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Career Planning: Help With A Major Decision

Author: GeorgePurdy Total views: 4 Word Count: 563

Opportunities can be found in all walks of life. However, we aren't often aware of them or don't know how to make the most of the opportunities we are given. This also holds true when accepting a job or embarking on a career. I cannot stress how important it is to begin career planning early in your life. My goal in this article is to direct you towards the proper approach in career planning.

We all have our own likes and dislikes, career choice also reflects this set of likes and dislikes. While one person may grow up hoping to be a great rock artist, another while be more inclined toward being a space shuttle pilot. Imagination and wonder are great, as they open up our mind to the world of possibilities that are out there, but we must be aware of the importance of hard work in realizing those dreams. It is because we lack career planning that the majority of us never see our childhood dreams come to fruition.

It is important to get started early, looking for the opinions of others in their jobs. Look for the opinions of friends, parents, neighbors, teachers, and several others about their employment. Seek their opinion about the several careers that you know of, ask them for help to get information on other possible careers as well. They can draw on their wealth of experience in different fields, and seeking their advice will also be helpful to you in making your career choice.

If when all is said and done you still don't know what career you might like to pursue, it's time to seek professional career counseling. For high school students, this help is as close as their school guidance office, and it's free. These professional counselors have been trained to determine your career needs, analyze your skills, and provide you with testing to evaluate your aptitude for various careers.

Local libraries and bookstores are a great place to find career planning guidebooks. A guidebook will contain information for making a career choice, such as profiles of conventional and unconventional jobs and what skills and characteristics are required to succeed. A book will also contain experiences of people already working in those professions. If you relate to the description of a certain job, you might want to choose that job.

Having said that, it's just as important to think about your personality, skills, qualifications and priorities in life in order for your career planning to be effective. SWOT analysis is a good method to employ as you do such an analysis. Don't forget that creativity and passion have no boundaries. Feel free to dream big. Once you have your dream career in mind, all you need to do is steep that dream in reality.

We all have personal preferences and our choice of career reflects these preferences to a great extent. Most of us never realize these adolescent dreams because of lack of career planning. They can draw on their wealth of experience in different fields, and seeking their advice will also be helpful to you in making your career choice. If after these conversations, you still feel hesitant or hazy about a possible career; you should waste no time in seeking career counseling from a professional. If you are a high school student, chances are that you can avail of such counseling at your school's career guidance center.

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About the Author

George Purdy is a well-known public speaker on career planning and has written several articles and essays on this subject matter. The following site career coaches might also be interesting for you.

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