Five Ideas to Help You Find Your Ideal Career Path

By admin | July 9, 2021

 

Each person has a different journey in their professional life. Some know what they want to do from a very early age and pursue the career of their dreams. Others may bounce from different jobs until they find an industry or niche that fits their skillset.

If you are struggling to find passion at your present job, you may be hoping to make some changes in the coming months or years. Below are five ideas to help you get on your ideal career path.

Use the GPV Formula

If you want to find your job passion in the coming years, you may want to try and use the GPV formula. Such an equation combines gifts, passions and values to help you try and find your ideal professional role.

Gifts means that you must play to your strengths, which means working in a job that comes naturally to you. Passions refers to the things that excite you. Even if you are good at something, you may not enjoy that line of work.

Values refer to your priorities and lifestyle. Do you want to make as much money as possible? Are you aiming to find the ideal work and life balance?

Choosing a career is not only about the work you will do from 9am to 5pm every weekday. You are making a decision that will impact every aspect of your life, including where you live, who is your partner and whether you have children.

Considering your skills, passions and values when you make a decision about where to work will help you make the best choice.

Find a Mentor

A lot of people struggle to see the long term picture of their life, even if they are excelling in the short term. Perhaps you are doing well at work, but you are not sure if you could work at such a job for many decades.

Rather than panicking and trying to find another line of work, you may want to take on a mentor at your current company. Someone with a lot more experience could talk to you about their journey.

Learning about the road taken by older professionals who achieve success in their chosen field can help you understand whether you are suited to take such a path.

Sometimes a mentor can help you feel confident that you can chart a path for yourself at your current line of work. Other mentor relationships may help you realize that you are not suited for a particular field.

Prepare a Long Term Career Path

Most people spend the vast majority of their life working, starting when they are a teenager and continuing to pursue different jobs until they retire in their 60s or 70s. 

You have a long time before your professional story is at an end. Even if you do not have your dream job, you can achieve your goals by having a long term plan.

If you do understand that you want to work in a particular field or hold a specific job later in life, you should be focusing on making that goal a reality. Perhaps you need to take courses in your spare time, save money for higher education, or move to another part of the country to aid your long term goals.

Having a long term goal will help you get through short term struggles. Even if you are having a tough few months, knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel will keep you going.

Take Aptitude Tests

There is some skepticism around aptitude tests, but you can benefit hugely from taking some of these assessments. The benefit of an aptitude test is that you understand areas of your personality and how they match with different jobs that may have openings in your area.

Sometimes aptitude tests point out obvious answers, such as suggesting you work in a field where you may already have a job. There are instances where you get some left field answers, which you would never have considered without taking the test.

Bide Your Time

A lot of people assume they must have everything figured out when they are at a young age. You may feel as though your life is at a crossroads, but even then you may feel the pressure of not having everything figured out.

Do not be distressed if it takes you some time to find your ideal career. Even following these steps may not be enough to give you an immediate answer. Take your time, try different things and eventually you will find a job that excites you every single day.