Manu Goel asked:

Choosing a career is probably one of the most important decisions of a lifetime. Whether you are fresh out of school or in college or enrolled in online degree, it is vitally important that you seriously consider your personality and interests before making career decisions.

Choosing a career is a vital decision all of us have to take. Utmost care has to be taken while choosing a career because once you have chosen a career, It is very difficult to take backtrack or take a u-turn. Before you take this one major decision, there are so many things that you have to consider.

Plan your career as early as possible. Planning early, you will be on the right track once you in college. This means to say that you should start planning while you are at the high school. Once you have the right frame of mind, you can pursue a program that will lead you to your desired career path.

Even if you have not decided on the career path you want to take, once at college you will be able to get an idea of what career will suit you. It is here that you get exposed to new people, new avenues, and new opportunities. You can make full use of the college environment as testing ground of your skills and talents and decide accordingly on the career path of your choice. Also try to make contacts as many contacts as possible. You can also make full use of the college counseling center to decide on a career path.

Before deciding for a career, do not look out for jobs. In other words, job opportunities should not influence your decision in choosing a career. It is the line of work on which you must decide and not the job opportunities. If you chose a career, keeping in mind the job avenues, you may end up taking the wrong decision. And when you have realized your folly, it will be too late to reverse the decision. A career is should be completely independent of any company or corporation. Jobs will automatically come to you once you have completed your career course. So you need not worry about jobs while choosing a career.

One important thing you must do before deciding your career is assessing yourself. Perhaps you can take a piece of paper jot down some questions – Who am I already? ; What would I like to be better at than anyone else? ; Is there something in the world that I believe needs to be done? These questions will get you thinking and will allow you to articulate your thoughts. As you write your answers down, you are committing yourself to considering these questions. These questions help to find out more about yourself, your commitment, your confidence level to take on a challenge.

You can also take up career tests that are available at on-campus career centers. You can discuss the result with the counselor and perhaps he/ she will offer you useful tips.

If all these do not suffice, you can also take professional help from outside your college. There are numerous career-counseling centers and better still, you can visit the portals offering career counseling. Here you will find expert career advice and you can also take up career tests.

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John Groth asked:

Here it is mid-October and the other day I noticed a well decorated Christmas tree in a department store while the leaves are still on the trees and I was still mowing my grass. Talk about rushing the season. But maybe theres another season that needs to be brought to the present. Instead of waiting until the New Year to perform a thorough career check up, when the holidays and everything else is in the way, it now appears to be an excellent time for you to take a careful look at your career.

How is your career progressing? Where are you now, what do you expect in the near future and are you satisfied with your progress? Is it necessary for a new beginning?

Dont be like a lot of people that make job and career decisions based on only one or two factors. These decisions need to be carefully thought out before you change employers or to go into a different career. If you perform a wide-ranging career evaluation you wont be caught up in making career decisions on superficial slights or minor disparities. There are more important considerations that completely outweigh these minor short term distractions.

Instead of making career decisions based on short term factors like did you get the last promotion, is your current pay competitive or even how well you are getting on with your boss, your career assessment should be based on a whole range of factors. Dont make the mistake of hastily jumping into another job or becoming unemployed and later you have to regret the move.

Here are four basic factors involved in a Career Check-up. Take your time to carefully evaluate each factor.

What is Your Employers Situation? How well is your employer performing financially? Are sales and market share increasing or decreasing? Is your employer a leader and keeping up to date with the latest trends and technology? Evaluate your companys reputation in your industry and community, and how does this impact your own career goals.

Is Your Career Marketable? What is the current demand for your skills? Be honest with yourself and consult with others in the same position with other employers. Are you up to date with the professional demands of the job and the job one level above you? Examine this factor critically. We all, at one time or another, tend to inflate our skills and job knowledge. Whats been the recent experience of others in the same field that elected to change employers?

Is Your Own Professional Career Development on Track? Are your skills being used in your current job? What is your potential for future career growth? Does your present job utilize your interests and strengths? Is your current job challenging? Do you have a say in how your job is performed? Are your ideas sought and listened to? What is your potential to advance further with your current employer? And how does your future at your current employer mesh with your career plan?

What are Your Personal Preferences? Do you enjoy your job? Are most days positive? How do you feel about getting up every day and going to work? Is your job personally satisfying? Have you been thinking about changing jobs?

If you decide your current job and career situation is promising and rewarding, even in the face of minor distractions, this assessment will validate your current position. If you uncover areas that you need to improve, develop a plan to address the short fall. However, if youre faced with mostly negative answers, and there are limits on your career prospects with your current employer, you might consider looking at other employment prospects.

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Abhishek Agarwal asked:

Planning a career can be defined as choosing lifes important paths. A careful planning is certainly required when it comes to how you would earn a living. If planning is not implemented it will culminate in not only a financial problem but it might even turn into a physical, psychological and emotional problem. The consequence of ruining our life can be dreadful. There are many experiences of people who have earned a living with nothing in hand. This can happen only with a keen career plan. Hence planning must be taken seriously. New opportunities and career choices are developing every day that didnt at all exist few years ago.

The career vocabulary has to e given prior importance and a good understanding for the first step in planning. Words meaning the same can then be proved different, though with only subtle difference. For example the words: position, employment, job, career, occupation. They seem to be synonyms, but do not necessarily be so. A paramedic and a doctor both have an employment, but their positions differ. It is important to be familiar with the following words before planning a career: career management, career development, career counseling, career guidance. These have a lot to do with planning a career. A firm structure is required for career building. Career building are steps taken towards a systematic and designed career that fits you perfect. It helps in a satisfactory progress all along the path of a well chosen career. Long term goals and short term objectives are decided and they are the first step towards planning for a good career. Decisions are made based upon ones flexibility, adaptability and resilience. The response to challenges are decided by these characters. Later self assessment of ones personal management capabilities is done.

What sort of decisions on lifestyle will you come up with? What are your interpersonal skills and job-survival skills? How good are you at work-leisure integration and role integration? Identification of ones skills and strengths is important in career planning. Can you do an effective employment search? The want ads in newspapers are not the only way in which one has to search. How do you project yourself? How good are you at demanding yourself? What measures would you make to become more marketable? Knowledge on the source of information should always be in the process of updating. The trends in labor market often change. Training opportunities have to be found out. The years in work force would have given you several positions or jobs. A good marketable individual ultimately does an effective career planning with the required changes.

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