When you first arrive in college, for the most part it is all fun and games, exploring yourself, meeting new people, earning independence, partying and some occasional studying. As time wears on however, you do really need to start thinking about what kind of career you are planning to elect once you have graduated. This is not only important from a general life perspective, but also because you will need to decide on which majors to study, and your career choice will heavily dictate what you decide upon. If you aren’t sure yet what you want to do after college, here are some tips on deciding.
Reverse Engineer
One good way of helping you to decide what you will do post-college is to think about yourself in 10, 20 and 30 years. Forget about the type of job which you will be doing, think about this in terms of what you see yourself achieving, do you want power, riches, respect, stability? Try to think about what kind of career benefits will make you happy, and then think about which career can provide you with the benefits which you’re after.
What Are You Good At?
Far too many people go into careers which their parents wanted them to, or they chase the money in a career which doesn’t make them happy. What usually happens is that after a decade or so of this, the person becomes disinterested and miserable in their job, something which we should all strive to avoid. The best way of avoiding this terrible fate is to look for something which you are naturally good at, whatever it is. we all have different types of natural ability, some people are great with numbers, others are carers, some people are born leaders and others are industrious. Instead of matching your skill to a job, match the job to your skills.
Playing The Odds
It is always important to follow your dreams, but you should do so with a heavy dose of reality when it comes to finding a career for you. With this in mind it makes a lot of sense to keep your options open, especially in a completive jobs market. Let’s say for example that you have a desire to get into civil engineering, a highly competitive industry and one of the most popular majors amongst students in the country. Now, this is not to say that you shouldn’t aim for a career in this field, but you should also use those skills and make a plan B, such as going into aviation engineering which is crying out for positions. The key is not only to find the best career for you, but also that you elect a career choice where you know that you have a good probability of getting a job once you finished college.
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing a career, just find what you love, what you’re good at, and a career which can provide you with a job once college is over.