Choosing a Career

HELP’s CAREERsense 4-step guide

If you’re clueless about making a career choice, the HELP CAREERsense 4-step guide gives you some pointers on what to do. If you’re already clued-in to what you want to do for a living, well done! But check the guide out anyway, as it also serves as a useful checklist:

STEP 1: Understand yourselfKnowing what you want to do for a career depends on how much you know about yourself. Start asking yourself these questions:

• Who am I?
• What do I like?
• What am I good at?
• What is important to me?
• What is my dream job?
• What is my current qualification?

STEP 2: Explore your career options

After knowing yourself, you need to find out what job will fit you so find out as much as possible about the careers you’re interested in. Factors to investigate include:

• the nature and scope of the work
• the work environment
• the work values
• advancement opportunities
• salary
• future trends

You can go about your fact-finding by:

• reading books and magazines on careers
• surfing the Internet
• talking to people holding such jobs
• getting some work experience by working as a volunteer or on a part-time basis

STEP 3: List realistic options

As you explore your career options, start listing out all possible options which are realistic, based on what you’ve discovered about yourself.

Then list the pros and cons of each option, the necessary academic qualifications and training that you will need.

Finally, narrow your list to one or two choices.

STEP 4: Put plans into actionOnce you’ve shortlisted your realistic options, you need to set career and education goals. It’s important to set specific goals that can be measured and attained. For each of these goals, remember to set deadlines for every action leading to the goal.

(Information provided by http://www.doctorjob.com.my/advice/choosing-a-career)