NAVIGATING CAREER CHOICES

Start_in.class

Published on: March 29, 2024 (8mo ago)

It has become like an unconscious default mode for students to choose a certain career, but with it, there is an influence and sometimes a “force” coming from society (peers, friends, and even your family) to make you follow that career. Just to name a few, so you can get a sense of this influence: “You must be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer.”

This influence is not bad for sure, so we should not consider it that way. The only cause for you to be influenced into this direction by “society” is because we love you so much, we don’t want you to suffer in your life (when you will not have enough money), we need you to survive. That’s why any career recommended for you in the background this has always been the reason, and it’s not a bad thing, because it is true. But it comes with one big cost to you: the betrayal of what you really want, what you are truly interested in, what you like, what you love. We leave this for the sake of surviving, and the truth is, you will be hunted for this for the rest of your life, by yourself, by your own mind. Even if you won't admit it, deep down in your mind, your consciousness will blame you for not going to the thing you liked and instead doing something else. And this, to top it up, has more impact on the quality of your performance to the other option you decided to follow instead of what you really like.

This takes us to the second big idea: the best career for you, the one which brings fulfilment to your life, lies behind what you are mostly interested in, what you are most curious about, what you like, what you love to do, and not what you are told to do, because this is your one and only life.

So, the default way to find your dream career, your dream job, is to follow your interests, what you like, what you are good at. From there, your true career is where it is found.

Additional ideas to consider during in your career choice:

  • You need to be exposed to many things; you need to try many things. Always, what interests you may be hidden from your eyesight, that's why you must find it. Get exposed to many things as much as possible to see if they fit your taste.
  • It's not a piece of chocolate you will find on the road; for you to do what you love, there is hard work accompanied with it. You will have to work hard to reach that.
  • It's not a guarantee that you will have success doing what you like; you might even be the poorest person doing what you love. But one thing which is for sure you are on the right track, keep going, and in fact, you will find more fulfillment than following mediocre things. What is better than the peace of mind? But as we need to survive, always try to balance your life by having side projects or work which can help you pay the bills while you are still doing the things you like.
  • If you try to search for that one only true thing, that one career which was meant for you, you will not find it that way. As you are not exposed to many things (and you won't), when you say this is the one, the day the thing which you didn’t know shows up and you like it. Will this current thing you are doing be a wrong decision? No, we evolve, so what we like will change too and will not be the same thing for the next years to come, and naturally, still, we are inclined to more than one thing. If you tie your identity to one thing, it will restrict your access to things you enjoy. YOU CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE CAREER AT THE SAME TIME OR SEQUENCIALLY.
  • You didn't make a mistake if this you have now is not the thing you love. We can always change direction at any moment (though courage is required). In fact, what you have learned is a prerequisite for the creativity you will make in the future, so it was not a waste.
  • Pay attention to what you are good at. We always love what we are good at. That can be your first starting point.
  • We craft our careers nowadays. There aren't already made careers; what you didn’t consider a career a few years ago now is the career of the century. Take the example of YouTubers. You can create your career too.