Where to start if you have no idea what to do after high school

Before blindly taking the leap and applying to everything our grades qualify us for, I'd take time to explore all the available opportunities. Here you have the 5 tools that I've found to be the most useful for the career orientation for youth (including myself). That way, when a parent or somebody else forces you towards a career choice you don't want to pursue, you'd have the data, the knowledge and the confidence to boomerang it back.

1) Input Youth Job Guides is a good starting point, but is a little unstructured, thus messy to use. Still, it has a good search option if you have a specific career in mind, and it gives you advice about the skills, education and diplomas needed to get started in the industry and link for further information.

2) The Bureau of Labor Statistics of US is a wonderful resource as well. For example, here we have this table, which shows us the numbers of the fastest growing industries and the fastest declining ones for the last year. This might serve as a guide for the future trends for unemployment or very poorly paid industries - the ones you have to stray away from, as well as the future treasures of dynamic career opportunities.

If you want to dig deeper and study the usual pay in different industries, highest paying, fastest growing and the industies with most expected new jobs, what education is required, the work environment, what exactly  do the workers do etc. etc. here is the link to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

It truly is a gem and I highly recommend it. First of all, it doesn't make use of assumptions as the writers of the latest career orientation articles usually do. It's all about facts and real data, all gathered by professionals from the US Labor Bureau. I love that! And I'd love that in my country the labor bureau would work as good.

3) The College Board's Majors and Career Search. Here you'll find not only (a short) description of the career, but it also give links to the colleges that provide the required major. Also, for more in depth information, you could sign up to College Board's My Road, that helps you build your "map" of options, especially if you're in US. This is the tool I've personally used when I was in high school to help me get oriented in the field I was about to embrace, therefore I recommend it as well.

4) Personality Desk's Advanced Career Search. If you're clueless about what career would suit you best, and you strongly believe in tailoring it to your personality, you should use this one.

First of all, you should take the Myers Briggs test to identify what would suit your in-born qualities. As a "know-thyself" psychology junkie, I tried a lot of tests and read about a lot of classifications of natural personality types - and I found out the Myers Briggs to be the most complete and powerful tool I've discovered yet.

Next, take the classical Holland test. This one will guide you to your interest and the fields you'll likely be happy working in. It has been widely recommended and used - and it makes it more clear about your likes and dislikes.

Then, introduce this two variables in the advanced search - and, voilà! - all the career opportunities at your feet. The ones that would most probably suit your interests and qualities. I'm INFP, by the way. And the half of hour (at most) that you've spent doing those tests would pay off with lots of time that hasn't been lost on fruitless self-search.

5) After you've done all that research using the previous tools listed, you'll have a big-picture and a more clear direction of your future. Now comes the most powerful tool for propelling you into the right career. Find a mentor and learn everything you can. Take every advice seriously and give something back. Here, I'll redirect you to someone that know infinitely more about the subject. Good luck and stay on track!


Share this now:

A "big fish" wants to partner with you? Think twice

Big name = company or person who is already established and has authority on the market you are  just entering.

Back-story

First of all - who am I to debate this subject?

Several years ago I had my first (indirect) encounter with a ”big name” due to my dad's passion with
recumbent bikes and trikes - and they were a sensation on my country's roads. He used to travel a lot by trike - here is a link to the picture of one of the ”parades”. His latest (2nd or 3rd) acquisition was an orange trike and - because it magnetized people - a mobile phone service who had orange as its corporate color proposed him a partnership for promotion. The rules they imposed determined my dad to decline their request.

More recent stories occurred due to my involvement with Life Science Club (that started under the aegis of the lyceum I have recently graduated from, the Lyceum of Academy of Sciences of Moldova) and organizing  Kick @ss Party. Most collaborations ended because of the unreasonable or uncomfortable conditions imposed.


 Pros

•  you will get instant credibility
  People tend to trust the ones who are working with a respected name. Alike the theorem of transitivity in mathematics, in real life it works for the respect and trust. Think about the latest hits: they may feature a duet of a new singer and an established one. The first benefits from the respect of the former - and the former views it as an opportunity to prove that (s)he is still in the game.

•  you will be pressurized (both from the inside and the outside) to give your best and make the project remarkable

• the promo will be priceless

Cons

• you start to have very little power over your own project
  
  In short, you will have to play by their rules. This is the most important thing that make visionaries and freedom-lovers to withdraw from the idea of getting a big name to partner with them. When you have little power over your project, you cannot fully manage the outcome and make it resemble the image you have for it in your head or on paper.
  
• you are accountable for each step you take - and that takes time and effort you could have focused on the results that matter.
  
• you cannot experiment
  
  Most of the times, when you start something, you want to make it as flexible as you can. That way, if something doesn't work, you can change the course towards sunnier shores. But, if you have that big name by your side, you cannot change anything without permission. And that sucks, because you feel like a 3-year-old that should ask mommy and daddy for allowance.

Share this now:

Pursuing your passion will not help you find a job

Cal Newport's advice on having a remarkable career is based mainly on the philosophy that passion will follow after you are really good in a field - and you should not try to find a career that you feel passion for in the first place - because longing and searching for a "dream job"  is meaningless - nothing will ever truly be a perfect fit - and it also can turn out to be not so rewarding as we might have thought.

He recommends instead:

1) deconstructing the field in which you are trying to achieve success:
*who are already the best out there?
*why did they succeed?
*how can you leverage your skills and knowledge to surpass them?

2) keeping a highly-focused approach to your work and ignoring the urge to have multiple projects at once.


There is one more question left - the most important one for me - which field to choose?

Unlike most high-performers, I didn't start early in life with something that could be the field I choose to specialize in for the rest of my life. Actually, I'm clueless about it - and strength finder tests are not helping much, and trying to figure it all by myself is painful as hell.



Share this now: