Can’t Decide on a Career? Follow These Steps to Find a Job You Love

If you’re wondering how to find a job you’ll love, then don’t panic – you’re not the only one!

Countless people struggle to decide on a career, often taking years to hone in on the role that’s right for them. In this article, we’d like to offer some tips to help you on that journey with a four step process that anyone can follow!

Step 1. Talk To People

When people imagine a job they’ve never worked, they almost always get it wrong. From daring journalists pulling off remarkable investigative feats to brilliant scientists changing the world one groundbreaking equation at a time, the urge to romanticise affects almost every career to varying degrees.

In reality, your average journalist is more likely to spend their days sending emails and writing up interviews, while most scientists spend a lot more time trawling through data than they do reinventing their field single-handedly.

These are, of course, extreme examples, but the point stands that however you imagine a career, it probably won’t bear much relationship to the real thing.

Practically speaking, finding a job you love means finding one that makes you happy on the day-to-day, and the best way to do that is by finding out how much your friends and family enjoy their jobs.

That’s not to say you have to treat their answers as gospel – obviously these things are very taste driven – but be sure to listen carefully and keep an open mind. And who knows, you may discover that being a dentist is more fun than you thought?

Step 2. Try Things Out

Finding time is hard and it only gets harder. The older you get, the more likely you are to pick up responsibilities, eating up your precious free time and making it harder and harder to try new things.

This is why it’s vitally important to try as many new things as possible when you’re young, before you’ve set yourself on any one career path. By taking every opportunity and not being afraid to give challenging things a go, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to discover something you’re truly passionate about. At the same time you’ll get to learn more about the types of work that aren’t for you.

For example, most people believe that they would hate customer facing roles, particularly those who are a little more on the introverted side. Often they’re right – customer facing roles are challenging and it can take a lot of confidence to be good at them.

On the other hand, many people who don’t consider themselves all that confident discover that they really enjoy helping people and that, under the right circumstances, finding that confidence is far easier than they thought.

Step 3. Specialise

If you still can’t decide on a career, or you want to know how to find a career that will really bring in the money, then this is by far the most important step for you.

It’s impossible to underestimate just how much more valuable specialists are than generalists in almost any career path. Many people who are interested in a topic want to study every part of it, building up a good breadth of knowledge but poor depth. Put simply, there’s no one discipline where they’re categorically the best.

Let’s say you play the guitar. Now, being trained in many styles is a good thing. Knowing a bit of classical will certainly make you a more interesting rock player and the precision required for heavy metal can translate well into some of the more experimental types of jazz.

Unfortunately, while all that skill might make you a better guitarist in general, it won’t do much good when you’re auditioning for a specific role. A rock opera will want a rock guitarist. A heavy metal band probably won’t care much about your perfect rendition of Asturias, not when you’re up against someone who knows metal inside and out.

So when you’re learning be sure to keep general studies to hobby time and put your focus into being a specialist.

Step 4. Keep An Open Mind

One last thing to mention is that, no matter what you’re planning, your career probably won’t go the way you think it will. That’s not a bad thing and it certainly isn’t a reason to not plan ahead, but just be aware that many successful careers evolve over time.

Some people find their way right into that dream job only to discover it’s not for them. Others flit around for years, taking joy in the variety of careers they’ve worked. And, it’s true, a few people drop straight into a role that’s perfect for them and stay there for decades.

All of this to say that just because you have a plan, that doesn’t mean you have to stick to it religiously. While it’s certainly important to stay focused on one thing at a time, never feel that you’re stuck on one path. Ultimately, the only person who gets to decide what you do with your life is you and that means that you can always change your mind.