Choosing a Career Path

by Beverly Baskin, Ed.S, MA, LPC, MCC, NCCC

How Do I Choose a Career?

Since a person's career is a very personal choice and reflects his or her personality, creativity, interests, and goals, it is sometimes beneficial if one begins by choosing a career path, instead of a career.
Often career counselors conduct career pathing sessions with their clients to assist in matching innate skills and abilities with short and long term goals.
For example, if a person demonstrates an interest in the field of biology and also enjoys dealing with people, the following is an example of a sample career path he or she might consider: if the person wanted to enter the work force immediately upon graduating from college, he or she may explore the areas of pharmaceutical or medical sales, working for a medical or scientific publishing company in which there are research, copy writing, or editing positions, or he/she may seek an alternate route as a biology teacher. All of these positions would serve as rungs on his/her career ladder.
As the person continues to climb the ladder to a successful career, the prospect of additional promotions within or outside his company, continued educational opportunities, and the eventual possibility of starting his or her own business are also career pathing options.

Now, for Another Scenario.

If the same person who demonstrated an interest in biology decides to become a medical doctor or research biologist immediately after graduation, that person will need to obtain an advanced degree in order to complete his or her chosen career path.
After the required post graduate education is completed, there are a number of options within the specialty for the person to climb the ladder of success. He or she can go into private practice as a physician, become a senior research biologist, a professional manager within a research or scientific environment, or work for a state or federal government. These are only a few examples of career pathing. With the help of a career counselor, one can explore many more career paths.
The career counselor often talks with the person at length to explore the subjects the individual liked in school, what he or she considers to be personal strengths and abilities, as well as what other people have said through evaluations at work or volunteer activities. The counselor will ask about the person's daydreams, his or her ideal job, and aspirations. Clients often feel that the time spent with the counselor leads to more insight and investigation regarding several possible career paths.

Matching Interests with Careers

There are several instruments that counselors utilize to match interests with careers. One of the most popular career/interest inventories is the self-directed search by Dr. John Holland, a noted psychologist and career theorist. His research concludes that people with the same interests often seek similar work environments.
One can think of the metaphor "birds of a feather flock together" and how it applies to different work environments. If we think of employees working in a particular occupation, they usually have similar vocational and outside interests.
Dr. Holland says that people can be loosely classified into six different groups or personality types labeled realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. After a client completes the self directed search inventory (it takes approximately 30 minutes), he or she will have a three letter code corresponding to the three highest interests.
For instance, if a person receives a score with the code SAE, his or her strongest vocational personality type is social (s), then artistic (a) and then enterprising (e). The counselor and client then review the code and its variations in the Holland occupations finder for the purpose of investigating careers that correspond with the client's interests.
The point is that change is a constant, and people are always forming career paths. What they really do is they take some aspects of the job that they presently hold or some aspects of their college coursework and parlay those favorite work functions into their new or anticipated job.
Some people can market themselves to employers and communicate their skills and abilities so effectively they eventually wind up creating their "ultimate job."

Career Paths

Now, getting back to the question of "how do I choose a career? The answer is -- today, people do not choose one career. They choose career paths that can twist and turn to meet the changing economy. Statistics show that in recent years people change careers at least three to four times in their life times, and they hold an average of seven jobs. Remember, when we say average, that also means that 50 per cent of the people hold more than seven jobs.
Building career paths and practicing the art of personal marketing will be an invaluable tool in choosing flexible career options in the 21st century. In addition, becoming a generalist in one's field, keeping a flexible outlook regarding the workplace, and taking advantage of the continuing learning opportunities will be critical to one's survival in the workforce.

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