Career Planning: Advice For Your Future
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by: GeorgePurdy
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Opportunities come to all of us, whether we recognize them or not. More often, it is "not"; we don't see them, or if we do, we don't take advantage of them. When starting a career, the same is true; there are many opportunities -- but they must be seized. In this brief, I hope to demonstrate to our younger audience that it is greatly to their advantage to start career planning early, and to take the right approach to career planning.
We all have our own likes and dislikes, career choice also reflects this set of likes and dislikes. While one person may grow up hoping to be a great rock artist, another while be more inclined toward being a space shuttle pilot. Imagination and wonder are great, as they open up our mind to the world of possibilities that are out there, but we must be aware of the importance of hard work in realizing those dreams. It is because we lack career planning that the majority of us never see our childhood dreams come to fruition.
It's best to start early, and a good way to start is by asking adults you know for opinions about their jobs. You might ask your parents, aunts or uncles, older friends, or teachers about their jobs. Ask for their opinion on careers that you know about and ask them if they can help you get more information about others. Their extensive experience and interaction will help you make a career choice.
If when all is said and done you still don't know what career you might like to pursue, it's time to seek professional career counseling. For high school students, this help is as close as their school guidance office, and it's free. These professional counselors have been trained to determine your career needs, analyze your skills, and provide you with testing to evaluate your aptitude for various careers.
Career planning guides can be found at a library, at a bookstore, or on the net. A good one covers both common and uncommon jobs, and also lists the skills required to effectively do those jobs. Anecdotes from people working in a given field are often helpful; if you can imagine yourself in their place easily, the odds are that this is a good possible career for you.
With that in mind it is also quite important to take an assessment of personality, skill set, aptitudes and priorities as well so that career planning can be as advantageous as possible. SWOT analysis is a good way of aiding you in this assessment. Don't forget that creativity and passion are boundless, so take that big leap, go for that big dream. Once you have a dream career the only thing you need is some reality to the foundation to bring about fulfillment.
We all have personal preferences and our choice of career reflects these preferences to a great extent. Most of us never realize these adolescent dreams because of lack of career planning. They can draw on their wealth of experience in different fields, and seeking their advice will also be helpful to you in making your career choice. If after these conversations, you still feel hesitant or hazy about a possible career; you should waste no time in seeking career counseling from a professional. If you are a high school student, chances are that you can avail of such counseling at your school's career guidance center.
About the Author
George Purdy is an acknowledged expert on career planning. He wrote articles and is a well-known public speaker on this subject. You'll find more tips and tricks on the following site: career coaches.
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