To begin, try to identify your areas of interest. You may want to consider asking yourself some questions. What do you enjoy? Which activities make you happy? Do you like to interact and work with others? How do you feel about working with your hands and making things? Do you like to do creative/artistic activities? Are you someone who enjoys calculating and/or analyzing data? Do you enjoy being outside? These are a few of the questions to consider as you try to determine what your interests are. As you think about starting in a career, try to determine what you like.

After you have gathered information concerning your interests, try to determine your abilities…those things you do well. What are you “good at”? Again there may be numerous skill sets that you posses. You may have the ability to communicate effectively; to persuade others; to advise or guide. Your skills may include: research, writing, analysis, or data collection. Some people write well while others have artistic ability. Try to sit down and brainstorm a list of those things you do well. Often it is helpful to speak with those who know you well and solicit input from them. Sometimes it is difficult for people to identify skills because we do not often sit around thinking about what we do well. As you attempt to make tentative career decisions, it simply makes sense to take inventory of your skills.

Another critical component of self-assessment is identifying your values. What is really important to you? For some, contributing to the welfare of others is crucial. Others consider it very important to have a prestigious career. Some work values include type of setting (office/outdoors/school), work schedule (40 hours/flexible schedule/”traditional 9-5”), role/importance of compensation, utilization of previous education/training, travel requirements, or stability of the field. Determining your values as they pertain to work is important; most of us spend at least a third of our day in the work environment. Take some time and think about in what environment you might flourish.

Now, you may say this is all fine but….I love art but I have no abilities in that area, or sports is something I enjoy, but how will I make money in it, or I am really good at math, but I would not want to work with numbers all day, or it is important to me that I give back to society and help others but can I make the type of income I want in the “helping”professions. All of the above statements are legitimate. However, learning about you is the first step in the process. Then, yes, you may determine a miss match with an occupation based on any of these criteria. If you like art but do not believe you have the ability level to develop a career, then maybe you choose to draw as a hobby. If you can not find an occupation that meets your financial needs based on function, then maybe you choose to become involved in a civic organization and earn an income in another type of position. There is no exact formula for determining your career. The more you learn about yourself and the types of occupations that exist, the more the likelihood of you making sound decisions.

And after you have made these tentative decisions what do you do? There are numerous ways to explore occupations. Some of these include reading materials on careers, speaking with those already employed in the field, taking coursework in the area, or volunteering/working part time in the occupation. The more resources you are able to utilize, the more likely you are to have a clearer picture of the field you are researching.

Among the multitude of ways by which to gather information on careers is to read books and/or articles on the career. The public library, internet, and bookstores have numerous resources that allow you to read information on careers. Via the internet, you may search for career titles or professional organizations. Most career related websites (e.g. American Nursing Association) provide information on the career, training, licensing, work conditions, income, and pathways. On occasion, these websites will identify other resources including individual contact names. Although some amount of reading materials on careers will be needed, there are other methods by which to gather information. Another popular way is through doing informational interviews with individuals who are currently in the career you wish to enter.

After you identified a person in the field you wish to enter, you would brainstorm a list of questions to ask that are relevant to the career. This would be the time to ask about those aspects of the position that are of most interest to you. Some sample items would include areas most/least liked in the position, “typical” day information, upward mobility, skills most often used, or growth of the occupation. Of course, each person with whom you speak will have their individualized response. However, you will generally find a pattern to the responses of a number of people.

Other ways to learn if a career is a good match for you might include performing volunteer work in the type of position or in the environment in which you are interested. Examples might include volunteering in a hospital, non-profit organization or other organization in which individuals perform the job tasks that you think you want.

Although there is no definitive way to ensure you have made the right decision, by performing self assessment and gathering information through a variety of ways, you are making far better educated decisions. Often by then taking a course or two in the curriculum area of the field you wish to enter, you may solidify your decision on which career(s) to pursue.