better business blog

Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

How To Choose A Career

11 March 2013

Having just written ‘Riding the Rocket – how to manage your modern career’ my head is still packed full of career thoughts, ideas and ways of looking at the world.

To be fair, after a concentrated writing period, my brain is also a bit mushy round the edges, but I’m sure it’ll spring back into shape soon enough.

Who’d be a writer?

And who would have a career?

Well, we all get to have a career – a modern career – and we have to take responsibility for our lives, be resilient and agile and make good choices.

Making good choices can feel like an impossible task, if we lack direction, or experience and answering the question:

‘What do you want to do?’

…Can feel impossible. We don’t know what we don’t know, or are hemmed in by false logic, or parental constraints.

If you’re talking to someone about their career and want to offer support and guidance, here are three things I often say to people:

1. Follow your intuition. Think about what you’re drawn towards, have an interest in, or are curious about. We often know what we want to do, and lack the courage to say it out loud. Find a special friend, whom you trust, and chat it through with them.

2. Do what you’re already doing. For example, you might be an office clerk with a keen interest in gardening. If you want to change career – you’re already ‘working’ as a gardener, so maybe would like to extend that?

3. Do what you excel at. We all have strengths and if we use them our working lives will be richer and more fulfilling. For example, if you’re a good thinker, find a career path that allows you to use your thinking skills.

Making a good choice is all about noticing areas of interest, discussing ideas and asking ourselves great questions!

…And we can do that without causing our brain to go mushy!