Deciding on a career path at any age can be very intimidating. Many people become extremely anxious at the very thought of trying to decide what they want to do with their life at age 40, let alone 18 when they are graduating from secondary school. Many feel they must make some grand career decision that will create a lifetime of happiness and not make the mistake of spending all that money on a college education for a job they may ultimately not want to do. The reality is however, almost none of us will choose a career that we will always enjoy, or a career that we will spend a lifetime doing. Current research shows that even those with a bachelor’s degree will change jobs on average seven times before they turn thirty years old.
So what is the answer? How do you decide on what career to chase? My first bit of advice is try not to put too much pressure on yourself to find that one career that you will know is perfect for you. I have known many very interesting people that did not know what they wanted to be at age thirty, some of the most interesting people I have ever met did not know what they wanted to be when they were forty. The truth is that we are forever growing, forever changing and learning even if only in small ways. What you may find interesting today for a career may be drastically different in ten years. So how do we deal with this? Keep in mind that as we decide on a career, nothing is finite. In one sense it is best to approach career choice with the idea in mind that this will be an initial career. You are not necessarily deciding on something that will last a lifetime.
The YouLearn Counselling Centre offers three approaches to career counselling for our clients:
1. Using a computerized interest inventory that takes approximately twenty minutes, students will derive a list of occupations that may be more suited to them based on how they answered questions from this inventory. From here students will prioritize their top ten career choices and with the assistance of our counsellor decide on two or three top choices they will explore in-depth to decide on a narrow career stream to pursue.
2. By looking at patterns in the client’s life experience, starting sometimes from their earliest memories, the client and counsellor will look for themes that will often help the client make current career choices. Clients will consider who they have looked up to in their life, favourite TV shows, books, hobbies and sayings. This helps reaffirm who we are, how we have chosen to live our life, and what future career options will harmonize with who we want to be. Here clients can begin to visualize how their progress in life is from some preoccupation, some question, some issue that they face and try to move from preoccupation to occupation, from tension to intention, victim to victor, as we answer present questions like what should I do for a career based on how they have formulated their experience in the past.
3. From the popular career choice series, ``What Color is Your Parachute,” clients will use a comprehensive process to derive an overall view of their ideal job. This process was developed by the University of California, Berkeley, and involves defining eight areas of job interest. These include:
· Favourite kinds of things that you like to work with
· Favourite kinds of information you like to work with
· Favourite type of people you like to work with
· Favourite rewards of work
· Favourite emotional and physical settings for work
· Your favourite outcomes from work.
If you are interested in any of these approaches or have any general career questions the YouLearn Counselling Centre would love to hear from you.
