Selecting an Occupation

So, the time has come for you to "get a career," but where do you start? Well, you'll find most of the information right inside yourself. Start by assessing your values, interests, skills and personality characteristics. Here are a few questions to get the ball rolling:
What important decisions have you made, and what values were inherent in those decisions?
Think about the times when you have been angry, frustrated, overjoyed, or ecstatic. What were the underlying values present in those situations?
What hobbies do you have, and what do you like about them?
What are/were your favorite and least favorite high school subjects and why?
What adjectives describe you? How would others describe you?
How do you define success?
Next, allow yourself to dream. What might a day in your life look like ten years from now? If you could clone yourself into five people, what different occupations would each of the five do? What is similar about all five? What's different?

After you have a pretty good idea of who you are and what characteristics you wish to display in the world of work, it's time to get information about what's out there. How do you do this research? There are several ways. One is to go to the public library or to a career resource center (colleges and universities usually have them) and see what information they have on your desired occupations. You can also check the Internet or write to the professional/trade association (find where to write in the Encyclopedia of Associations in the reference section of a library). Some high schools, colleges, and universities may also have a computer guidance system to help you. But really, the best source of information about any occupation comes from the people who are currently doing the job. Find out who they are and request a short (twenty-minute) interview with three or four people who work in different settings. Maybe they would let you follow them around for a few hours or even for a whole day to experience what life on the job is really like.

Here's an example. Let's say I'm interested in engineering, but I'm not sure what area specifically. My mom has a friend that's an electrical engineer at Intel, our neighbor is a chemical engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratories, and my brother's friend is a civil engineer for the highway department. I arrange to interview each of these three people and they even let me follow them around (job shadow) for a few hours. After these experiences, I have a much better idea of what tasks and environments are involved with these types of jobs. Of course, I would also take the opportunity to get advice on how I should proceed with my career from these experts. (Don't forget to send a thank you card or letter for their time!) I may have found that none of these areas are for me, so it's back to the library to research some other areas.

It is important to remember that you are a woman of many talents, and there are many ways you can display these talents in the world of work. What may be an ideal job now may be boring in five years. What is only a hobby now may become your primary source of income in the future. A career is a succession of vocations and avocations (e.g., hobbies) over a lifetime. You have one career which may be made up of many different jobs in different fields. The best thing to do is to continue exploring occupations of interest and occasionally reassess your values, interests, skills and personality characteristics to see which talents you wish to display in the world of work at any given time. Explore! Explore! Explore!

Now that you've assessed your values, interests, skills and personality characteristics, weave it all together into a "job wanted" ad as if it were to appear in the classified advertisements. Use the following outline to help you:
The functions I would perform are (skills and abilities):
The organization I work for will share my following goals (values):
I will work with people who have the following traits (my personal qualities/values):
The environment I work in would use one or more of the following special knowledge or interest areas (interests/special knowledge areas):
Other areas I want my ideal job to include:
Next, target your resume for your ideal job.

Original article by Barbara Solari, Personnel Manager, Lovelace Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM

Updated by Joanne M. Wambeke, M.Ed., NCC, Santa Fe Community College, P. O. Box 4187, Santa Fe, NM 87502-4187