How to find a career that suits you

Career definition is the journey every individual takes in life through education, skills, working and various experiences to achieve a goal. Every individual takes different steps to pursue a specific career and to reach the perfect career you must undergo a process called career development. In this article we will go through some of the most important steps to develop your career.

What is career development?

Developing a career is simply the process of learning, upgrading your skills, exploring different jobs in different fields and trying them in order to select the perfect career that matches your interests, skills and personality. The process also includes knowing yourself and which requires identifying your strengths, weakness, and blind spots and to work on improving your weak points and enhancing your skill on a regular basis. This process takes a lifelong journey, and it starts in college, also it doesn’t stop when you find your first job it continues. Along the journey, you will explore and evaluate different job opportunities which will lead you to advance and grow in a specific career or choose a different career path.

Why is career development important?

Developing your career helps you save a lot of time in the future even if it takes you effort and time, it also helps you stand out in your work environment, and finally It helps you set your goals and to be purpose driven as you set your vision and destination before your eyes.

Steps of career development:

  There are 5 main steps in this process:

Career assessment:   

In this phase, we start to re- all our values, strengths, education, the culture we were born in, the field we are interested in principles, lifestyle, and our current job. The most crucial thing is to find what you really are passionate about that you can continue to do for the rest of your life and to be honest about it with yourself even if it doesn’t make sense to where you are in life right now. These questions must be answered individually, and you can always seek help from professionals like career coaches and counselors to help you determine the path you want to follow.

Career investigation

This stage is often called “research time” because in that stage we start looking for jobs that match the individual passion. It’s okay to feel confused at this point and this stage will take time and it requires that you try different opportunities or apply for internships and be in that place of confusion and research for a while until one of the opportunities will stand out for you.

Start preparing for the job

At this stage, you start comparing your skills, education and abilities with the career you chose. The comparison will give you an image of the goals you need to achieve and the personal growth you need to work on, for example, it’s maybe software that you need to learn or a course that you need to enroll in order to be ready for that particular field or job. Asking seniors and specialists in that major can help you prepare as well. Start identifying your gaps and strengths and write them down in a list and start working on them in the process.

Set your short and long-term goals

After finding the career you are passionate about and the gaps you need to work on, start segmenting your long-term goals into short term goals and tasks you need to achieve. This strategy is crucial because having a short-term goals will keep you accountable in the journey and it’s your only guarantee that you will achieve your long-term ones.

Evaluate

The final stage is evaluating your performance after a period of time and adjusting your goals and then repeating the process all over again.