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By Jim Davis
"I don't have a clue!"
That's the answer I often get when I ask teens, and sometimes even college seniors, what kind of job or career they want. And it's easy to see why. There are hundreds of different kinds of careers out there to choose from. And each career presents lots of job possibilities. It's overwhelming if you don't have some kind of a plan.
Fortunately, there's a kind of "game plan" that will work for almost anyone. And it will work regardless of whether you plan to go to college, technical or business school, or directly to work when you finish high school. It is simple, and with the help of the Internet it's fairly easy to do. It basically involves asking yourself a few questions and looking for the answers.
Question 1: What am I interested in?This is the place to start. Getting a handle on what your main interests are can help you begin to zero in on the kinds of jobs or careers you want to find out more about. It can also help you find out what kinds of skills you'll need. Remember, even though you don't have the skills now doesn't mean you can't learn them. Of course, just because you are interested in a particular job doesn't mean you'll be able to meet the requirements for the job. For example, you might be interested in being a jockey and racing thoroughbred horses, but if you are six feet tall you won't have a chance at that one. You could, however, still be able to become a horse trainer. You wouldn't be able to ride in races, but you could still have a career working with race horses.
The College Board web site www.collegeboard.org will make it easier to identify your interests, regardless of whether or not you plan to go to college.
Just answer the questions and the computer will use your answers to come up with several different types of jobs that you may be interested in. By clicking on each of the choices you can find out more about them.
Question 2: What are my skills?This step involves going through a kind of brainstorming session to figure out what things you are good at and what skills are involved in them.
The Internet can come to your rescue again, though, because there are "skills inventory" web sites that make this process a lot easier.
The best one I have found is the Occupational Network web site.
You can use this web site in several different ways:
- Use the skills list to pick out the skills you are good at (or the skills you want to learn.)
- Then use that set of skills to pick out what kinds of jobs you might like.
- Or, you can pick a job and find out what skills are needed for that particular job.
Question 3: What are those jobs like?There are several ways to find out what a job is like and whether you would really be interested in it. One of the best is to find a person who actually does that kind of work and "shadow" them on the job. Of course, this is usually not very easy to do. Another way is to research the job by using books from the library or materials from the guidance office at school.
Fortunately, the Internet provides ways to make the hunt for a career a lot easier. Just go to the Occupational Outlook Handbook web site:
This web site has lots of information about all sorts of jobs, such as what it's like to do the job, what education you'll need, the kind of pay you can expect, and even how easy it will be to find work in that field.
If you follow these suggestions, you may not find out exactly what kind of work you want to do, but you should be a lot farther along than you were before.