The Dos and Don'ts of choosing the right career

Getting your career journey started is a process. Finding your first job will most likely require a lot of applications and rejections. Therefore, it's so important to not give up and keep persisting! Continue to apply and believe in yourself. A career is usually not linear, there will be some good days, some bad ones, some days things will feel right and other days where it won’t. But remember: that is all ok and normal. Whatever the scenario, keep in mind that you are evolving, growing and learning, wherever your career is taking you. Stay persistent, don't give up hope on yourself or your career.

Here's is a fun fact – we don’t know what we don’t know. This means, you may think you know all about a career opportunity or working in a certain field, but in fact, you might have missed out on some critical information before making that call. 

What does a general day-to-day look like in that job? What are real challenges and benefits? What are some of the most critical skills for that job? Have you talked to anyone who does that for a living? Don’t stay just in your head, instead seek out opportunities and people who can share their advice, tips and experiences with you. Even a single conversation can spark a lot of new ideas or ways of thinking.

Before you decide on the industry you want to join, make sure to do some market research. Nowadays this isn't hard because thanks to our mates at Google, you can just google your desired career pathway as extensively as you can and read from different resources. Think about the job outlook and prospects, the demand, average hours and compensation or the necessary experience and qualifications, just to name a few. This is a critical step, because you want to know where you are headed and whether it is worthwhile investing your time, effort or money to get into.

Perhaps your friend chose a career that sounds cool or your family is certain you will do great in law school. However, your skillset may not be the same as your friends or you may not be naturally drawn to the same things as your family or friends. Therefore, it’s important to get to know yourself well. Explore, get to know and be aware of your strengths, weaknesses, what you like to do and what you want to avoid. You need to be able to see and hear yourself clearly so that other suggestions don’t blur or cloud your decision. You can find online career quizzes, personality tests or just reach out to your school’s career advisor.