Finding The Right Career Path

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LEARN YOUR TALENTS AND YOUR VALUES

The first step in choosing a career path is understanding your skillsets. This may seem obvious, but it's more challenging than you'd think. First, knowing your skillsets and talents requires having experienced enough life and occupational scenarios that you can genuinely judge your abilities against others in a similar situation. It's easy to admire careers from afar, but only with experience doing similar work can you really know if a passing interest is a passion you're willing to do day-in-and-day-out for years.

For example, in my case, I thought I'd be a great politician when I was younger. I had many opinions about the world, could create actionable plans to get things done, and was considered a great motivator by my friends. After a year-long internship in politics, it turned out that I did not have the stomach for it. Politics requires compromise, making deals, and sometimes socializing with those I did not admire or like much. In addition, the lack of privacy and constant social interaction drained me. The lesson? I needed to see the nuances to determine if this role worked for me. It turns out I'd be a great public policy writer and researcher. I enjoy discussing policy topics that could potentially make the world a better place. I can impact society in a behind-the-scenes role while remaining true to my ideals, and I can lobby for change but choose the timing and length of my interactions – a much better fit for an introvert!

Therefore, I'm not advocating for throwing out the baby with the bathwater every time we realize there are annoyances to careers we thought we'd like. Instead, I suggest gaining internships and other similar experiences before committing to employment changes and using what we've found distasteful in one role to define our thought process better. In my case, the fact that I once thought I'd be interested in politics was part of my necessary information puzzle. Once I realized an aspect of politics did not feel right for me, it allowed me to reevaluate and ask, "What did I initially like about it?". And if I still liked certain aspects of the role, how can I apply that information? In my case, public policy was the correct answer.

To recap: (1) Learn what your talents are through experiences. (2) Next, reevaluate what was good or bad in your experience, and is there a role that fits into your new understanding? (3) Honestly evaluate your skillset after the experience – what did you learn about yourself?

BE REALISTIC ABOUT YOUR CURRENT SITUATION

Many careers interest me, particularly after returning to school to get a grad degree and be exposed to ideas I'd never thought of before now. I constantly find myself asking, should I be doing ______? The reality is, in another time and space, several jobs would hold my interest. However, as a middle-aged career changer, aspects of my life, timing, and priorities limit the roles I can do. For instance, I know that I can not work for a major media organization at this point in my life. It would require starting at the bottom and working for little pay. It also requires leaving my old experience at the door. After exploring roles that required me to do this, I found it challenging to take on roles meant for people younger than me. My adult experience is contradictory in scenarios that require a lot of leadership and little freedom. Not impossible, but I did not find it healthy for me. It eroded my self-confidence. For me, it is a better situation to be employed by someone who sees my past experience as an asset rather than starting me at the bottom, assuming I have no relevant experience. Therefore, hierarchical roles that are part of a rigid lateral corporate organization are not suitable for me. However, working in communications in a nonprofit, where the skillset is similar, could be a better option. Nonprofits often need staff that can quickly fill multiple roles and work outside their job descriptions. The lifestyle at a nonprofit is also typically less punishing than the workload of the lowest rung workers at major media companies. Therefore, during my career change, a better long-term strategy is to identify roles that work with my situational needs and my talents. It is very tempting to try and make roles fit because they "sound good" or we are flattered by an offer. It is essential to make sure we look for employers that support our emotional, intellectual and familial needs too.

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