New Career: Choosing what you want to do

So you need, or want, a new career. How are you going to choose what to do?

There are several obvious criteria.

• If you are not in a position to take training, you need something for which you already have the skills
• Something that will pay you enough for your needs
• Something for which there is enough demand that you can find a job
• Something you will enjoy

Yes, enjoy. That is just as important as the rest.

Work you don't enjoy is draining and tiring and you will never do as well in it as in work you do enjoy.

So here is an exercise to help you find what type of work to go after for your new career.

Write down all the things, paid and unpaid, you have done that you enjoy. But be reasonable.

I have a skills quiz that includes "sleeping" as a skill. And perhaps it is, but unless you want a job as a mattress tester, it's probably not going to be useful to earn your living.

Think of all the things you have done in your life that you have really enjoyed.

The next part is trickier. I want you to take generalize it.

For example: Enjoy partying with friends.

Not likely to earn too much money.

But if you enjoy partying with friends, you presumably quite a social person who enjoys others, and probably has good communication skills.

So career skills would include: social, ability to communicate easily and effectively.

These two could well be part of your ultimate new career.

Keep going like that until you have a good list of things you enjoy doing. Then, either alone, or with friends, look at your list and try to come up with jobs that would include as many as possible of your choices.

Not sure what type of job something will fit into?

Go to one of the online job boards, such as Monster, and under keywords type in the thing you like to do. You're not looking for a job to actually apply for here, so location doesn't matter. Just see what jobs come up using that activity. You may get some good ideas.

Once you have a good list of choices, it's time to find out more about pay, and availability of work. More on that in another post. For now, just keep coming up with things you can do that will be appropriate to include in your new career.

Don't settle for just what you've done in past careers. There is so much you can do that was never included in paid work before.

Be creative and find work you love.

"If you find work you love, you will never have to work a day in your life" Anon

More help to find work you love.

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