People choose different careers for all sorts of different reasons.
One might join to follow in their parent’s footsteps. For example, military families can feel honourable all partaking in service to the country.
Some might wish to be anything but their parents, such as opting for a creative career instead of heading into law enforcement.
Others might wish to make the best use of their natural intelligence, and sacrifice for it, such as becoming a Doctor and Lawyer.
And others might take the risk of becoming an actor or a comedian, with shining lights in their eyes and a dream to carry them.
All of these careers are valid, and all of these reasons are valid, even though they don’t scratch the surface of what’s right. Finding a career that sustains you can be the most promising means of finding something you want to do, to ensure that it is your decision, that it’s well researched, and that you can enjoy the breadth of it.
It can be hard to achieve well – but if you do, you’re likely to feel confident and comforted in its progression.
Let us see what that might look like, together:
Consider The Lifestyle
The lifestyle that you live will often be tailored to whatever full-time position you have. For example, a chef will often work much different and longer hours to someone working in a marketing firm, who ideally run their hours from 9-5 each day.
Each job comes with a lifestyle, and it can be hard to simply ignore that and dictate your own means. This can lead some people to seek out freelancing work, as they know that working from home can be a much more comfortable position to keep them active and also negotiate family responsibilities.
However, the security of an office job, or at least a premises of work, is ideal for most people. In order to find a career that sustains you, you need to know what you love.
- Are you a morning or a night person?
- Do you wish for a comfortable work-life balance, or are you happy working many hours a week?
- Do you wish to feel married to the job, or to keep something fairly easy-going and comfortable?
It all depends on your approach.
The Content Of The Work
If finding a job via the lifestyle you wish to lead was the only essential thing to think about, most people would know what jobs to select without much deliberation. But unfortunately, this is not the case. It’s also quite essential to understand the content of the work you’re getting into.
It’s important to consider both the micro and macro levels of work you will be doing, and how that might affect your approach going forward.
For example, consider how you might experience graduating from the New England College in Accounting. After starting work for chartered accountants, you will have complete numerical literacy.
You will also be tasked withholding on certain accounts, taking care of certain clients, and helping them with matters that could quite literally spell out comfort or harm for their business management.
This means that your competence will have a direct effect on the health of a firm and how you are able to shield them through a financial storm.
This can be a tremendously fulfilling task, especially if the baseline work of calculation, reading financial litigation and working alongside governmental bodies is something that interests you. It’s much, much, much better to consider the content of the work than how much it will pay you.
Of course, an accountant’s salary is nothing to sniff at, but it’s worthless if the work you’re doing is not something you find interest in. A career that sustains you will have content value before income, every single time.
Upward Mobility
While you might find that one position is something you wish to hold for most of your lifetime, upward mobility can actually be a very strong motivational force to help you proceed down a certain path.
For example, consider those who enjoy writing. Perhaps they have enjoyed working online as a freelancer for some time, but now wish to become more stable in their work. So for that, they go to work for a local publication with some prestige.
They know that in five years, they might make manager. Then, perhaps editor. Then, perhaps over time, they will run the publication. This direct path upwards can help even the most transitory of skillsets become something worth keeping in mind.
Consider the upward mobility of your work. Some might simply wish to use freelance sites to increase their rates once they gain a better understanding of who they are and what their portfolio has to offer.
Others love the idea of almost guaranteed promotion, such as working in public services, should they keep their head down and work hard at the job presented to them.
It is not bad thing to have ambition. Should it completely dictate your career? Of course not.
But often, researching your chosen path and seeing just how far you could go in it can make all the difference in the long term, when you start selecting your needs based on certain criteria.
It’s Okay To Learn
We might feel guilty that we’re not entering an entry-level position with a range of excellent and storied achievements to bring to the table. That’s fine. So long as you’re willing to learn, that you have a real chance to improve your skill sets – you’ll get there.
The same goes for the philosophy we need when entering any university-level education. Sure, the qualification is nice, but it’s how deep you understand that subject that truly counts, and makes the most difference in the end. Finding a career that sustains you can often help you to this end.
With these tips, we hope you’ll become content in your chosen career path. But remember, if you need a change of pace, this is always possible, too.
Why did you choose your current career and how many times have you changed career? We would love to hear your story in the comments below.
