How to Choose a Career with 4 Simple Questions

Choosing a career is a big decision.

In fact, it’s one of the biggest decisions that directly impacts how you spend 33% of your life and what kind of lifestyle you have. It also impacts your income, relationships, and overall happiness. 

That’s why it’s important to take your time and carefully consider your options. 

However, with so many career choices, it can feel a little more overwhelming. And scary, too. 

But don’t worry. We all go through this phase. And to make things easy, this post will tell you how to choose a career. You will have clarity in finding the perfect career path that you will enjoy for decades.

How to Choose a Career: Ask These 4 Questions

Let’s begin by asking the right questions. They will reveal a lot about you and help you decide on career paths you can take. So, take your time, think with a calm mind, and answer these questions carefully. I would suggest you take out a notebook and write down your answers. Ready?

1. “What Do I Love Doing?”

The purpose of this question is to find out what you enjoy, what you are interested in, what makes you happy, and what gives you energy. Think about your hobbies. Think about what you do in your free time. Think about the tasks that make you lose track of time.

For example, if you like to solve puzzles or problems and play with numbers, data science could be a great career option for you. Similarly, if you love writing and being creative, you can be a copywriter or content creator. And if sharing knowledge and helping others learn excites you, you can be a teacher, trainer, or professor. 

Doing something you love will make the work fun. So, find out what you love doing.

2. “What Am I Good at?”

Just loving something isn’t enough to make a career in it. You also need skills. That’s why this second question helps you find out what skills you have or can have.

The idea is to know your strengths and weaknesses. You can study your past to see what comes naturally to you that others struggle with. Think about the past events where you excelled. You can also ask people who are close to you because other’s perspectives can be helpful.

For example, If you can easily solve complex math problems and your friends often come to you for help with their homework, then you might be good at mathematics. So, you can have career paths in fields like engineering, data science, computer science, or accounting.

If you have always been a natural leader, taking charge of projects and motivating others, you might be good at leadership and management. So, you can consider careers in business, management consulting, project management, etc.

Related: Career options after graduation

3. “What Are My Goals?”

Now, you have to think about your long-term goals in life. This involves a lot of things. But here are some basic questions that will help you figure out:

• How much money do you want to make? Do you want to achieve financial independence? What kind of lifestyle do you want to afford?
• Do you want a job that allows flexibility? What kind of freedom do you want? Freedom to travel, work from home, or have flexible hours?
• How important is work-life balance to you? What do you value more- personal life or career?
• Do you want to make a positive impact on the world? If so, in what way? What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?

For example, if you want to make a lot of money, you can choose a career path with high income skills, like artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. 

Similarly, if you want more freedom and flexibility, you can choose a freelancing career. Whatever your goals are, your career must align with them.

4. “What Does the Market Need?”

Now that you have answered what you love, what you are good at, and what aligns with your goals, you must have found several possible career paths. So, it’s time to consider how in-demand those career options are.

Even if you are passionate about a job, if the market for that job is shrinking, it will be really difficult to find opportunities. Hence, the idea here is that you want to be a part of a thriving market. So, look at reports about growing industries and job trends. 

Forecasts can help you find roles that are likely to have long-term security and stability. For example, the global data science market is projected to grow from USD 133.12 billion in 2024 to USD 776.86 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 24.7%. This means there will be a lot of opportunities for data scientists in the coming times.

Similarly, you can find trends and expert opinions related to your career choice to verify whether it’s worth it. And when you are done with that, we come to the next part of finding your career…

Related: Career options after engineering

How to Choose a Career: Take Action

You must have found some specific career options after asking those questions. Now, it’s time to act. Here, you will gather as much information as you can about a specific career. The idea is to make an informed decision. And here’s how you can do that:

1. Research on the Internet: Visit platforms like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed to find details like job descriptions, salary ranges, and education requirements for various career options. You can also look for websites related to your career choice for news, trends, and insights into the industry.
2. Network with Professionals: Connect with people already working in the field on LinkedIn. You can ask them about their daily tasks, challenges, and what they love about their jobs. It will help you understand what it’s really like in that career. You can also attend industry events or conferences to connect with the right people and learn from their experiences.
3. Join Online Courses: If you are still unsure, you can join an online course. It will help you explore a career without committing to a degree. At the same time, you will learn new skills that will make you more attractive to potential employers.  
4. Do an Internship: This will tell you everything you want to know about the career before fully committing to it. Besides, you get real-world experience and make valuable connections. It also looks great on your resume. 

Now that you know how to choose a career path, I am sure you have a clear idea of what you are made for. And if not…

Ivy Professional School Can Help You Find Your Career

We at Ivy Professional School have qualified mentors who can help you pick the right career and courses related to it. They will understand your strengths, talk to you about your career goals, and guide you every step of the way, ensuring you are making the best decision for your future.

We provide comprehensive courses on data science, generative AI, machine learning, business analytics, etc., to help you learn in-demand skills. We also provide demo classes every week, which can help you better understand a career field. You can stay connected with us on social media for updates and visit this page to learn more about Ivy Pro’s courses.