For many people, work activities mean a lot. After all, you always want to be the best in your field, receive a good salary and positive feedback from your superiors. Usually, by the time a person graduates from school, he has already decided what he is ready to devote his life to. But it happens that a boy or girl cannot decide on a profession. Or a person becomes disillusioned with his current line of work and plans to try himself in something new.
Make a list of your skills and abilities
Before choosing a new profession, you should definitely make a list of your skills and abilities. This way you will have a much clearer understanding of what kind of work will be suitable for you.
Moreover, these can be not only specific practical skills, such as mastery of graphic editors, but also such abilities as expressing your thoughts beautifully and coherently, generating creative ideas, quickly grasping information, and so on. In addition, pay attention to your theoretical base, which can also be very useful in your future profession.
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In general, write down all your skills and abilities in a separate document and look at them with a holistic view. In this way, you will create a complete portrait of yourself as a player in the labor market, which is very important for choosing a new activity.
Think about your hobbies and interests
However, you should not focus only on what you are good at. Think about the things you really like. Perhaps you prefer to spend time in nature, travel, photograph people, compose music, film what is happening on a video camera, record your observations on paper, and so on.
Figure out the things that really bring you pleasure and start focusing on them when choosing your future profession. Believe me, work can and should be interesting and exciting.
Distance is not a hindrance to work
Let's say a citizen wants to study and go to work as a research assistant, but there are no research institutes or other suitable places in the city. In this case, you should be mentally prepared to move or rent an apartment in another city or even region.
Fear of changing your place of residence should not be an obstacle to a passionate desire to work in a certain specialty. As a rule, all worries about moving quickly fade away. Especially when a person is passionate about his activity.
There is nothing difficult in choosing a place to work. It is enough to focus on your interests, character and not be afraid of difficulties, especially at first.
Understand how you would like to be remembered by people
Before choosing a new activity, try to understand how you would like to contribute to history. Someone, for example, wants to give people laughter, so they choose the profession of a comedian or actor. Another wants to improve the quality of life of others and prefers, for example, the technological field of developing innovative gadgets.
It may not be so easy at first to understand what benefit you want to bring to society. But through fruitful analysis and conversation with yourself, you will be able to realize the true motives of your future activities.
How to understand which job suits your psychotype
Psychologists distinguish two main types:
- An extrovert is a lover of noisy companies, crowded establishments and warm human communication. Easy to meet, having fun from the heart.
- An introvert is happy alone. Prefers quiet types of recreation, a limited number of true friends, and appreciates the opportunity to be alone.
It is obvious that regardless of mentality, psychotype can significantly influence the choice of professional direction. It is worth choosing an activity that can be carried out without compromising the state of mind and body.
An introvert who works with a lot of people, such as in the service industry, will feel tired by lunchtime. The evening hours of rest left after a hard day may simply not be enough for recovery. The result will be constant fatigue and health problems.
An extrovert who spends working hours alone, for example, a laboratory assistant or an archive employee, will very soon become depressed. To get rid of boredom, any excuse will be used, for example, social networks and phone calls. This will certainly affect the quality of work and prospects for professional growth.
Focus on your needs, not society's expectations
At the same time, try to focus exclusively on your needs when choosing a profession. Don’t look back at the words and opinions conveyed by your acquaintances, friends and relatives.
Ultimately, they won't do the work for you and won't even check to see if you're coping with everything. Therefore, when choosing a path, always listen to your inner request.
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It is worth noting that not everyone succeeds in this, because many parents insist that their children follow one or another career path from early childhood. However, it is wrong to force them to meet certain expectations. The child needs to be helped to understand his desires and be guided, and not forcefully impose his position.
Self-test in one minute
For the purity of the experiment, you should be distracted by something: turn on the TV or focus on an interior detail. Then, without hesitation, interlace the fingers of both hands into a lock. The thumb matters. Whichever hand is on top, that side of the hemisphere is less active. That is, if the finger of the right hand is placed on top of the plexus, the leading hemisphere is the left hemisphere. The subject has a predominantly mathematical mindset.
If desired, a person can develop both types of thinking. This may take years. Initially, a child’s education will take place with less stress if, for example, a humanities major is not trained in physics.
Take the Career Guidance Test
If it is not so easy for you to understand the choice of future activity, resort to the help of vocational guidance tests. Nowadays they can be found in large quantities on the Internet.
They will help you identify your personal qualities, weaknesses and strengths, understand your interests and thus narrow down your job search.
In this case, it is best to take several career guidance tests at once in order to compare the results obtained and come to a common denominator.
How to pass a career guidance test?
Occupational tests are distributed free of charge; registration or authorization on the official website is not required to take them. A large selection of professional tests are available:
- for a specific profession;
- according to the method of E. A. Klimov, E. Kh. Davydova, expanded, others;
- for career guidance in school subjects;
- to determine the professional type (J. Holland);
- map of interests, character strengths, others.
The test is preceded by preparation, which will provide a more accurate result:
- do not give answers to questions while in a bad mood;
- try to choose answers that correspond to your worldview, tastes, life goals, plans for the future;
- keep your spirit light and strong, giving answers intuitively.
The duration of the test depends on the selected test; the results are checked and calculated automatically. The result is displayed immediately, you can see it without registering or entering contact information.
At what age is it better to take the test?
School-age children should take care of choosing a profession while studying in 7-8 grade. This approach will help you understand whether to enter 10th grade or whether it is better to apply to a secondary school. Adults may want to change their specialty at any age; the results of professional tests will help them solve this problem.
Analyze different areas of activity
So, when you have more or less understood your skills, start analyzing different areas of activity in search of a suitable one. It’s worth saying right away that a field of activity is not a specific profession, but a whole area in which people with different competencies are employed.
For example, if you realized that you want to help people, healthcare is for you. If you realize that you want to bring laughter and give emotions, it is better to take a closer look at show business.
Having chosen an area, you can already take a closer look at specific positions on the market. For example, manage finances, develop new products, promote them on the market, and so on.
Examples with a doll and a saucepan
As a child, Anya tinkered with the hairstyles of her favorite toys. Hairpins, elastic bands, and scissors were used. One day, while sorting through things on the mezzanine, my grandmother found an old fur hat, cut in rows. The punishment did not discourage experiments. The truth went to the talking doll Masha: she was cut into a crew cut and painted with her mother’s lipstick.
When Seryozha’s mother was preparing dinner, she had to vigilantly monitor what was happening around the stove. As soon as she turned away, vegetables, spices, and even mint candies were thrown into the pan. Attempts to persuade the child not to do this again fell on deaf ears. The boy sincerely did not understand the reason for his mother’s discontent. He knew for sure that with his help the dishes would become much tastier.
In the episodes described, it is obvious that the vigorous activity should not be limited, but directed into a productive direction. An activity that attracts, despite the prohibitions, definitely deserves close study.
Think about whether you can handle your future job
After analyzing the specific requirements for a particular position, think about whether you can cope with them, and approximately how much time it will take you.
However, it is worth remembering that such things can be quite difficult to understand simply by thinking about them. Practice will give you the best idea about a particular activity. In this case, an internship would be the best option.
As you go through it, you will be able to come face to face with your future responsibilities and realize whether you like it or not.
Don't focus only on income
As we said above, and as often happens, some people choose professions based solely on the level of wages. However, in a good way, you should not be driven by money, but by an idea.
If you work for money, you can very quickly run out of enthusiasm, because you get nothing but money. However, if you work for an idea, you will have great incentives to improve your competencies, learn something new and work with pleasure for the benefit of one big process.
In such circumstances, you can earn a lot more, because you can become a professional in your field and a very valuable player in the labor market.
9. Prepare for your choice
Before choosing a new profession, try to prepare for it as well as possible. And not necessarily within the framework of the specific duties that you have to perform.
Prepare yourself psychologically for a change in perspectives, for a new team, for unprecedented tasks and difficulties. Try to accept all this and gain confidence that this is exactly what you need right now.
Naturally, in the future you will be able to change your choice again when faced with the understanding that this profession was not for you. But to get to this point, or, conversely, to avoid it, you need confidence in your actions and determination. Be prepared for this.
What exactly is the difficulty?
It is advisable to decide on your choice of profession while still in school, because this determines which final exams you will need to take. And the sooner a student makes a choice, the more time he will have to prepare; accordingly, the chance of entering a specialized university on a budget place will be much higher than for those who are used to studying everything in one night before the exam.
According to the definition of the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary, a profession is a type of work activity that requires a certain level of training and is a source of livelihood. But I would like to add that this is not just a source of existence, but also inspiration. This is a business from which a person should receive good income and pleasure. Do you agree?
But in life it often turns out differently, because, despite the abundance of educational institutions and various specialties, there are certain factors that lead astray.
Reasons for unconscious choice of profession:
- Unconscious incompetence: This is a state where a person has no idea what he would like to do in the future and does not consider it important to choose a profession in advance. High school students perceive work as a duty, and not as an opportunity for self-realization. The lack of a vision for the future forces one to make a “finger in the sky” choice, and as a result, a person, while undergoing training or already getting a job, feels out of place.
- Confidence that working on the Internet can bring easy money: this applies mainly to those born after 1995-1997. Generation Z people do not strive to work for hire for 8 hours a day, they are looking for freedom and want to be influencers on social networks: post about their lives and get paid for advertising on their account. This does not require any special education, except perhaps the ability to write text correctly and take attractive photos and videos. Many people want to follow the examples of famous bloggers who earn millions from this. Simply put, the pursuit of freedom and big money is a priority. But can we be sure that the peak of popularity of social networks will last forever?
- Lack of information: schools provide little information about professions and rarely provide career guidance to students. Most extracurricular activities are devoted to preparing for the Olympics or are sports activities and theater clubs, i.e. the choice is quite narrow. As a rule, many have certain passions, but not everyone tries themselves in a future field before entering an educational institution. But there is a possibility that a schoolchild who dreams of being a doctor, having attended first aid courses, will say that this is not his thing at all, or, on the contrary, will completely fall in love with medicine.
- Dependence on the opinions of others : Parents naturally want the best for their children, and often insist on choosing a profession that, in their opinion, is most suitable. And then there are friends who are trying to study together for company. Yes, at school we gain basic knowledge and even determine our favorite subjects, but this does not give a clear understanding of who we will ultimately be. Many children are ready to trust the opinion of mom and dad, although we should not forget that parents grew up, received education and worked in other conditions, in the end, they can judge based on their abilities and their personality type.
- Forced circumstances: this is the case when you want to become a theater star, but you go to work as a sales consultant and at the same time study in the correspondence department to become a manager, because you really need money and there is no time and money to make your dream come true. It also happens that there are simply not enough points to enter the desired university and you have to choose from what is available [TASS, 2019].
- Obligation to continue the dynasty: here we are not just talking about dependence on the opinions of others, but about a sense of duty. How can Petya go to study as an engineer if three generations of his family are doctors? Not everyone will decide to break the system, even if they understand that this profession is not at all for them.
- Following fashion: Often, future students do not think about the future, but are guided by trends, but what is popular today will not necessarily be in demand in five years. If, for example, there is a high demand for a legal specialty among applicants, this does not mean that the labor market needs each of them and all of them will eventually be employed.
In fact, if you do not make a confident choice before entering a secondary specialized or higher educational institution, then later you will have to return to this issue again, because sooner or later a person realizes that he is in the wrong place and is simply wasting time, sitting through lectures that will not be useful in the future.
Here is what Kirill Kuznetsov, head of the career guidance department of the Center for Humanitarian Technologies, thinks about this: “Few people have a clearly structured professional trajectory. This trend has existed for a long time, and therefore we see that many graduates do not work in their specialty after university. Full professional self-determination often occurs after receiving a diploma” [hh.ru, 2019].
According to statistics from the website hh.ru, every third applicant is only partially satisfied with the specialty they received, and 41% of respondents with higher education do not work according to their profile. Of these, 45% believe that their profession will not help them earn good money, 30% do not see any career prospects, and 24% of those surveyed realized that they had made a mistake in choosing their specialty.
Imagine, as many as 24% of respondents took the wrong road and lost their time! But this can be avoided if you approach the choice of profession more consciously.
Apply to one of the suitable vacancies
So, to sum up the question of how to choose a job to your liking, we advise you to start looking for suitable vacancies. There are many ways to do this - from surfing thematic career portals to publishing posts on your social networks that you are looking for a job.
It is best to take advantage of several opportunities at once so that your search is more likely to be successful.
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- Author: Dmitry Petrosyants
