adult years, it can be extremely hard to find the answer. To help you come to the right conclusion and avoid a life slumped over a desk, here’s seven steps that you should follow when trying to find your ideal career path.

  1. Make a List of Your Hobbies To enjoy what you do for the majority of the day, it’s essential to find a job that you love. So, the best place to start is with your hobbies. What are you passionate about? What would make you get out of bed on a cold wintery morning to go to work? While your passion might not be your forte, it’s a good starting point to help you figure out what career you want to pursue.
  2. Discover What You’re Good At What you enjoy and what you’re good at can be two very different things. For example, you might enjoy dancing, but you’re actually really good at organising. So, a job as an event planner, office manager or personal assistant may be a sensible choice. As well as listing your hobbies, create a second list of skills that you possess.
  3. Identify Your Personality Traits In order to find the right career fit, you’re going to need to take a closer look at your personality traits. While you might be a gifted singer, your introverted personality might not let you succeed in this field because you’re too anxious to stand on a stage in front of people. Therefore, it’s important to identify and take into consideration your personality traits when it comes to your career path. It can often be confusing to figure out, so a state-of-the-art career test, like our own test, CareerHunter, can help you discover your most-suited professions using scientific data and testing. To try it out for free, check out the link in the description below.
  4. Determine What You Want Out of a Career It’s also necessary to identify what it is that you want out of a career. Do you want to receive a high salary? Have a respectable job title? Or simply work for a cause that you care about? By answering these questions, you can narrow down what type of roles you’d be interested in working towards and find the path to success.
  5. Talk to Industry Experts Once you’ve narrowed down a handful of careers, talk to industry experts and find out more about the job and industry as a whole. They will offer insight into the day-to-day practices, working hours, progression and further opportunities, which will help you get a clearer understanding of that career.
  6. Research the Job Market Besides talking to career experts, you should also research the job market and see whether there are opportunities in this field, or whether it’s a career that you’ll struggle to secure. You also need to determine whether the role you are interested in has the potential for career progression, otherwise, you will get bored working in the same position for years on end.
  7. Discover Your Core Values Lastly, identify what your core values are, and use them to find a career that is fulfilling for you. Make a list of qualities that are important to you and identify companies who have the same core beliefs. This will help you narrow down your search and discover industries that you would be a good match for.

As you can see, it’s not that difficult to find the right career when you have a good way of identifying your interests and strengths. Looking for more advice? Head over to CareerAddict.com for additional opportunities. And don’t forget to like the video and click on the subscribe button to get more insightful tips!

Selecting a career starts with learning more about yourself! Your personality, interests, and values can guide you towards a career that you will be happy with. The following tools will help you assess yourself and suggest careers based on your traits: 

Career Research Databases & Websites

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Facts about work responsibilities, training, and education required by various occupations. Includes earnings, job prospects, working conditions and more.

O*Net Online

The O*NET program is the nation's primary source of occupational information. The O*NET database, containing information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. The database is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers from each occupation.

Career One Stop Toolkit

Your source for career exploration, training & jobs.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Fergusons

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center

Career research database exploring industries and careers, planning education, and researching best practices for résumés, cover letters, interviewing, networking, and salaries/benefits.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision-making.

Films on Demand- Career and job search videos

Watch these short videos from the library's "Films on Demand" database to help you explore various careers.

Jobs Made Real

Job shadow from the comfort of your own home! View short videos of hundreds of employees and professionals talking about the daily tasks of their jobs to give you a look into what they really do.
 

HACC Career Services