How did you choose what careers to pursue when job seeking?

Anonymous

February 1,2024 at 3:54PM UTC

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How did you choose what careers to pursue when job seeking?

I am relatively new to the job market, as a more recent graduate, with only 2.5 years experience. I have degrees in Communications and Management, but am having trouble figuring out a path to go down. I chose my current job, to help me get professional office experience, but it does not really require my educational background so I feel stuck. I have applied for jobs that I am qualified for (based on the job requirements) as well as taking risks, but have only received rejection.

I believe I would have better luck if I had a sense of what I I want to pursue, but I am lost.

What advice and tips do you have for a person new to the job search?

I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any help! :)

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AnonymousFebruary 1,2024 at 4:37PM UTC
You might want to invest in a career coach. They will help you weed out what you want to do and what you're good at based on your skills, education, and even personality. Then they help with a professional resume to highlight those points and continue to coach you through job seeking and interviewing. It is well worth the investment. Good luck to you.
AnonymousFebruary 1,2024 at 6:12PM UTC
Best thing to do is to think about what you like and don't like just in general. Do you want to be managed closely and have someone direct you daily to do things, do you want freedom to complete projects and get things done in time sensitive situations, do you want to work in a group setting where your work is a part of the whole of completing something.
Decide on that. Then think about commitment of time, need for recognition, need to get ahead and get promoted or move up. Then think about what kind of company do you want to work for. Mission driven, engineering driven, consumer facing, business facing, product related, etc.
Build a rubrick and put together a spreadsheet with all of this and compare each role you see posted that is of interest for say 3-6 months to see what resonates and ticks the most boxes for you. What others think doesn't really matter here, it's what you want and need from work that is most important. If you choose something that doesn't fit keep track of that what was good and what was not good so that you don't repeat it the next time. Many careers go jaggedly over different types of things it's finding yourself and what makes you tick that will give you the most job satisfaction. Good luck in what I hope is a long and storied career!
AnonymousFebruary 1,2024 at 7:17PM UTC
I didn't have the luxury of determining a career, but rather I just needed to have a stable job and then looked at career opportunies from wherever I was. When I didn't get promoted quickly enough, I switched to a completely different role at a company that I knew I wanted to work for and viewed it as a foot in the door. That opened up my opportunities tremendously and ended up in a career I didn't even know existed. There are many paths to get to a place you'd be happy to stay.
AnonymousFebruary 1,2024 at 11:37PM UTC
You may want to try Ken Coleman's Get Clear Career Assessment which is low cost and could provide some great direction. He also has many YouTube videos that are free and may provide some more guidance.
One additional action that you could take is to apply for contract or volunteer jobs that interest you. That would also give you some direction.