Factors You should Consider when Choosing a Career
It's one big lie that humans are ever rational with some decision making, Of course, that is nothing but a lie! Every decision we've ever had to make and for every we will make, there are influencing factors which could be expectations, pressures from families or friends, economic status etc, with the weight of the pressure being dependent on the importance of the decision to be made, one of which is Choosing a Career.
It’s quite a norm to see people quit from different career path after several years and resources of investments due to lack of interest, contradictions with their values or them not getting their expected benefits from the path they choose.
According to the Social Cognitive Career Theory, SCCT, decisions in career planning is affected by 3 social vices; Self-efficacy beliefs, Career Intentions and Career Expectations, which interplays with ethnicity, gender, culture, socio-economic support and other social external vices all of which tends to override an individual’s personal desires. Furthermore, a total of 30 articles reviewed among the articles published between 1997 and 2018 by PsychInfo and Informit platform revealed that when it comes to choosing a career, most youths have so much unrealistic beliefs and as a result have their decision making governed more by influence of parents and other elder figures.
As a young individual at the point of choosing a career, it is very common to hear advices such as "follow your passion and only your passion, then you will never work a day in your life", "choose a career that can earn you a good life" or "you can become whatever you want"; These advices you will agree with me has not been of much help. As opposing to the first advice, everything is subjected to change, something you find fun in your 20s is likely not going to be what you enjoy doing in your 30s, age has a toil on our view of the world alongside our interests.
Secondly, except if your definition of a good life is living in luxury, a career is likely not enough to earn you a 'good' life and as such, the monetary compensation of a career isn't enough factor when choosing your career path.
Thirdly, for efficiency sake and without playing by sentiments, you need to strike a balance between your interests and abilities when deciding on a career, as there's a major difference between reality and what you want.
Choosing a career is a decision that could be so exciting as well as overwhelming with so many uncertainties, while some people know what they want to do and what they have to do to get to that point, others which include the greater percentage in the world don't have a clue as to what they really want to do but perhaps left with no option, make do with whatever is thrown at them.
It is very necessary to point it out that a Career isn't synonymous to a job as many might suppose though your decision on choosing a certain career would certainly influence the job you end up with.
A Career is an occupation or profession requiring a series of training; most times the path you want to be known for as pertaining to work and while it is expected to last for a long time if not a lifetime and also bring a stream of job opportunities alongside income, there could be stops and detours in the journey of building a career depending on the considerations made upon choosing the path.
Most often, when a child is asked what he or she would like to become, the answer given is always as a result of the nurturing, ideologies and view he or she has of the environment, thereby the chances of such choices not being subjected to change as the child grows is little to none as the complexity of such decision making increases with increase in age.
Most individuals out of well meaning but misguided reasons, perhaps because their parents wanted them to, the University entrance exam led in that direction or because someone told them that the career path suit them; adopt a career without examining it well enough to know what it could hold for or require of them.
In order to choose a career that not just suit you or is able to get your commitment but also help you make the contribution you want to make in any organization you find yourself or the society as a whole, certain factors are necessary to be put into consideration which includes:
1. Goals: This includes long and short term goals, just whatever you want to achieve in the path you choose which could be monetary, influence, acquisition of skills or degrees, owning your business etc.
Ensure that you analyze what you want to get from the path you choose to know how feasible and ideal it is. The career path you choose must be dependent on the expectations you have of whatever it involves, it must be a path that can take you from where you are to where you want to be, which is why it must be something that has the potential to grow.
Having a goal for your career helps you set an action plan for development and measure growth while actualizing your ambitions.
2. Personality: This is a key factor in determining who you are as a person, it includes your strengths, weaknesses, values, lifestyle, abilities etc and is not limited to your technical skills and abilities alone but also to your social, mental and emotional abilities; how you relate with other people, respond to situations and handle affairs.
Well, at times, your personality and your passion might be on different sides of the boat, you could love a thing while the results of your work on it says otherwise! While passion helps you give yourself to a course, aligning your personality to your career brings about ease while doing what you do and as such, I believe that some passions are better left as hobbies.
Your personality traits make it easier to work in some areas and difficult to work at others. For example, a person that is agressive, good at calling orders and loves to make decisions personally could have such a hard time as a health caregiver which entails more of taking orders but do well when left in charge of managing affairs in a setup.
Likewise, the opinions you place value on and hold in high regard as a person must not be left out in your decision making as this would influence your productivity at your job; if you place value on family time as well as having much time to yourself, you wouldn’t want to choose a career that would take so much in your time as that would affect your attitude to work at the long run.
3. Passion: You don’t necessarily have to be perfect at what you do but for a better yield, one great motivation is doing what you love, this is what would aspire you to do and get better in your field.
According to a 2014 Deloitte survey, almost 88% of US employees were unable to work to their full potential because they had no passion for their jobs. Some workers not enjoying their jobs claimed they needed the job and its benefits initially, believing to develop interest in it later on but ended up becoming just duty-bound.
Most people remain at their various field of work because of the monetary compensation in terms of their paycheck and other benefits which results in low productivity and lack of interest in becoming expertise at their field. While money is a necessary compensation for getting a work done, it does not bring the satisfaction and fulfillment required to keep the effort going.
4. Availability of Opportunities: This is where the influence of the condition of your environment plays in and deliberate research must be made for this.
When choosing a career lane, you must have all details on all it requires and the provisions made available for you to yield results in terms of resources, education, job availability etc.
You need to update yourself on opportunities that do not go out of season or have a short span perhaps by replacement with machines due to advancement in technology.
In the real sense of it, there is really no such thing as picking a right career as there is nothing like a perfect job for you but having a defined direction would definitely be the best thing you can do when deciding on the career path you want to take. At times, exploring different options seems like the best way to arrive at the destination of the choice you make though this could be a disadvantage to you if you intend going up through the ladder of promotion and becoming a professional in your field and as such, it is of great importance to know when to switch if the need arises.
