How do you decide when you want your job to be your career?

Congratulations on being interested in finding the right career to follow.. It takes a special person to enter into a specific career field and meet the demands which that career area presents. The first step is to get to know yourself to see if you share the personality traits which make one successful in that area. The next step is doing networking to meet and talk to and possibly shadow people doing what you might think that you want to do to see if this is something that you really want to do, as a career area could look much different on the inside than it looks from the outside.  When I was doing college recruiting, I encountered too many students, who skipped these important steps, and ended up in a career/job for which they were ill suited.

Hello Emily: Great question and because you are asking this question early, you have a better chance of navigating your career choices better than I did and better than most. Many people try out different fields and retool over and over again to get to the career that they really want. I did that as well. I started in administrative work in a college environment then worked in college testing, academic advising, and even taught counseling and human services part-time. I though back to a class that impacted me the most during my graduate studies and applied to career counseling. I knew when I was sitting in the class, listening to my professor's experiences in research, conferences, and teaching that that was something I wanted to do. I was fortunate to see a position open and applied and got the job. it is unfortunate that not many positions are available in this state for college counselors as there is a great need but funding does not allow that need to be met. I feel fortunate to have enjoyed each experience I had along the way and have learned something about myself and the world of work. I believe that when you take on new work, volunteer and intern experiences from the perspective of learning, you will be successful by learning about yourself and about employers expectations and opportunities that exist for your unique skillset and knowledge base. From that you can either join a team that appreciates what you have to offer or you may be able to create your own organization, as is happening more and more. I want to challenge you to begin your decision-making experience by reviewing two websites, occupational outlook handbook and onetonline.org. Each site holds a wealth of information about various career fields. Type in biology in the search fields of each. Review the different types of biology work that exist and the skills, interests, and knowledge required. Then, think about the skills you like using most in school, past experiences and those that you want to gain. See how they fit into the careers in biology that are provided. This exercise should be a good start to creating a path for yourself. Good luck!

Hi Emily

Ken has given you some excellent advice. One additional thought to consider is to gain insight into your true strengths. My favorite assessment is StrengthsFinder. The resulting report will provide insightsinto your true strengths and what opportunities are potentially available in the various fields. And as your career path takes various turns throughout your life this report may serve as a grounding point or at least a reference for your decision-making process. Secondarily, as long as you embrace each portion of your career path as a necessary of your journey, hopefully you will see the value that each step brings - even if certain steps seem out of synch. You are very much empowered to determine what your ideal career path will be. Embrace the journey. Best of luck.