A Career Decision Algo has been designed to identify a career direction and evaluate
an educational plan. Below are steps of career decision algorithm.
Engage:
If you know ahead of time that you need to make a choice
you can:
Get
the benefits of planning ahead; and
Make
sure the educational plans you develop reflect your chosen career
direction
Recognize:
The Second step in deciding a career is to understand
yourself
and your options. Since work takes up most time, no interest in it would mean an
un-happy and unproductive you! So, take a moment to ask,
What
do I enjoy? What are my interests?
What
are my abilities? What am I good at?
Explore:
In this stage you should begin to match a career with
your interests, needs abilities and Investigate about their educational requirements.
Plan:
In this step see what are needed to enter your chosen career. Find -
Where do you go to apply it and what tests you must go through to receive it? Ask
yourself "How long does it take? What does it cost?"
Evaluate:
Reflect and evaluate about your choice. Consider how
comfortable you are with the choices you've made; Talk to counselors
about your selections. Tell your family about your selections and provide them with
information about required education.
Act:
Once you have gone through above steps and sure of your career decision execute
the plan and pursue the educational requirements and
get train for the same.
Career Motivators, in the simplest term, are factors that encourage one to
perform better at work. It could be anything- Money, Respect, Creativity, Challenge,
and Recognition.
Career Motivators may not be same for every person. To one person, money could be
of higher priority, to another recognition. Hence, it is very important that one
chooses his/her career that has areas of motivational factor. Career Motivators
are an important element in choosing a career else one's career after a while may
seem boring and uninteresting.
EXAMPLE
To a businessman,
profits (money) could be the motivational factor where as to a politician, seeing
the nation develop is the motivational factor.
Being in
social work career will get you lots of respect from society when compared to being
engineer. But being a social worker would mean travel and less comfortable life
as one requires to fight and help downtrodden.
Being an
engineer would mean more stability but would not bag respect as that of social worker.
So if you want in your career to be more comfortable and predictable then being
an engineer would be a better option than being a social worker.
CHALLENGE
A job that throws difficult circumstances every now and then is the one that will keep you hooked to it. We often hear freshers say- "we are looking for a challenging job". Such folks like jobs where they are required to raise the bar of their work quality regularly. And it is this (challenging) quality of the job that keeps them motivated.
FREEDOM
A suitable job for you is the one that will not bind you in terms of time schedule and monitoring. Yes, it may sound a silly thing to ask for but not all take their freedom for granted. A few of us want freedom along with a paycheck as an important criteria in choosing the job.
LEADERSHIP
You want a job that makes you take responsibilities of things and people of your team. This career motivator is for people who like to lead and follow. If they are given a postion and job where they can lead people, they do their best to perform good and stay in the job.
It may be true that with hard work and determination, one can perform well in any
field. However, having an aptitude for that field can make things much easier. But
what is aptitude? In the simplest of terms, Aptitude is nothing but the natural
ease of learning something. And if that is there, a career journey can become very
easy. Hence, it becomes essential that you know your aptitude and choose a career.
To make things easier, we have divided aptitude in different areas-
Areas of
HIGH Aptitude:
are those which you have strong control
on and are good at.
Areas of
MEDIUM Aptitude:
are the ones you are just about okay.
Areas of
LOW Aptitude:
are the areas you need to work on.
For example, You may be Very Good at communication, so that is your area of High
aptitude. This means your communication skills do not require much training. While
you are very good at communication, you may be average at writing (your area of
medium aptitude). Your body language may really be bad. This is your area of Low
aptitude and needs the greatest amount of help.
Acuteness:
You are gifted with acute sense of correctness and observation. The speed and accuracy with which you complete a work is remarkable. You will do very well in a career where attention to detail is required. Process of information comes natural to you. You have high level of concentration and will not find it boring to do the kind of work which might appear repetitive or boring to others. You are alert and have good observation which helps you maintain accuracy across your work. Since you have natural gifted aptitude for attention to detail, you can follow instruction precisely and accurately.
This kind of potential is suited for professions like translators, proof readers, legal occupations and in secretarial areas of work.
Characteristics:
- Can work with good speed and accuracy
- Have good Observation Power
- Can follow instruction precisely
- Have high Level of Concentration
Spatial:
You have great sense of form and symmetry. You are flexible in your thoughts and good at imagination. You are able to perceive the various components of a problem in new ways in an intellectual process. You are of the type often referred to as artistic . You not only have artistic bent of mind but also have an aptitude towards technology. Your kinds are known for their high degree of creativity and often have jobs in the visual arts or design or engineering and technology related which may range from graphic design to packaging design to card design to textile design. You prefer an area where you can use your imagination and express yourself. At a deeper level, it also suggests, even though you may not be artistically gifted that you want a career which allows you freedom and the opportunity to use your expressions and ideas.
Characteristics:
- Technological bent of mind
- Good Observation Power
- Are imaginative
- High degree of creativity
Verbal:
You admire words and are an expert in the use of words simply from your everyday use. You enjoy English and other wordy subject, such as history at school. People who have this type of pattern have a sound working knowledge of language and are able to express themselves clearly. You are good with your communications and so to get along with people becomes easy for you. It is advisable to people with this type of pattern to make careers where they are able to use words, for example, journalism or law. Try exploring a career which in some way involves you with information and communication.
Characteristics:
- Good with communications
- Like to deal with words
- Easily express ideas
Take a moment to ask, "What do I enjoy?"
"Interests" are those activities you do for fun or enjoy, including what you
like to read, the TV shows and movies you like to watch, events you like to attend,
and the kind of people you admire and like to be with.
Interest is important in choosing a career or occupation because interest keeps
you motivated and engaged in your work. Since work takes up most of your time during
a day and week, if you have no interest in what you are doing, you will most likely
become unhappy and unproductive.
We all have distinguished personality traits, like a few of us are more analytical
in nature, while others may have an artistic bent of mind. One may be good at managing
numbers, other may excel at handling people. These qualities in us can have a great
impact on the career we choose. Hence, keeping in mind one's personality trait will
help in making one's career easy. These inbuilt skills will help shape the career
smoothly and the chosen job will not be a big chore.
For example, someone who is introvert by nature will find it quite difficult to
be in a sales job as the work requires a go-getter attitude. Yet another instance
is someone without the sense of language appreciation will not be suitable for an
editorial job.
Assessment tests are definitely helpful, but ultimately it has to be your own decision
in choosing a career. Few ways of understanding the opportunities present are:
Do not be
laid back. At an early age you should know to plan your career. Take up small jobs
in areas that interest you. It doesn't necessarily have to be a job; you could just
give some quality time to things you are passionate about. Like, if you like cooking,
keep trying doing new recipes. This could lead to a career in Hotel Management industry.
It is always
good to keep in touch with people more experienced than you. Talk to them about
career opportunities available, discuss them pros and cons of different jobs. You
may not understand nuances of each career, but getting the basic idea will always
be helpful.
Always do
proper research on the career you are taking up. Something that looks appealing
from outside may not your ultimate calling. So do a thorough research before you
take the leap!
