Humanity shares one overriding goal: the quest to find satisfaction in Life. And Life, for the working adult, can be chunked into three parts, one part family and leisure, one part sleep (hopefully), and one part work. Satisfaction in the slice of Life called Work is in large part determined by to choosing the best suited career.
What then, keeps you from choosing a career that lends itself to satisfaction?
1. Deciding on a career path because it is the ‘in’ thing.
Even if half of your class is going into the therapies, it does not indicate that you have the patience required to be a speech therapist. Nor does it guarantee that these often flooded field (yes, it’s bound to happen, given the number of graduates entering the ‘in’ field each year) will pay that well.
2. Failing to consider your personal values when deciding on a career.
Say you value helping others and embark on a career in human resources where you are often required to fire others. How long will you last on the job?
3. Being unrealistic about your chances of obtaining your dream job.
Think about it. If everyone exiting Kollel wants to be a Rebbe and every girl graduating seminary wants to be a teacher, what are your chances (barring protexia, of course) of obtaining this job?
4. Not considering whether the job you are pursuing will enable you to support your family.
For a single guy, a $50,000 is quite comfortable. Now think 15 years down the line, a married man, 6 children, mortgage, and tuition. How comfortable is that?
What can you do to increase the effectiveness of your decision making?
1. Explore your own career values.
Be honest with yourself. What is it that you are seeking in a career? Do you desire money? Power? How about a career in law? (No, not special ed, sorry). Do you value helping people? Changing the world? You may want to become a nurse, rather than the more lucrative corporate executive career.
In addition to formal assessments administered by a qualified career counselor, there are a number of informal assessments available to assess your values. One example is the Rutgers Value Assessment, which can be accessed at https://careers.rutgers.edu/page.cfm?section_ID=8&page_id=339.
2. Consider your interests.
According to John Holland’s Theory of career development, people can be grouped into six patterns of primary interests:
Realistic – preferring hand on activities,
Investigative – wanting to learn more about things, thinking deeply about the causes of events etc,
Artistic – relying on the imagination, creative
Social – interested in socializing with and helping other people
Enterprising – ambitious, into motivating and persuading others
Conventional – into details and order
According to this theory, people will experience optimal job satisfaction when there is a match between their own interests and their job environment. There are a number of assessment which measure interests, such as the Strong Interest Inventory and the Self-Directed Search (SDS).
3. Interview people who are already in the field.
Ask them what they like about the field, what the areas of challenge are, and, importantly, whether they would have selected their career had they known all that they now know. Schools and training programs will wax poetic about the joys of the careers options they offer. What you want is information from within the trenches, the difficulties, the drawbacks, as well as a realistic idea of the advantages.
4. Dip your toes in before diving in.
Get an internship. Observe people working in your field of interest. More than giving you valuable information, it also gives you a feel for the day to day life in the field.
Deciding on a career deserves a fair share of thought. After all, the workplace is where you spend at least a full third of the day.