Choosing a
Career
Sooner or later all of us face
the problem of choosing a career when we are to decide what we are
going to be in future. Choosing a career is not a simple matter —
in fact, it can be one of the most important in our life. You don't
need to hurry making a decision. You should examine thoroughly your
abilities and character, take a realistic view of your strengths
and weaknesses, pay attention to your parents' and friends' advice
and take into account your own preferences. The last point in the
list is particularly important because there are many examples when
people make great mistakes choosing their future profession.
Sometimes they either simply follow in the footsteps of their
parents or relatives or just blindly follow their advice. Your
choice should be mostly based on your own opinion. Family
traditions are good, but your turn of mind may be quite different.
So, never base only on other people's opinion.
Having thought carefully about what sort of person you
are, try to work out a list of your occupation requirements.
Nowadays there is a great variety of jobs to any
taste. Choosing a future career, we should consider the following
things.
• Pay. Is the size of your salary
important? Generally speaking, it is important. Of course there may
be various situations, but if you are going to be independent,
successful and wealthy, you have to find a well-paid job. Moreover,
if you are going to have a family, you should be ready to support
it, to be a breadwinner. Naturally, you'd like to live in good
conditions, and your children to study at good schools, and then to
enter prestigious universities, to travel all around the world and
so on. Now you understand why you should take money into
consideration when choosing a job.
• Further training, promotion
prospects and job
conditions should also be kept in
mind. Just after graduating it is very difficult to find a plum job
which will respond to all your preferences. It is usually a
monotonous, tedious clerical job, but if you are a capable and
hard-working person, you will certainly be offered an opportunity
to climb the ladder.
• Place of
work. You ought to decide whether
you want to work indoors (cashier, chemist, librarian, secretary,
etc.) or outdoors (driver, firefighter, estate agent, etc.). Your
choice may be based on your lifestyle or health
condition.
• Full-time, part-time,
flexitime jobs. There is no set pattern to
part-time working. It may involve a later start and earlier finish
time than a full-time position, working mornings or afternoons
only, fewer working days in a week for less salary. It is a perfect
variant for students who want to juggle their studies and work, as
well as flexitime jobs. Employees decide by themselves when to
begin and end their working day.
• Communication with different
people. Meeting and dealing with people doesn't appeal to every
person. Some people are not very sociable; on the contrary, they
are timid, shy and diffident. Frankly speaking, it is a great
talent to have communication skills. If you think you have it, you
may choose a profession involving close contacts with people, such
as a doctor, a journalist, a lawyer, a guide, a
teacher.
• Business
trips. You should keep in mind that
some professions imply travelling all over the world, such as tour
guides, scientists, actors, journalists, pilots and so on. It's not
always fun. Business trips may last a week, a month and even more.
You may be sent to London for a few days, then you'll spend only a
few hours in Paris, and right after that, without any rest, you'll
have to go to Berlin. Sometimes it turns out that you don't have
even an hour for yourself just to relax and see the town you've
come to. Such trips may be very exhausting and stressful. However,
if you are young, ambitious and full of energy, you will be able
not only to do your job successfully but also see the
world.
• Aspiration for creative
work. If you are a creative
person, it's a must for you to find such job. It can be a job of an
artist, a tailor, a designer or a
stylist.
• Jobs connected with
risk. Such jobs are usually
well-paid, but very dangerous. A police officer, a fireman, a
bodyguard, a lifeguard — these are the names of jobs which imply
risk. Those, who want a rewarding but demanding job and who are
ready to devote all their lives to it, may choose this kind of
work.
Analyzing all these points
will help you not to make a wrong choice.
In case you are an aspiring, responsible, creative,
optimistic, reliable person, who is ready to learn and be
laborious, who is not afraid of any difficulties of the future and
ready to solve any problem with a smile, the world of jobs and
careers will be open to you.
Choosing a career should not only be a matter of
future prestige and wealth. Work should bring real satisfaction;
otherwise your whole life will become dull and
monotonous.