4 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Career Path
Choosing a career path takes immense consideration. This article discusses four questions to help you obtain direction and guide you through the process. Let’s get started.
1. What Do I Truly Enjoy?
What is it that you truly enjoy? It can be easy to gravitate toward the careers that promise the most financial security. However, if you are unhappy, you might have trouble staying awake at work and won’t stick to it. Money is very important, but if your job makes you miserable daily, you may have to consider switching career paths.
Figure out what you genuinely enjoy. Consider your interests outside of work and what you enjoy doing for fun. For example, if you enjoy caring for others, consider a medical assistant training program to supercharge your career as a health professional.
2. How Much Work Am I Comfortable Completing Each Day?
The often-neglected question is to ask how much work you feel comfortable completing each day. Even if you’ve figured out your dream job, you may have yet to consider how much work and effort is involved in achieving big results.
Create a list and check off all the boxes and consider whether the careers you’re considering provide you with a reasonable work-life balance. You want to avoid burnout at all costs. Additionally, if you truly enjoy your work, choose positions requiring more working hours than others.
3. What Feels Sustainable?
A vital question to ask yourself regarding your career path is what feels sustainable to you. Not every career is something that will last a lifetime.
You may need to change jobs or locations, and if those concepts resonate with you, you’ll take some time to consider which career paths feel right to you.
If you love to travel, positions that allow for working within work nomad lifestyles may be best. Likewise, if safety is a major value to you, you may need to be okay in high-risk work environments and should forgo those career options altogether.
4. What Lifestyle Do I Want?
Factoring in your lifestyle will give you greater insight into the career paths you are considering for yourself. Your lifestyle may or may not be closely connected to your personality. For example, for those who believe themselves to be “night owls,” their chosen careers may include night shifts or overnight work.
On the flip side, people who feel energized at night may also want to keep their nights free and are willing to take on work that starts early in the morning.
Your lifestyle also regards your income and financial security. Are you striving to have high-quality material possessions or value a more simplistic lifestyle? Knowing your spending habits is critical when thinking about a career. No salary will be sustainable if your spending exceeds your earnings, and the career paths will yield earnings resulting in various lifestyle and financial possibilities.
Take Your Time Choosing Your Career
Choosing a career path is difficult because it requires that you weigh some of the most critical factors that will impact the rest of your life. From financial security to job satisfaction, there is a lot to consider. Don’t worry; there is always time to make a career change. Nothing is set in stone if you don’t want it to be.
Make sure you take time sifting through options and remember that you can always change your mind. Read up on the careers you’re interested in and consider taking internships to get a first look at some of the work you may want to do in the future.
