When you were asked as a child what you wanted to be when you were older, the answers may have come quickly and easily. They could have ranged from being a president to being a firefighter. And now that you’re older you don’t have a clue what to do with the rest of your life.
The career you choose shouldn’t just be based on how much money you’ll make because that won’t satisfy you in the long run. It should be based on your passion. And the one question you should ask yourself is, ‘‘What would you do for the rest of your life that even if you weren’t paid, you’d still be happy?’’ Finding out what excites and gets you up in the morning is the first step to discovering what you could do with the rest of your life.
Analysing your personality could be the key to finding your dream career. You may be outgoing and love adventure or you could be introverted and have excellent listening skills. Everyone is unique and the things that might fulfil each person differ. You don’t want to find yourself one day sitting at a desk wishing you could travel back in time and make a different career choice. Life is too short to be unhappy and not fulfilled.
Here are six ways to help you discover the right career path for you.
Take a gap year
If you’re undecided about what you want to do with your life, taking a gap year might be the answer to your problems. You could use the year to do some introspection and figure out what you want to do.
Passion
The key to being fulfilled in your life is to love what you do. Find out what brings you the most joy in life. Do you enjoy writing or does kicking a soccer ball give your life meaning? The things that make you happy and excite you could lead you to your purpose.
Personality Quiz
There are personality quizzes online which could lead you to the career path you should take. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator( MBTI) can give you insight into which job will be the right fit for you by analysing your personality. And that should give you insight into not only the right career choice but the type of environment which would best suit you.
Ask questions
Your ‘inner circle’ usually knows more about you than you think because they spend large amounts of time with you and they’ll be able to give you feedback on what would suit you best. If there’s a common thread in the answers they give you, it might be a great idea to give some thought to what they have to say.
Research
Technology has made life easier for everyone and you can research online on different careers you might be interested in and find the one that’ll be the right fit. Or get a mentor who’s already in the field you want to be in and ask them what their day-to-day life is like in their company.
Experiment
You could find a company you would like to work for and ask them if you could volunteer. Working pro bono will not only give you experience, it’ll expose you to the field you want to work in. You should treat your volunteering experience as an extended interview because your supervisors will be taking note of your attitude and work ethic. And who knows? They may just end up hiring you permanently. For example, if you’re interested in marketing, find a company where you can volunteer. You could help with their campaigns, assess the competition and help create great content for social media.
If you enjoy it you could study a sales and marketing course online to help you gain skills and knowledge about the industry. And if you feel that it’s not something you want to do with the rest of your life at least you’ll have gained some skills along the way.
Unusual jobs
You could try the unconventional route by studying fields that are unique. If you love adventure you could be a water slide tester for resorts or if you have a sweet tooth you may want to consider being a chocolate taster.
Some people know from the onset what they want to do with the rest of their lives and for some, finding the right career is about trial and error. Don’t panic if you find yourself in a rut because you don’t know what to do with your life. Just follow these tips and they should help you on what job would best suit you. It may take time but Rome wasn’t built in a day.