4 Tips To Choosing The Right Career Path

If you are looking out to choose the right career path for you, you might get flustered by the myriad of opportunities out there. Many jobs may appeal to you, because of the pay, exposure, flexibility, or prestige that comes with them. But there are factors to consider beyond these apparent benefits of the job.

Do you like to interact with people?  Is job security a must for you? Do you prefer flexible hours? These are the questions to ask and consider before selecting what career path is right for you.

A career path is not simply filling a position in an organisation after a university degree. It refers to the stages of jobs and experiences you gain moving upward in your chosen field or profession. It would involve climbing up the vertical ladder in a business sector or gaining the relevant skills that’ll keep you up to date as a specialist in a chosen field.

Here are some useful tips to follow when doing career planning and choosing the best-suited career path for you.

Find Out Your Personality Type

The kind of person you are determines what jobs will best suit you. If you are an introvert, you are more likely to do well in jobs that involve concentration, quiet and analytical thinking. If you are an extrovert, you are more likely to take up jobs that involve engaging with people, like journalism, advertisement, public relations, sales, etc.

Personality types are not just limited to introversion and extroversion. There is a continuous variation of personality traits among humans, which means you are unique and there is a perfect career that suits your type of person. Qualities like conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness are important in choosing the career that is likely to suit you best.

These are some personality traits and career matches

• Enterprising- Business management, Advertisements, Production
• Artistic- Fashion Designing, Architecture, Writing, Painting, Sculpting
• Social- Broadcasting, Music, Teaching
• Investigative- Law, psychology, Crime investigation,
• Conventional- Receptionist, Editing,
• Realistic- Programming, Mechanic, Technician, Engineering, Baking

Your personality determines how well you do in a job and how much fulfillment you get from it. You can take personality tests to find out which jobs you can easily be best at.

Identify Your Skill/Strength

In mapping out a career path, your skills and strengths should be in tune with your choice of career. Some professions require formal skills and others require informal skills/talents.

For most professional jobs, a degree in a university is needed to make strides. And you must be obtaining a degree that is closely related to the needs of your prospective career

If you are aspiring to be a crime investigator or police detective, for instance, you want to have a degree in criminology or related courses such as forensic psychology, law, and sociology to have a successful profession and advance appropriately.

In the corporate sector, qualifications in fields like economics, business management, secretarial studies, marketing, etc, are required to secure the best possible jobs available and rank quickly in the job market.

Non-professional jobs like songwriting, painting, sculpting, fashion designing, drawing require skills or rather a pure talent to have a successful career

So if you are skilled in painting, songwriting, fashion designing you might want to consider a career path in the entertainment or fashion industry as the case may be.

Speak To A Mentor

Getting to learn from other people’s experiences is important while starting your career journey. We learn best from our own experiences, therefore, the next best way to learn is from the experiences of others. Speaking to a mentor or career coach will give you an insight into how the job market works, and how to sell your skills to secure the best jobs possible.

People that have passed through the necessary stages to reach the peak in their career are the right mentors for you. With their guidance, you won’t have to figure out everything after making mistakes. They’ll help you to create an orderly plan of

• Courses to take
• Skills to learn
• Internships to get experience from
• Jobs to apply for

There are also extra benefits that come with having someone before you, like recommendations, referrals, and so on.

The chances of getting promoted in your job are higher when you have a mentor. They guide you as you harness your skills, experiences, and qualifications into securing the right placement for you, all the while using their good offices for your growth.

Do An Overall Assessment

After speaking to a mentor, getting suggestions from friends or teachers, reading up on career successes, you want to get your thoughts in order. Begin an exercise of filtering out the best options which are suited for just you. Using these simple steps.

• Write out the list of professions that suits your type of person
• Write out a list of your skills and certifications
• Compare your skills’ compatibility with the listed professions
• Reduce the list further with the compatibility test.
• Investigate flexibility of working hours and decency of pay
• Choose the one option best suited to you
• Finally, build a portfolio

After a thorough evaluation of the best-suited career choice for you, you want to build a portfolio that excellently describes your qualification to potential employers. With online resume writing services and facilities, you can achieve that without trouble

Succeeding In Your Chosen Career Path

Having a successful career depends largely on your satisfaction with the job and willingness to advance on the job. A successful career is achieved when you keep ranking high in the job market. To keep ranking high, you need to do consistent appraisals of your performance and evaluate what you have done well and what you should do better.

Use your strengths to your best advantage and make good use of your personality traits to create a reputation for yourself in the market space.

Setting goals is also Important in advancing your chosen career path. Be intentional about improving your skills, take leadership courses, mentor younger colleagues, lead projects, grow your network, take good breaks, and very importantly, be proud of your achievements.