Choosing Options For Your Career

Want to be an astronaut or a baker or a carpenter? Perhaps you'd prefer to be a chef or a pilot or a successful entrepreneur? Choosing options is never going to be that easy; what you need is to collate the things you are good at with the things you enjoy doing and then see where that leads you.

Start by pulling together information about your achievements (ok I know thats the hard part so just think about things that you are proud of) as examples of things you're good at doing, some of them probably took more out of you than others. So although you will find that these accomplishments are often considered to be the best way to start your decision-making, I suggest you just think a little deeper. You might have enjoyed doing these things once but the real issue is: could you, or would you want to keep on doing them as a central part of your new career?

Take the FREE MAPP Assessment and find out what careers fit your motivations best! www.Assessment.com

My wife often says that the meals I cook up at home for both of us and sometimes our adult children would go down really well in a restaurant and I could charge top dollar. But, although I really enjoy cooking like this (I'm told I do a great chili-con-carne), when choosing options for a new career, I would not even think about doing it every night for dozens of people. I mean, have you seen the television programme Masterchef?

Let me illustrate this further by taking a square box which I'll call my Career Change Options Quadrant.

Choosing Options Quadrant

Divide this box into four by drawing a horizontal line across the middle and a vertical line up through the middle. The horizontal line we're going to call "Enjoy Doing" with a scale running from left to right. The vertical line we're going to call "Good At" with the scale running from bottom to top; what we've got now is a 2 x 2 quadrant so admired by MBAs.

The first thing we see then is that the small square at the top right is where the high scales of "Good At" and "Enjoy Doing" converge and this is where we all want to be if we are choosing options for a new career. We'll come back to that.

At the top left we've got high "Good At" with low "Enjoy Doing" so this is often where we've developed a high level of skill to deal with a task that's unavoidable but we don't want to do any more than is strictly necessary. I mean who enjoys driving these days?

The fact is that some people who don't manage their careers, themselves, but depend upon their employer, will often end up here because their organizations push them to where they're seen to be good. Think about the Finance Assistant who ends up as Credit Controller because they had some success getting some bills paid. Not many financial people I know actually enjoy credit control!

Lower left of my Career Change Quadrant is where too many people find themselves job-wise - doing something they don't enjoy and are not particularly good at. For example many repetitive production or assembly jobs fit in here. This is also the place where necessity and stress sometimes come head-to-head causing regular sick-leave and you'd be advised to try and change this if its you.

Lower right in my quadrant is where enjoyment is high but skill not necessarily so. The person who enjoys amateur dramatics may be an example or a spare-time painter or the average DIY-er.

Back to the top right: career success usually springs from enjoying and being good at something you do, but only if you want to repeat it. When you are choosing options for your career change bear this in mind and don't start with a job title.

Instead, try to start with the ingredients of a successful role based on your honest appraisal of what you enjoy and want to do plus an objective view of what you are good at and can replicate. In other words use a skills based approach to establish what you are good at and what you enjoy doing, then your career will really take off.

Take my 2 x 2 quadrant and see where you fit in. If you are firmly in the top right CONGRATULATIONS, make sure you stay there. If you're anywhere else visit the Career Options pages of my website for further advice.

Peter Fisher is a Career Coach and Expert Author. He covers all aspects of Your Career Change. For insights into his expert advice on choosing options and the Career Change process visit www.your-career-change.com/career-options.html

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Fisher

Choosing Options With The Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook has detailed and instantly accessible information about hundreds of different types of jobs such as teacher, lawyer, nurse and science technician just click on any of the links for FREE access.

In fact whatever occupation you are interested in, you will probably find it in the Occupational Outlook Handbook simply by using the search box on every page.

In addition, the Handbook gives you job search tips and links to information about the job market in each US State.

The Best Job Search Information

You can easily avoid the disappointment and frustration of seeing your dream job slip through your fingers by getting the best job search and career change information you can to help you with practical information you can use immediately when choosing options to suit your skills.

It only takes one slip-up when the competition for new jobs is so fierce, so you owe it to yourself to learn the job winning techniques that are proven to work, just as they have for many people before you.

Self-marketing, or 'selling' yourself; writing cover letters and great resumes / CVs are all skills that most people could do better with the right information. When it comes to interview skills, too many people are prepared to 'fly by the seat of their pants'. Don't let yourself down and leave it to chance like that, get the latest and most complete job search information in my Career Change Guide and you'll feel the difference when you approach each step of your career change more confidently - knowing you have what it takes!

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Return to Career Success or go back to the Your Career Change home page.

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