Choosing a career can be one of the most difficult decisions of an individual’s life. In fact, many people don’t even decide on a single career to pursue but instead jump from different careers throughout their life. Unfortunately, in college, we are forced early on to have at least an idea of what career we wish to pursue in order to declare a major and complete college in a timely manner.

But what if we don’t have a clue on what career we are interested in? Where do we even begin to take the plunge into the professional world? For most, taking college classes in different subjects can spark some interest. But we don’t have all the time in the world to take a class in every subject. And, on top of that, many college classes don’t even cover topics such as careers in the field, modern or real-world problems, or even skills for the workplace.

Instead of relying on college to help make career decisions for you, today I am going to help you take your future into your own hands and learn more about yourself while researching careers that fit your skill set and passions. So, if that is what you’re here to learn, just keep reading.

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Why do you need to choose a career?

Well, you don’t! Choosing a single career to pursue is not a requirement in life. Nor is it necessary to become fulfilled. However, if you do want a professional career that requires vast knowledge, you will need to decide on at least one subject matter to pursue. You can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where you want to go. You can’t become a lawyer without going to law school, nor can you become a doctor without going to medical school. These professions take commitment, time, and hard work, so the earlier you get started, the longer you have to enjoy the life you have chosen.

My Experience

When I graduated high school, I was dead set on becoming a doctor by day, a music teacher by night, and forester in my free time. I also was incredibly interested in mechanical engineering, paramedicine, ecology, business, and geography. So when I got to college, what did I do? I enrolled in every class imaginable. I took music, pre-medical classes, geography, biology… you name it, I took it. Unfortunately, I had already set myself up for failure. Who can honestly have that many successful careers?

By sophomore year, I had dropped my second major of music and focused on pre-medicine. I then fell in love with ecology and geology and added those majors. For almost three years I jumped from pre-medicine to biology, to geology and back again, extending my college stay by quite some time. It took an internship, a good book, and a whole lot of determination to finally figure out what my passion, skill set, and aptitude truly wanted me to become: a geotechnical engineer (I know… way different from where I started).

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So, how do you choose a career?

Because I knew I wanted to go to graduate school and work in the science field, I knew I needed to hone my career objectives. This idea launched me down the rabbit hole into the world of choosing a career. I can’t tell you how much I wish I had someone who had gone through my same struggles to help me through this process. By giving you the exact steps I took, I hope I can move you one step closer in the right direction of choosing your dream career.

Instructions:

Below I have listed the exact steps I have personally taken in order to evaluate what career I want to pursue with 100% certainty. I want you to read through each step carefully. Take notes. Save this post for later reference. And be sure to take your time through each step. You may not follow them exactly, nor in the same order, but be sure to give yourself enough time to really think about who you are and what you want in life.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. -William Shakespeare

1. Get Organized

Attack the process of choosing a career head-on. Create a project titled “My Dream Career” and complete the entire project planning process including creating a goal, deadline, reward, task list, etc. In order to decide on a career, you truly need to understand how and why you want to do so. Be thorough! This will keep you motivated and organized while you complete your research.

Action Step:

Read How to Master Project Planning. Complete the entire project planning process for this new Dream Career project you are about to embark upon. I have created a free printable (below) to help you get started. Make sure to create a SMART goal and to put all your research material in your one, designated space. Then make sure to give yourself time to complete this project! It may take you more than a year and that is okay!

Related: How to Master Project Planning

2. Educate Yourself on the Process

Next, you need to educate yourself on how to begin choosing a career. No, you aren’t quite ready to begin educating yourself about different careers just yet. Instead what I mean is actually educating yourself on the process of choosing a career.

There are several books and articles that discuss the choosing a career process. I have read nearly all of them, but there is one book I keep coming back to. It is actually the one book that is the true reason I was able to decide on which career to follow with 100% certainty. This book is Now What? by Nicholas Lore. I seriously can not recommend it enough. This book also pairs incredibly well with Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, and Kelly Tieger.

But, make sure to do your research and grab one or two books that will work well for what you are looking for exactly. My recommendations are below.

Books to Read:

Now What? by Nicholas Lore
Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, and Kelly Tieger
What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles
The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore
Discover What You’re Best At by Linda Gale

Articles to Read:

How to Find Your Dream Job (When You Don’t Know What You Want) by Elana Gross
9 Questions That’ll Help You Find Your Dream Career by Forbes
5 Steps That Will Uncover Your Dream Job by Laura Garnett
How to Choose the Perfect College Major by Kathy Brunner
5 Strategies to Help You Find Your Dream Career by Natalie Bacon

Action Step:

Snag one or a few books and begin reading them. Put the action steps they list onto your project task list. Also, add items from other articles you read. If you get any book, be sure to get a copy of What Now?. I used this book to base all of my other readings, exercises, and articles around. I seriously can’t recommend it enough!

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3. Evaluate your Talents & Aptitudes

Once you begin reading a few of the books and articles, you will see that exploring your talents first is one of the big key indicators of choosing a career.

Questions to answer:

What are your hobbies? Which are you naturally good at?
What classes have you enjoyed and aced?
Are there subjects that come easily to you?
What things come more naturally to you than they come to others?

Action Step:

Pull out a sheet of paper and begin writing down notes on all of your talents. Answer all the questions above and others you can think of. Go through one or two of the book exercises and decipher what talents you have. Then, using your notes, narrow down your talents to your top and keep these with your key findings (perhaps create a separate page or section in your binder). Be sure to keep all these notes in one place, such as a binder like described in step 1.

Related: How to Take Amazing Notes

Bonus: Aptitude Testing

Take your talent exploration one step further and complete a full and official aptitude test. This is a series of tests that give you an unbiased and official reading of your aptitudes and talents. They are conducted by licensed professionals either through a website or at a physical location and can range in prices. Getting aptitude testing is incredibly helpful for a multitude of reasons. You can use these aptitudes to not only help asses what career path you should pursue but how to better yourself by knowing your weaknesses and how to build upon your strengths. So, if you have the funds, I highly encourage you to invest in this.

I got my aptitude testing done by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation. I went to their physical location in downtown Seattle (they have many different locations across the US). It took a full day of testing and another two-hour session to go over my results. It was well worth my time and money.

Another great alternative is through Nicholas Lore’s Rockport Institute. This testing is done via internet video interviews. I haven’t done this service personally but have heard great things.

If you can’t afford either option, be sure to read through the aptitude chapter in What Now? and really give yourself some time to truly think about what you’re good at. You can also look up different free tests and other books on this subject as well. But again, I highly recommend you get an official test by a professional.

Action Step:

Research a company and get your aptitude tested. If you don’t have the funds, be sure to read the full chapter and complete the exercises in What Now? or any other career books you have chosen to use. Put your key findings and notes in your binder.

4. Evaluate your Personality

The next step to choosing a career is evaluating your personality. Understanding your personality is incredibly useful in knowing what careers may suit you over others. For this, there are two main types of career-focused personality tests: the Myers-Briggs Personality Test (probably the one you have heard of) and the DISC assessment.

The Myers-Briggs test will result in a four-letter code that illustrates your: favorite world (extrovert/introvert), how you decipher information (sensing/intuition), how you make decisions (thinking/feeling), and your structure (judging/perceiving).

The DISC assessment is a similar test but evaluates your personality based on dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance.

Action Step:

First, evaluate your Myers-Briggs personality type. The personality chapter in What Now? does a great job at this but you can also get this done on their website HERE. Then, move on and take the DISC assessment. You can get this done for free on their website HERE.

Be sure to write down your answers and keep them in your binder to refer to. Then, you can dive in further and check out the book Do What You Are and look up your personality type there (they use Myers-Briggs) and write down any clues or key findings to store for later research and review.

5. Evaluate your Interests

Up next? Your interests of course! What you enjoy doing can lead you to great clues about what career might fit you best. Now, they might not lead you to exact careers but your reasons for being interested in these activities can help you get one step closer to discovering your future.

Questions to answer:

What are your hobbies? Do you enjoy crafts? Gardening? Woodworking? Tinkering? Hiking? Skiing? Traveling?
Do you enjoy sports? Which ones? As a player or a spectator?
What do you like about your hobbies?
How about subjects? Which do you enjoy (even if you aren’t great at)? What classes do you tend to enjoy more?
How about books? Which books do you enjoy reading? Both fiction and non-fiction. Why do you enjoy them? Is there a constant theme? Are you always reading about science? Or perhaps tend to read books and articles about business?
What activities did you enjoy doing as a child? Did you play Barbies and were always focused on picking out different outfits or were you designing and building forts in the backyard to protect you from an evil dragon instead?
What other questions can you ask yourself about your interests?

Action Step:

Answer the above questions. Add them to your binder. Answer and complete any and all other related exercises in your books and articles. Don’t forget to write down your key findings.

6. Decide on your Personal Goals and Motivators

This next step to choosing a career is, perhaps, the most important. Here, you really need to evaluate your true intentions. When you leave this earth, what do you need to have accomplished to be fulfilled?

Create your own personal mission statement. Decide on what your values are and what your life’s purpose is. This should be a short, one to two sentence statement that describes what you want to accomplish in your life and why. It should pump you up and give you shivers when you say it. HERE is my post on how to create an effective personal mission statement. Stephen Covey also covers this in his famous book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

As an example, here is my personal mission statement:

The purpose of my life is to lead a happy, balanced lifestyle, use my intellect to ensure the public safety of my community, and to experience the world to grow the knowledge to do so.

Just typing that statement gave me the chills. And when you create your own, yours should too!

What my statement means to me is that happiness and a balanced lifestyle where I spend time with my family is important to me. It also touches on my professional and life passion of protecting people from natural hazards through building safe and reliable structures as well as traveling the world in order to learn how others do the same.

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Action Step:

Evaluate your life purpose by exploring your values and bucket list items. Then, create a personal mission statement. Use this article, this video, and/or this book for guidance. In my opinion, this is the most important step so be sure to take quite a bit of time to think this step over! Weeks if you have to. As always, be sure to keep your notes and key findings in your binder.

7. What is your Dream Work Setting

Now, start to focus on WHERE you want to work. Do you want to work in an office? Outside? In a specific town or city? Maybe near the ocean? In the mountains? Do you want a job that allows you to work both outside and inside? Maybe you want to work in a setting with a lot of action and moving around? These don’t have to be exact or concrete but they might bring you some clues!

Action Step:

Brainstorm locations you may love or maybe just want to avoid working in. Add any key findings to your binder.

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8. Additional Tasks (from your own research)

Now that you got all of my suggestions accomplished, you should continue and finish any other tasks that you have found to be helpful before researching actual careers. This could have come from a book (like the ones listed above), an article, a video you came across, or even an interview you had with an individual.

Action Step:

Complete any and all additional tasks you have found that might be useful before researching careers.

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9. Research Potential Careers

By this point, you should have some great information gathered about yourself.

As a recap, here is what you should have:

Top talents and aptitudes.
Personality types (both Myers-Briggs and DISC assessment).
Top interests, favorite subjects, and favorite hobbies.
Mission statement and personal goals, motivators, and values.
Dream work setting, preferred setting, or maybe even settings you would like to avoid.
Any other key findings you have found throughout this process, including ones found during your research into other books and articles about the process of finding a career.

Now, take these findings and begin to create a comprehensive list of careers that fit them. They don’t have to fit perfectly, just write down all of the careers that seem interesting to you. Be thorough but still picky.

Here are some great resources on career lists and descriptions to help you get started:

Action Step:

Using all of your findings, create a comprehensive list that has just enough careers for you to explore. Be sure they meet at least one of your findings (you may find out later during your research they will fit all of your key findings). Use the resources above to get you started! You may find some great lists in the books you have been reading as well but be sure to look online too, career opportunities are always changing.

10. Make your final pick!

Using your comprehensive list, begin to do some quick research on each career to begin widdling them down to a top list. This process will take you quite some time but will be worth it in the end! You’re almost there I promise!

You want a career that will fit all of your key findings. So be sure you are going through the list and hitting each one. It may be easiest to create a spreadsheet (I used Excel) and begin ticking off boxes each career meets. Once you begin reading descriptions, articles, and other bits of information, you should know pretty soon if it deserves a place on your top Careers to Research list.

Once you have a top list, do a deep dive. Create a brand new spreadsheet with your key findings and other notes about each career you want to know then begin really researching each career. Focus on them one by one.

Ways to research careers:

Read online articles and descriptions about the career.
Skim or read a non-fiction book (textbooks are great for this too) on the subject the career covers.
Complete an internship in the field.
Job shadow someone in the industry.
Interview someone (either face-to-face or over email) in the field, you will be surprised how many people are willing to help you learn more!
Watch a documentary on a relevant problem or topic in the field.
Study abroad and see how the career varies in other countries!
Take classes on the subject matter.

Be sure to be completely and utterly through! You want to end up with only one career when you’re done. Don’t limit yourself on time. Just keep at it until you’re finished. By the time you’re even just halfway through, you should have at least enough information to be able to declare a major in college and begin even more research into the subject as well.

Action Step:

Wittle down your list to just one final career. Take your time and be thorough! Be sure to keep notes and use your old notes for assistance as well! You can even keep an ongoing spreadsheet to make sure all of you’re original key findings are being met.

Bonus: Celebrate and Start your Career Journey

You did it! I am so proud of you! Be sure to take some time for yourself now to celebrate. Enjoy the moment! You just spent a TON of time deciphering who you are, what you want, and what your future is going to look like. You deserve a reward!

Once you celebrate, it is time to begin a brand new journey into your new and chosen dream career. Now, you have a beautiful and exciting next goal: land dream job. You can do this! You just did a ton of research in the career so you probably have an idea of what you need to accomplish in order to land your dream job and today is a great day to get started!

Here are some quick tips and steps to get you started:

Figure out what education is necessary in order to land your dream job. Do you need a license? A degree? Perhaps you need to take an entrance exam? Maybe you need experience in a specific field? What do you need to do to get there?
Keep up the good grades! No matter your chosen field, keeping up your grades is a great way to let employers and graduate school admission boards know you are serious about your career. Here are some great blog posts to help you out!
Beef up your resume! You always want to keep your resume in mind as you work through your college education. Here are some of the best ways to do this:
1. Create your own blog: Helps you network in the field, solidify your knowledge, stand out from the crowd, and you can even earn some extra cash!
2. Join clubs and professional organizations: Another great way to network is through clubs and, especially, professional organizations you might have on campus.
3. Study abroad: Add some international experience to your resume to truly get ahead of the pack.
4. Complete an internship: A great way to put your foot in the door, gain some hands-on experience, and get an insiders look at your future career.
5. Consider graduate school: Graduate school is one of the best ways to advance your career opportunities! Here is my post that includes everything you need to know about grad school.
Properly prepare for graduation using this ultimate guide.

Career Resources:

One last thing, here are some great resources to help you land and pursue your dream job:

Well, there you have it! My ultimate guide to choosing a career. I hope you found some of these action steps and tips helpful for your career. Again, these are tips and tricks I wish someone had handed to me before I launched myself into the journey to choosing a career. Good luck on your journey and happy career hunting!

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Career

Why do you need to choose a career?

My Experience