5 Things You Need to Know About Yourself Before You Choose a Career

I chose my first job out of uni because I was interested in it. I couldn’t decide between business and education so I went for a job that combined both of these interests. Win-win right?

It could have been, if the job wasn’t 30% face-to-face sales! I hate sales. I’ve always hated sales. Ever since I worked in a bank at 18, persuading customers to book in appointments for credit card and loan applications that they couldn’t afford, I’ve known sales was not my thing. But I still took the job!

I was so focused on getting a job in an area I was interested in that I didn’t think about anything else. I forgot to think about my strengths, my values, what makes me happy and even what I already knew I hated doing!

I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Whether you’re choosing your first job out of college or thinking about a mid-twenties career change, here are five things you need to know about yourself before you make any decisions:

1. Your strengths

It’s time to discover your gifts and share them with the world! Having a career that uses your strengths is an incredible place to be in.

For me, it’s meant feeling happier at work and making more of an impact. I totally believe that if everyone used their superhero strengths in their job then our planet would be a better place.

ACTION: Take one (or two) of these strengths tests:
1) Clifton Strengthsfinder (paid $15)
From this test you’ll get your Top 5 strengths and incredibly helpful explanations of how to use them.
2) 16 Personalities (free)
This test is pretty much Myers-Briggs and gives you an in-depth personality report for free. To find out your strengths, take the test and click through the report to the strengths section.

2. The things that make you happy

We’ve only got a certain number of days on this Earth so let’s do what we can to spend them happy!

A great way of doing this is to get 100% clear on what makes you happy. Then you’ll be able to look for a career that lets you fill your days with as many of these things as possible!

ACTION: Write a list of what makes you happy. Think about what really brings you into the moment and makes you feel alive. What puts a smile on your face?

If you’re struggling, think about your happiest memories. What were you doing? Who were you with? Where were you?

3. The topics that interest you

This is a chance for you to get down on paper everything you’re interested in or think that you might be interested in! By this I mean the little sparks of curiosity you might get about a topic when watching a film, reading a book or hearing about it in conversation

ACTION: Create a curiosity list! List all your interests PLUS all the things that sound like they might be interesting to you.

Once you’ve got your list, choose a topic and try it out! This is your chance to see if that little spark of curiosity will grow into your next obsession.

Not sure where to start? Why not take a class online or offline, read a book about the topic or make it into a mini-project? A mini-project is great because you can learn and create at the same time! For example, if you’re curious about computer science, your mini-project could be spending a week designing and coding your own webpage. Getting stuck in to something like that is a great way to find out if you really are as interested in the topic as you thought you would be!

4. What you don’t want from a job

As I’m sure you can see from my story, knowing what you don’t want from your career is just as important as knowing what you do want. No one wants to be stuck in a job filled with stuff they hate!

ACTION: Create a checklist of everything you definitely don’t want to do in your career.

To do this, think about your previous jobs. For each job, write down anything (and everything) you hated about it!

If you haven’t had any jobs before then think about your education. Which subjects did you not enjoy at school and what did you dislike about them?

5. Your values

Knowing what’s most important to you will make choosing your next career as easy as deciding whether to watch another episode of Game of Thrones (well, almost!)

You’ll be able to put your priorities first, choose a career that feels purposeful to you and decide what lifestyle you’d like to have outside of work.

ACTION: Take the free test at value-test.com and find out your values in order of priority.

What next?

Now you’ve gathered all this information about your awesome self, what do you do with it?
Here are the next three steps to take:

1) Research, research and research some more! Find out what you can about potential careers using the internet, books and networking. List out all the ones that sounds great to you.
2) Shortlist 5-10 careers. Use the lists you’ve made today and all your research to narrow it down to the careers that are perfect for you!
3) Go get practical and test out your shortlisted careers. You could try an internship, work shadowing or your own month-long practical project. Set yourself a deadline, have fun and enjoy the process!