How to Choose the Right Career Path: A Guide for Uncertain Job Seekers

Selecting a career path is one of the most considerable decisions you will make in life.

The career you choose could be one you enjoy or dread waking up for every day.

This path shapes your financial well-being and daily routines while impacting your sense of fulfillment and overall happiness.

It’s a unique and personal journey that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Therefore, regardless of whether you are a recent high school graduate or an established professional seeking a change, it’s critical to understand how to choose the right career path.

Keep reading to learn more!

Steps to Choosing the Right Career Path

Step One: Outline Your Goals

Before choosing a career path, self-reflection to identify your career goals is the best first step.

These questions will help narrow your choices to focus on a specific field.

• Do you want to seek management roles or specialize in a technical area?
• What do you want to get out of your career?
• What are your strengths?
• What are your interests?
• What are your core values?
• What activities do you enjoy in your free time and professionally?

Once these questions are truthfully answered, you can start researching career paths of interest.

It’s also advisable to revisit these goals as you develop and grow professionally and personally to ensure your goals remain aligned with your talents and continue to be achievable.

Step Two: Create Short- and Long-Term Plans

Once you have identified and narrowed your options, creating short- and long-term milestones will help you develop a plan.

To do so, conduct additional research related to where others are in the same field after five and 10 years and note their job titles.

It’s also important to review their advancements and titles, as well as any earned certifications and continued learning programs.

Take that information and research into how you can also reach those goals.

This could be through similar training, pursuing prerequisite positions, or seeking specific responsibilities.

By establishing these goals, you can then plan on how to progress every year.

Also, make sure to regularly reflect on these goals and your career to ensure you remain on track.

If you change careers or find that you are disengaged in the path you have chosen then map new plans on how to move to another field or role.

Step Three: Understand Your Personality Type

Your personality type is a set of traits that can be organized into groups.

Different personality types develop different strengths and possess different interests.

There are several tests you can take that output common career paths for those with each personality type.

If you take all these tests and careers match across multiple tests, then it’s worth researching further.

The most popular career tests include:

• The Jungian Type Index – Also called the Jung Typology Test, this self-assessment summarizes your personality type and provides recommended careers by explanations of specific psychological preferences.
• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter – The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is another self-assessment that identifies roles matching different temperament types. This test differs from the others in that it focuses on temperaments and behaviors instead of preferences.
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – Myers-Briggs is a popular test within the corporate environment. The test consists of a questionnaire that helps identify psychological preferences. The data classifies test takers based on four key dichotomies, helping you to identify your personality traits and type from 16 options.

Step Four: Review Past Work Experience

Noting your job satisfaction and engagement in previous roles can also be an excellent factor in assisting in career choices.

Finding trends amongst previous positions, like focusing on a special technical skill, can be a great guideline.

Also, reviewing your job history will reveal which positions you found fulfilling and which you would never revisit.

If you have limited work experience, then use those positions to understand what you liked and didn’t like about the job.

Step Five: Assess Job Requirements

Most skilled jobs require specific education or training requirements for new hires, like earning a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or acquiring a high school diploma.

Some also require applicants to have specialized degrees in a specific field.

Review those educational requirements for positions in which you’re interested and apply for jobs that require your level of education.

It’s wasteful to apply to jobs requiring a higher level of education unless you have extensive experience in that field.

Step Six: Evaluate Your Skill Set

Creating a list of areas of expertise, certifications, and skills will help you further refine potential career options matching your experience.

Asking colleagues and coworkers for feedback regarding your people, interpersonal, and technical skills will help you develop this list.

Seven: Find Your Interests

Based on your personality, you might have interests tailored to different career types.

Review your interests, previous volunteer experiences, and hobbies to find activities that excite you.

Although this information is outside of your professional goals, creating this list further helps you narrow career paths as personal and professional interests often intersect.

For instance, you might enjoy a traveling sales career if you enjoy networking and meeting new people or a job in cybersecurity if you enjoy solving logic puzzles and technical details.

Use this information to apply for volunteer opportunities and short-term positions to explore new careers.

This firsthand experience allows you to test your career to understand if you are engaged.

For those who currently have a job or are in school, take a certification program or introductory course in a field of interest.

This experience also determines if the content and learning skills are an area you enjoy.

Eight: Find Your Core Values

Identifying your core values narrows your focus on niche areas or fields that you might enjoy.

Make a list of essential qualities for a company and its employees.

You can then utilize this list to find job descriptions and organizations that coincide with these values.

Nine: Consider Your Target Salary

The final step is to determine your salary requirements.

Different careers have a range of incomes, so finding this data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is an excellent way to learn about starting salaries and earnings after different points of experience.

Keep in mind that salary doesn’t equate to a satisfying and engaging job, but it is important to consider during career path mapping.