Do I Actually Like my Career Direction?

Lessons from Our Everyday Jobs

In this day and age, career decisions are mostly profit based than being about what you actually like doing. It is an understandable notion, but your career is something you will be doing for a long time, and no one wants to do what they don’t like for a long time. More times than others, when people choose majors to study, they choose according to what will land them the best paying job or what will turn the most profitable in the future. Don’t get me wrong, income is very important, but not always at the expense of everyday job satisfaction. For a start do you have an everyday job?

One way to get a sense of fulfillment and joy in your future career is to draw lessons from your everyday life and everyday job experiences. So let’s do an exercise because sometimes visualization helps.

• I want you to write out a list of factors that influenced your current career direction.
• What are three things you value the most in life?
• What made you choose this career path?

It can stem from interests, a hobby, future income, geographical location, anything at all.

• Now, make a list of the jobs you have had since high school or your ten most memorable jobs (good or bad ones).
• What did you like about those jobs?
• What did you hate?
• What can you take forward?

Your everyday job is actually a very good experimental lab for your career. As you work toward your career path, find your everyday job and take note of what you like or did not like. The point of this is for better visualization of your career influences, it’s a way of helping you see what your push factors are and better deciding if your current career path is in fact for you.

Now let’s talk long term/short term. Circumstance usually dictates that we think short term, but realistically it’s important that you’re thinking long term when choosing a career. Thinking long term involves thinking through job satisfaction, possible career growth and expansion, and even as far off as retirement. When you choose a career based on short term plans, it’s easy to lose interest in said career or hit a block in the road that may stunt your career growth. Bet you didn’t know Harrison Ford was a carpenter before he became an actor. He had worked as a carpenter for 15 years before his career change stemming from his role as Hans Solo in Star Wars, and this goes to show that nothing is ever set in stone; and for you too it’s never too late or early to reevaluate your values and make career decisions that provide more job satisfaction.

So the million dollar question is, do you actually like your career? Is this something you see yourself doing in the long run? Refer to the lists we created, and be honest with it. It will come in handy as we go along this series on career decisions.