Step 1 Part C: Confirm Your Career Interests

Writer Annie Dillard is known for saying, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." The average person works about 1/3 of their life, amounting to about 90,000 hours. Our careers form a major part of our identity, and affect how much control we have of our lives. Yet, according to a Deloitte Shift Index Survey, 80% of people hate their jobs. As you plan your education, you have an opportunity to think about what will really make you happy. Don't become a bad statistic. Plan smartly.

​So just how do you make a plan, or change your plans if you're on a path that needs revision? 

​In previous posts, we've looked at the importance of knowing your interests, and confirming why you want to study - potentially in another country. A next step is to understand some of your career interests. 

There are many ways to do this. You can interview people in careers you think you might be interested in. You can ask if you can 'shadow' someone at their work to see what a day in their life is like. You can find videos, for example with Road Trip Nation, where people discuss what their job is like. 

You can also get to know yourself, and try to match your your values, interests, and aptitudes with work that is needed in the world. It's not an easy process, but as my yoga teacher often says, if you don't control your life, someone else will. 

Learning about yourself through career interest inventories: There are many career interest inventories available on the internet. These tests can be useful as a starting point for exploring different academic paths. Of course no test can know you completely, so you'll want to think about which careers would work best for you in terms of practicality and your level of interest. 

Here are a couple of free career interest inventory sites:

• BigFuture: What Are You Into? This website asks you questions to help you consider possible career paths and college majors. You can 'create a roadmap' on their site, and track your college interests, so this can be a useful place to organize your process.
• MyNextMove.org - Click on Tell us what you like to do to start a career interest inventory. This U.S. government offered, free assessment will give you what is called your "Holland Code," which is a 3 digit code that can help you identify dominant personality traits. Traits measured include: Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic (Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders), or Conventional (Organizers). Based on your results, a list of careers can be explored, and these can be filtered by level of required education. A four year degree would be considered a "high level of education" on this quiz. Some will be marked as ones with a "bright outlook!"  Please remember that these recommendations are based upon the United States labor market, and may not be hot jobs in your home country. However, if these jobs are plentiful in the United States, you may have a better chance of later securing a work visa in related fields.​

I can also discuss your results, or offer the evidence-based Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) inventory either in-person or online, and we can go over results together. According to MBTI's website, the test was designed "to help you better understand what makes you tick, how you relate to others, and how you can benefit from this knowledge in everyday life."

If you know what job you want to do, it helps you to pick a major, and when you know what you want to study, that helps you to pick a college! Check out Mapping Your Future as one free option to develop your career plan, or contact me for more in-depth help.