Do you ever wonder: “What career is best for me?” I think most people find themselves at this junction in life’s road. Which way do I go?
This is the second entry in a blog series on helping you create your personal development plan. In Part 1, I took you through exercises to identify what you
If you haven’t created those lists yet, go to Part 1. Then come back here.
Here in Part 2, we are going to explore what
Do NOT skip these steps. Each step provides you with valuable information you’ll use to answer this question: “What career is best for me?”
As you create your career plan, you need to get in touch with what you most love to do. The options are almost endless.
If you had a day to spend however you wanted—with no concerns about money or travel or any other restraints—how would you spend that day?
Is it reading? Maybe you should become a librarian or a researcher or a historian.
Is it cooking? This is very popular these days, thanks to the Food Network and a plethora of other shows and sites about cooking. Maybe you become a chef—which is a tough lifestyle—or a restaurant reviewer or work in a test kitchen trying out recipes.
Is it traveling and exploring new places? Maybe you should work for an airline, be a travel guide somewhere exciting, write for a travel magazine or website.
Is it playing video games? I always sigh when I hear that from teenagers, because playing video games is extremely popular with that group. I ask them what it is that they love about playing video games? Is it the competition or meeting other people or a fascination with the design that goes into the games? These are all factors that you need to consider in your development plan.
Look at your skills list from Step 2. What did you discover about yourself there that can help you crystallize what you love to do?
Are you closer to answering “What career is best for me?”
Let’s walk through an example of how to cross what you love with your skill set and your hate/can do but lists.
Maya has a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She’s working in the operations department for a medium-sized business. She’s bored by the tedious nature of her job.
Maya has always enjoyed cooking and dreams of being a chef with her own restaurant one day. She’s thinking about taking cooking classes at a community college.
Do you—or Maya—even know what’s required to be a successful chef?
To find out more, Maya goes to this website https://www.onetonline.org. It is a partner to the Interest Profiler page she went to earlier.
She types “chef” in the occupation quick search box in the upper right corner of the page. Here are the results she gets.
Maya is stunned by how many different occupations include the word “chef” in them. It’s time for her to click on a link and learn more about those she thinks might be interesting.
NOTE: Notice the sun image next to certain listings. That means the demand for those jobs is increasing. When you click on the link, it tells you more. You can also see that one occupation listing is marked “green.” These occupations are evolving to include more green economy activities and technologies.
She clicks on the first link. This is what she sees.
Each of those links under “Summary” provides Maya with an in-depth look at what it takes to be a successful chef. If Maya is thorough in checking out this report, she’ll know whether she really wants to be a chef or not.
Whatever job you’re thinking about moving into, there is probably a listing in onetonline.
As Maya finishes this research her lists look like this:
Occupation: Chef
| Hate/Can do but | Skills | Loves |
| Monotony | Organization | All things food |
| Conflict | Decision making | Traveling abroad |
| Math | Creativity | Learning new things |
In reviewing the write-up on a chef, Maya can compare her lists with the talents, skills, and abilities a good chef needs.
We’ll see the results of Maya’s assessment in Part 3 of this series.
Your core values are in your innermost being. You make decisions based on your core values.
If you skip this step, you will be sorry later. Your core values are your keys to a fulfilling life.
Here’s my $10,000 horror story.
Years ago I became friends with a witty, brilliant woman who shared my passion for wanting to help others find the right career or job for them. Being the incredibly smart (little snarky here) women that we were, we decided to create a business together.
We went through all the legal stuff to set up a business—an LLC, limited liability corporation. Tons of money was spent on a lawyer, a graphic designer, a printer, and a website designer. Our logo was awesome; our marketing materials were beautiful. We even got advice from the business development center at our state university to set up a business plan.
Then we tried to make money.
We hadn’t done our homework before spending all that money. It doesn’t matter how great your ideas are if nobody is willing to pay you to implement them. We forgot to test the market.
We also hadn’t worked on our core values together. I knew what mine were. She knew what hers were. But we didn’t share those, and we didn’t talk about where our values clashed.
That conflict in our values led to the breakup of our firm. It was like a messy divorce.
I call that experience my $10,000 lesson learned. Had we examined our core values before we did anything else, we would have realized that the two of us becoming business partners was a bad idea.
The two blogs below will help you understand and identify your personal core values. Do the exercises then add your core values to your list.
Your Personal Values Make You Who You Are
What Are Core Values and Why Should You Care
One area people forget to consider when asking “What career is best for me?” is what they want in a work environment. If your dream career puts you outside when you’d rather be inside, you will be miserable.
Have you ever wondered why surveyors are out working when temperatures are below freezing and the wind is blowing? Surveyors often choose that job because they want to be outside, not stuck in front of a computer in an office cubicle.
Do you prefer to work alone or be on a team? I’ve known some computer programmers who are happiest when left alone working on a computer. They would much rather work alone than on a team.
Take a minute to score yourself on these choices about a work environment. Put a hash mark where you fall on each scale. Then see what you discover.
What did you find out about yourself? Add a “Work Environment” column to your checklist.
Here is Maya’s updated info.
| Hate/Can do but | Skills | Loves | Core Values | Work Environment |
| Monotony | Organization | All things food | Family | Working in a team |
| Conflict | Decision making | Traveling abroad | Accomplish To experience |
Consistency day to day |
| Math | Creativity | Learning new things | Trustworthy Openness |
Have to work quickly |
Join us for Part 3 where we pull it all together. Are you feeling more confident that you know the answer to “What is the best career for me?” I bet you are.
© Pamela A. Scott, MentorLoft.com 2018