What Career Choice Is Best For Me

What Career Is Right For Me: Career Aptitude Test

Whats unique about this tests approach is that youre asked to rank your skill set, interests, work style, and values, plus say how much money youd like to make, what education requirements youre looking to meet, and how much potential growth youd like to see in your career field. The results are no-nonsensewith links to job descriptions as well as job openings.

What Career Is Right For Me

Asking “what career is right for me?” is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The right career brings you success and happiness. But if you make a poor decision, through using information that is too simple or not based on research, it can damage your prospects, relationships and prosperity for many years to come.

This article provides guidance on what makes a good career test, and the various criteria that can influence your career choice. Reading is optional, if you wish you can skip straight to the personality/career test:

How To Choose A Career

If you’re stuck for job ideas and knowing where your skills might best be served, it’s worth taking the time to come up with a career development plan – simply follow these four steps to choosing a career

A career plan is a strategy you’ll continuously develop to manage your learning and progression throughout your working life. Consisting of four stages, its purpose is to help you visualise the actions you need to take to achieve your career goals, and how to put these actions into practice.

The four stages of a career plan are:

Career planning is important for a number of reasons – having a career development plan in place reduces the risk of you making impulsive decisions, and it helps you to recognise when you’re ready to look for new opportunities and develop new skills.

This model can be used by anyone – from school leavers to students, graduates and career changers.

Learn more about what the process involves and how to map out your career journey.

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“It’s fantastic. I can see my attributes as well as all of the jobs that I am qualified for. I’m a student right now, and I’ve always pondered what I’d be excellent at. I can now see my alternatives in front of me. It’s the best career test I’ve taken, thank you!”

What Career Is Best For Me

• Kurt Kraiger, Ph.D. Principal Psychologist

What Career is Best for Me? With summer past the halfway point, about 18 million students are thinking about heading off to, or back to college. For first-year students , an important question is what career is best for me? The answer drives the choice of major, future job opportunities, and maybe your overall life satisfaction. So, no pressure. But how do you know what is the best career for you? Ben Franklin might answer, the one that makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise. But, lets dig a little deeper.

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Identify Your Skills And Interests

Choosing a career is a big deal. You’ll spend a significant amount of your life at work and so in order to enjoy your job, remain motivated and fulfil your potential, you need to make your career choices wisely.

You first need to know yourself. This means taking stock of your skills and assessing your interests and values.

It’s important to understand your range of skills and knowledge, so you can see if they’re a good fit for the job you’d like to do. Being aware of the skills you have also helps to highlight any gaps that may need to be filled to achieve your goals.

Make a list of all your transferable and specialist skills, with examples of when you’ve demonstrated each. An honest assessment of your skills, values and interests will prove useful when narrowing down your options in the next step. You can also see where you measure up in terms of the skills employers are looking for.

Consider where you are now, where you want to be and how you’re going to get there when it comes to fulfilling your career aspirations. If choosing a career has left you feeling lost, start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What am I good at?
• What are my interests, motivations and values?
• What did I most enjoy at university?
• What kind of lifestyle do I want?
• What do I want from my career?
• What is important to me?

If you’re struggling to identify your strengths, weaknesses and character traits, taking practice psychometric tests could bring them to light.

How To Make A Career Choice

Making a strategic decision regarding your future career helps ensure that you’ll find satisfaction with your position in the workforce. As you make your career choice, consider your interests and unique skill set to help you find a career you can succeed in. Use these steps to make the right career choice:

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Can The Right Career For You Change Over Time

The answer to this question is a resounding yes. Sometimes, even after you determine what you think you want out of a career and head down that path, things can change.

Understanding that although this decision is a big one, it can also be a flexible one, is crucial. Knowing that career changes are possible can also help you feel more secure in your choice when you do make one.

Changes in your personal life like a marriage, children, or moving can prompt the need for a different job, or even a different career altogether. Alternatively, you may just happen to stumble upon a hobby that you are passionate enough about to turn it into a career.

Regardless of the reason, making a career change is possible. So, even if you find what feels like a perfect fit and the right career for now, know that you can always shift if you need to or even if you just want to.

Explore The Careers On Your List

At this point, you’ll be thrilled you managed to narrow your list down to only 10 to 20 options. Now you can get some basic information about each of the occupations on your list.

Find job descriptions and educational, training, and licensing requirements in published sources. Learn about advancement opportunities. Use government-produced labor market information to get data about earnings and job outlook.

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Continue Growing And Learning

As with any change, it can take time to adjust to your new career. During this transition time, pay attention to the parts of your job that youre enjoying. Youll continue growing, learning and changing as you understand more about yourself, your industry and what works best for you.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you step into a new career:

• Make the most out of your first year. In a new job, it can be overwhelming to take in new information, learn the industry and become an established member of the team. You might research

How Can I Gain New Career Skills

Utilize your current position. Look for on-the-job training or opportunities to work on projects that develop new skills. See if your employer will pay part of your tuition costs.

Identify resources in the community. Find out about programs in your community. Community colleges or libraries often offer low cost opportunities to strengthen skills such as computing, basic accounting, or business development. Local chambers of commerce, small business administrations, or state job development programs are also excellent resources.

Take classes. Some fields require specific education or skills, such as an additional degree or specific training. Dont automatically rule out more education as impossible. Many fields have accelerated programs if you already have some education, or you may be able to take night classes or complete part-time schooling so that you can continue to work. Some companies even offer tuition reimbursements if you stay at the company after you finish your education.

Volunteer or work as an intern. Some career skills can be acquired by volunteering or completing an internship. This has the added benefit of getting you in contact with people in your chosen field.

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What Are My Values

Everyone has values or things that are important to them, such as financial security, social justice or work-life balance. These values can help you decide what type of career to pursue. Here for instance, consider a job that pays well if you value financial security, and consider the type of hours you’d like to work to achieve work-life balance and what career may offer that to you.

How To Merge Your Passion With Career

If you are lucky enough to know your passion, be courageous enough to pursue it. Although it sounds great when we hear the advice to follow our passion, we understand it can be one of the most challenging tasks ever in your life.

Following your passion is one of the most rewarding experiences. Let us see how can you merge your passion and career:

Identify what you are passionate about: Passion is not something you have done once or twice but what you can do consistently without getting bored.

To identify your passion, asking yourself the below-mentioned questions can help you:

• What are you inclined to do the most, and what are you good at?
• For how long can you continue doing the same?
• Figure out how can you monetize your passion

Following your passion will definitely bring many hurdles. There will be very few or no people who will believe in your passion.

You should be determined to give your best shot and make it work as you embark on this journey. Remember, “Dreams don’t work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.”â Roy T. Bennett

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How Do I Choose A Career

Choosing the best career is one of the most important choices we can make in life, and yet for many it is not a properly considered or even moderately researched choice. Currently the average person changes careers 7 times throughout their working life, which strongly indicates that career choice is not being given the consideration that it deserves. Unfortunately the effect of changing careers so frequently is that you lose any ground you have gained through experience and training, and you essentially have to start from the bottom each time.

Some of the best reasons for a considered career choice are as follows:

Below are some tips to help you choose the right career

Find out as much as you can about the different jobs and careers that are out there. There are many lists of careers and different jobs available online that can give you a broader perspective of the choices that are available to you.

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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How To Choose A Career Path

Your career path should account for your goals, future plans and personality. Considering these factors can help you choose the right starting position and make strategic decisions over time.

Follow these steps as you prepare a career path:

• What are my strengths and aptitudes? Soft skills? Hard skills?

• Do I want to specialize in certain technical skills or take on management roles?

Once you answer questions like theseand any others that are important to youyou can better research potential careers paths. Its also important to revisit your career goals as you grow personally and professionally to ensure your goals remain achievable and aligned with your interests.

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Where Do I Want To Live

Some jobs are more readily accessible while others can only be performed in certain locations. For example, you will probably need to live in a rural location if you choose to work as a park ranger or farmer, and you may want to live near an urban area if you plan to pursue a finance or fashion career. Plan carefully to ensure you can work where you want to live – and vice versa.

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Whats Stopping You From Changing Careers

Changing careers can be a daunting task luckily, its not impossible. Our career quiz can help point you in the right direction, find your main career interests and tell you about your career personality.

Remember that youre not alone. Changing careers is the new norm. And finding the right career advice can be tricky when youre unsure what youre looking for. A career aptitude test can help you find possible career options that suit you.

Then, once youre ready to move into the next stage of your new career, you can find all you need to know about resumes, cover letters , and responding to key selection criteria.

Skip the confusion and the false starts. Start your career journey equipped with the best information and get closer to your dream job faster.

Compare Job Requirements To Your Education

Many jobs have specific education requirements for applicants and new hires, such as obtaining a high school diploma, completing a bachelors degree program or having a masters degree. Some positions also require applicants to have their degrees in a specific field related to the position.

Review the education requirements for jobs you are interested in and apply for jobs that accept your current level of education, or research additional degrees or certifications you may need.

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What Are Career Tests

Lets get this out of the way: No test can guarantee itll tell you your dream job or your forever career.

These quizzes will ask you about your values, interests, skills, and goals and give you some ideas for careers or types of careers to explore furtherin other words, theyre a jumping off point, says Muse career coach Lynn Berger, whos used these tests for over 20 years to help clients gain focus and direction in their careers.

Some will also help you learn more about your working style or what type of environment you thrive in. Your results might even provide a little help for you in your current positionsetting you up for success, no matter where you are in your career journey.

What Are My Transferable Career Skills

To discover your transferable career skills, consider the following:

Dont limit yourself to just your experiences at work. When you are thinking about your skills, consider all types of activities including volunteering, hobbies, and life experiences. For example, even if you dont have formal leadership or program planning experience, founding a book club or organizing a toy drive are ways that you have been putting these skills into practice.

List your accomplishments that might fit. Dont worry about formatting these skills for a resume at this point. You just want to start thinking about the skills you have. It can be a tremendous confidence booster to realize all of the talents youve developed.

Brainstorm with trusted friends, colleagues, or mentors. They may be able to identify transferable skills youve overlooked or help you better articulate these skills in the future.

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What Education Or Training Do I Need

Certain careers require advanced education and financial investment. For example, you may need eight to 12 years of education and training to be a doctor, but you could earn a hospitality management bachelor in four years. Think about the time and money required to pursue a career as you make your decision.

If you already have these hard skills but feel as though you a missing a piece of the puzzle, soft skills such as effective communication, are highly sought after in leadership positions in the hospitality industry. Skills such as communication, leadership, critical thinking, organization, follow through, cultural competency, flexibility, and customer service, just to name a few.

According to Daniel Ciapponi, a Senior Lecturer at EHL, these soft skills are currently missing in hospitality in what he describes a Skills Gap. Therefore, developing and honing these skills will give any candidate the competitive edge.

As a general rule, although there are exceptions, the higher the salary bracket, the higher the education level is required. However, any career path is worthy of such time and financial investment, but you have to decide whether it is worth it to you.