Career Paths When You Don T Know What To Do

Network And Connect With People

5 things to do if you dont know what career to choose

When you’re investigating possible career paths, reach out to professionals and other people who are searching for the perfect career. A great way to connect with people is through social media. You can use various platforms to chat with others and share experiences, information and useful contacts.

Additionally, you can reach out to professionals who you admire by following them on social media and commenting on posts that you find informative or interesting. You can also send them a message or an email in which you state you’re interested in their line of work and ask if they’re willing to answer some questions you have about their role or industry. Remember to thank anyone who shares their time and expertise with you, as this can ensure you build a connection that lasts.

I Don’t Know What Career I Want What Should I Do

Many people find themselves saying, ‘I don’t know what career I want, what should I do?’ It’s not uncommon to feel confused about your career choices when you’re applying for you’re finishing your degree or applying for your first job. It’s important to think carefully about the job opportunities that you see. Be sure to consider your personal strengths, qualities and which positions you might enjoy or feel motivated to pursue. When you’re thinking about your potential future career, it’s important to consider a range of factors, including your:

Best Paying Jobs For People Who Dont Know What To Do

Theres a lot of pressure on people to figure out what they want to do for a living as early as possible: which can leave a lot of individuals unsure about what that means for their future.

Luckily, there are plenty of jobs for people who dont know what to do or dont feel a passionate drive about any one career in particular.

These are fifteen of the best paying jobs for people who dont know what career to choose!

Some require education beyond high school: but you dont need higher education for the #4 job on this list!

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Take A Test To See What Jobs Will Make You The Happiest

When you take a career test or personality test , certain factors are considered to determine the jobs best suited for you: your ambitions, life goals, motivations, self-reported skills, personality type etc.

These factors get mashed together, and out comes a list of best potential careers for you to sift through and choose for further research.

Unfortunately, psychometric assessment tests cannot tell you which single job is THE BEST ONE. Remember, you may be suited for several different careers. Its up to you to figure out from the list which, if any, is the best match for you.

Paths To A Major When You Dont Know What To Do

With so much attention on choosing a major, it can be hard if youre unsure or begin to doubt your choice. Fortunately, UC Davis has services to help you.

At the Internship and Career Center, we recommend that you explore three basic paths to find a major that fits your interests and consider how your major will lead to a career. They are connected.

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Think About What You Want

Along with researching different careers, it’s important to spend time in self-reflection, considering your own passions and drives. Consider the following questions:

What motivates you to do well and what are your strengths, both at school and in your personal life?
What position could you see yourself enjoying for 30 years?

Your starting point when thinking about your career is always your own interests and strengths. If you choose a career path that interests you and utilises your unique skills, there’s a good chance you become a successful professional and enjoy your career.

So How Do You Gain Satisfaction And Meaning From Your Work

Ultimately, when it comes to finding satisfaction at work, you have two choices:

1. You can choose or change careers to something that you love and are passionate about.

2. You can find purpose and joy in a job that you dont love.

Whether youre just leaving school, finding opportunities limited in your current position or, like many in this economy, facing unemployment, it may be time to reconsider your chosen career.

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What Are My Skills

Right now, you already possess skills that can help you succeed in the future. Think about your hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills – skills youve acquired through study, such as culinary arts or computer programming.
Soft skills – the people and life skills you possess, including empathy, teamwork, problem-solving and time management.

Remember, skills can be developed and new skills can be learned at any stage of life, so don’t let a lack of skills put you off a certain career path. Let the existing skills you have guide you. Whether you require further skill development or not will be the next challenge.

Consider Turning Your Hobby Into A Career

I Don’t Know How To Choose A Career

The key to finding a career that you excel in is looking for overlaps between your own strengths and interests and the skills that a company is looking for in a candidate. For example, if you’re passionate about playing video games, you may be at an advantage when applying for roles at video game companies compared to candidates who don’t play video games themselves. By choosing to study computer science or video game design, you can combine your passion with your academic pursuits and pursue a career path in something you definitely enjoy.

How To Find A Suitable Career

But even if you’ve identified your needs and feel comfort in knowing that these are shared ideals among most people, you still will have some searching to do to find the direction you’ll need to make moves. Here are a few steps you can take to help you find a career that suits your interests, skills and goals:

Apply For A Variety Of Roles

If you’re still not sure what you want to do for a living, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to commit to the first job you’re offered. Apply for a variety of roles and accept the job that you think you might enjoy and excel at the most. It could turn out to be the right career for you. But even if it’s not, you can always apply for new roles or transfer to another career path once you’ve started your first job. There’s always plenty of time for a career change, even later in life.

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Know Who You Are And Who You Are Not

Knowing yourself and spending time for self-examination is the first step to take before test driving a career path. It is the knowing who you areyour professional energy, your superpowers, and your valuesthat will help ease the ride and fast track it into the express lane.

Learn about the moments that light your internal fire or take you to a place that makes you feel as if youre lost in time. Dont forget to be aware of the times you are bored, burnt out, or feel psychologically unsafe.

Do Some Soul Searching

What do you like to do? Make a list. Again, dont try to self-edit at this stage.

Its fine if your list starts with activities that look like a recipe for continued unemployment, e.g. sleeping and playing video games.

But think about what feeds your passions: do you enjoy helping people, creating things, or managing projects with lots of details? Where do you feel most at home and in tune with what youre doing? If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you still do every daywork out, make art, connect with others?

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Take The Time To Consider Your Options

Being a well-rounded person is never a bad thing. But it can make it difficult to define the right career path.

As long as you take the time to look at all your options, youll see that you can find a career that satisfies your desire for multidimensional work, rather than one that pigeonholes you into the same role for your entire career.

See Where Your Heart And Passions Take You

Shortly after college, I enrolled in an MD/Ph.D. program for Neuroscience.

After that, I was a musician and nomad in India.

After that, I was an Analytics Project Manager with Abt Associates.

After that, I did my MBA in France at a top international business school, INSEAD.

Today, I have combined my expertise in business, agile methodology, neuroscience, analytics, and even the ARTS to help companies accelerate organizational change and improve culture.

While this career path looks crazy to some, to me, it just exemplifies who I am: someone with a wide range of interests, passions, and skills. And luckily, we see more and more in the world how multidisciplinary careers are cropping up in importance, as well as becoming popular majors in academia.

For example, my sister probably wouldnt have thought ten years ago that after studying Computer Science at Cornell University, shed be working at one of the top Cancer Centers in the USA in Computational Biology, helping to find a cure for breast cancer.

I didnt think, when I was examining cognitive behaviors in a lab at NIH and publishing research, that one day, I would be applying these skills to businesses, looking at how behaviors can directly impact business performance.

My tip to those who are confused is to follow your own heart and passions and see what unusual path they take you on. Fuse all of your passions into a career that works for you the sky is the limit.

Roger Maftean

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What To Do First When You Hate Your Career And Want A Change

Part of the series “Finding Brave to Build a Happier Life and Career”

Don’t stay stuck in a miserable career.

Thousands of professionals are stuck in unhappy careers because they have a misguided belief that if they start exploring a new career, they’ll lose everything that matters to them. They worry that they’ll risk losing hard-earned money, status, title, flexibility, their place in their field because of years of experience, and more. It’s fear of loss and of giving up the “security” of their current paycheck and benefits that keeps them paralyzed, as well as an inability to put their finger on exactly what they would want if they could make a change. .

The truth is that nothing outside of yourself including a job is truly secure. Its only what you carry within yourself your insights, ideas, talents, experiences, perspectives, capabilities, and the contributions you’ve made and will make that are able to bring true security in terms of being able to continuously make a good living in rewarding work in these rapidly-changing times. Many jobs will become completely obsolete in years to come, so we need to understand how to remain relevant and our work viable. And any of us who were promised big, long and lucrative corporate careers by our bosses and leaders only to be laid off or fired afterwards know how true this is.

Here’s what to do first, on this order:

Get to know yourself like never before

Start talking

Try it on

Develop your own ideal job description

Peruse Job Postings Online And College Websites For Career And Field Ideas That May Spark Your Interest

How to Choose the Right Career Path in 7 Simple Steps

Some sites help you in career research and career ideas. Also, try talking to college job counselors or college admissions personnel for advice .

There are even nonprofits to help, and you can attend job fairs to see a variety of career options and also search random business listings to get ideas of what may interest you. If money is a primary motivating factor, there are great websites like PayScale if you want to research and learn new career ideas with pay scale insight as well.

Now, lets go back to our motivation list and begin a spreadsheet with the career ideas we are now starting to find. Compile a spreadsheet with the horizontal columns, including motivations, passions, and interests . Then in your vertical column, include careers you are locating that interest you .

Once you have located several career ideas start going through each job option and compare them to your motivations, passions, and interests. Placing an X mark where your career choice and motivation intersect. You will soon find that certain careers seem to meet more of your key motivating factors than others.

This method will help pinpoint or at least narrow down your career choices. All of your options may seem exciting now, but doing a little research can help you remain happy with your choice long term.

You may be motivated by money and by job status or job title. You can always go after a straightforward degree your parents recommended when you were young, like a doctor or a lawyer.

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How Do I Know Which Career Path I Should Follow

As far as the career path you take is concerned, there are two main things to look out for. First, find a proven way of earning money or gaining happiness that meets one or more of the following criteria:

its simple and easy to do
its flexible enough that you can incorporate your ideas into it
you can work it around your schedule and
doesnt require a huge financial investment.

Second, find something that will challenge you as well as give you room to grow and develop as time goes by. It shouldnt feel like hard work every day. But at the same time, it shouldnt be so easy that you get bored easily. Work that meets both of these criteria is much easier to market than work that doesnt.

Its also important not to make any decisions based on your current situation in life , or your age . The world is constantly changing and evolving. Whats hot one day can be cold the next whats popular today can be unpopular tomorrow.

Dont get too hung up on following the rules when it comes to choosing your career path, either. Adding value to other peoples lives while also making a decent living is a wonderful balancing act to reach. It doesnt matter if you dont fit into one of the niches we usually discuss on this blog.

Tip : Evaluate Your Strengths And Skills

Once you have a general idea of your career path, take some time to figure out what skills you have and what skills you need. Remember, youre not completely starting from scratchyou already have some skills to start. These skills are called transferable skills, and they can be applied to almost any field. Some examples include:

management and leadership experience
research and program planning

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Choose Your Passion As Your Career Path

When you chose what youre passionate about, youre likely to succeed because you wont ever give up. You wont give up because your passion is a part of you, so giving up will be like giving up on your dream and your life.

So you wont be doing that, especially since choosing something that interests you means youll love doing it when going through rough patches. After all, rough patches are aplenty whatever career path you pick.

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Be Curious About What Brings You Alive When You Do It

For example, you might love being on stage or presenting. Someone else might be at their best chatting and making deep connections. Someone else might find hours fly by happily when they are solving tech problems.

Gather your core things, and with each path that interests you, ask yourself, will it let me be this version of me on most days?. If not, if your days are going to be spent doing the opposite of what brings you alive, then this isnt a great choice. An idea that looks good on paper isnt the same as an idea that fits you in real life.

If youre hitting a wall with finding an idea, then get creative to work out how you can find or create a space within a field to suit you. For example, you might be tempted by photography but not love the networking aspect.

What else could you do to bring in clients that would be more in line with your personality? Its this thinking that creates solutions most people dont think exist.

Tiffany Waddell Tate

Career Coach and Professional Development Consultant

A few thoughts on what to do if you dont know what career path to choose:

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Discern How You Work Best

Jobs vary immensely in terms of process. Some are client-facing, having you interact in person with other people all day other jobs are remote, with few or no virtual meetings ever. Some jobs are full time, morning to evening, Monday to Friday others involve nights and/or weekends, or condense work schedules into shorter durations. Jobs can be project-oriented, such as the film industry, or long term stable with a large company.

Think about what excites you when you consider all the various workplaces, times, and methods out there. Picture your body, and what you like to doif you enjoy using your hands all day, or if you like using only your brain, for example. Understanding how you would fit into a workplace’s culture is key to understanding whether it would make you a happy worker. Journaling can also help in this phase, and give you better clarity on your feelings.