Is it more likely to get the career you really want or your backup career?

You can achieve your desired career if you take these steps:

• get to know yourself to assure that you are following a career for which you have the suitable personality traits to match those who are successful in that career area and
• pursue interpersonal, face to face, networking to become familiar with the many aspects of your career area to discover if it is a comfortable match.

Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

Gina, you raise an interesting question. Ken's answer above has a lot of good information and is a great guide for selecting a career. I believe your question goes a little deeper though as in "what are my chances of getting a job in the career field I really want before having to get one in my backup field?"

There is no simple answer to this question since there are so many options available in most career fields unless you are going to specialize in a small area. If you specialize in a small area such as being a brain surgeon, then the chances are pretty good that you will get a job in that career, assuming there is not much competition. If this is not the case then you need to look at your career choice to determine if there is an opportunity to specialize within it. Example: a Biology major may have opportunities in health sciences, physical therapy, marine biology and many others, but if you specialize, say focusing on the way nerves react to jelly fish stings, you limit your options but chances are pretty good you will find someone who needs that expertise.

That being said, I've found that a "career" is a journey and not a destination. You don't have to settle on a specific career and feel like you are settling for second best if you don't get a job in it. A career is a constant learning process. Any job you get will be adding to your knowledge and experiences which in turn will be transferable to other jobs. Example: what skills do you get from being a line cook at McDonald's? Organization, process control, customer service, time management, teamwork, and many others. For every job, look at the higher skills you are developing instead of the drudge of doing the work. If you have to "settle" for your backup career, get to most you can out of it. Develop the skills it provides and continue to look for opportunities in your preferred field. Personally, I began my college career believing I wanted to be a Physics major but graduated as an Animal Science major. I got a job in the retail meat industry and have been working in the high tech computer manufacturing area for the past 20 years.

The key thing to remember is that what you think you like today may change over time so be open to change and new opportunities. Use the knowledge you gain in one job to help in your next. Enjoy the journey and don't get too obsessed with one particular job unless you are specializing. Your chances of getting a job in a particular field is always dependent on the amount of competition you are facing so focus on getting the most out of what ever job you get and if that leads you back to your preferred career, great. If not, enjoy the journey.