Careers - The Choice Of A Lifetime

Wheeee! Schools out and now it's time for surging ahead in a career! But which career? How does one match their fantasies and ambitions with the realities of today's world? How can one even narrow down their own cherished dreams into one logical line of action?

Another group of people looking for the right career are those who are already employed and dread going to work each day. They truly need to find a spot where the thought of going to work fills them with delight. Life is too short to allow oneself to be trapped doing work that isn't meaningful or fulfilling.

We've come a long way when it comes to determining which career we want to spend our lives in. Until the last few decades, and still in some countries, a person followed in the footsteps of their parents. If daddy were a lawyer, there was no question about the son also being a lawyer.

If daddy were a carpenter, the son was also a carpenter, and he trained at his father's footsteps from the time he could walk and understand.

In some cultures today this tradition has a real value. In India, where the chanting of volume-long books is done by memory, only by being exposed to the sounds from an early age could one become a true master. These masters are called Vedic Pundits. Other religions also have this tradition.

Experts who act as career counselors often use a battery of tests to help someone fit into one of approximately 25 major industries.However, what one does within an industry is more important than which type of industry it is.

Many tests have been devised that indicate whether it is your basic nature at this time of your life to be a leader or a follower,whether you are very artistic and creative or whether you want to follow someone else's designs, whether you are exceptionally good at detail work or whether precision just isn't your thing. These tests are well worth taking and then considering the results.

However, these results should not be taken as written in stone and being unchangeable. While education reflects that one has been exposed to knowledge and experiences that not everyone else has had, it also indicates that a person has possibly endured some very boring lectures and learned how to beat the system in order to get good grades and a diploma.

What many employers want these days is experience - experience of any kind that shows initiative and thinking and survival skills.If you don't have a college degree or two, don't despair.You may be better off in finding your true career.

One inexpensive way to determine which type of career might be most fulfilling for you is to make a list of at least twenty-five people that you know. Then write out a paragraph for each one that states what type of work and which kind of company you feel that person is best suited for. Set these aside for a day, then go back and find the common qualities that are in each one.

You just might be amazed at the similarities. Because psychologists say that what we see in others is only a reflection of ourselves, and what we think others should do is really more true for our own actions,you will possibly find a very accurate description of your ideal career and how to obtain it.