| Twenty or thirty years ago, finding the right | | | | educational plan. |
| career was limited by lack of global internet | | | | |
| tools, restricted by more old-fashioned (if | | | | A fantastic implement of guidance, |
| you will) values and opinions, and less | | | | information, and statistical projection for |
| important than finding yourself. I recall | | | | finding the right career is the Index to |
| when my therapist, the savior of all saviors | | | | Careers Guide, created, updated/maintained, |
| as far as Im concerned, laughed with me over | | | | and provided both online and off (in college |
| how I had gone about finding the right | | | | and high school career centers, for instance) |
| career: I had taken all the courses I found | | | | by the U.S. Department of Labor/Bureau of |
| interesting and many I hoped were somehow | | | | Labor Statistics. |
| related, then tried to decide on a major | | | | |
| career. | | | | If finding the right career is a task you |
| | | | feel or think requires a knowledge of |
| She gently joked that many people decide | | | | salaries, working conditions, descriptions of |
| first, then do the footwork of taking the | | | | the nature of the work involved, training and |
| required and necessary and relevant courses, | | | | other qualification requirements, the number |
| doing internships, and getting in at some | | | | of jobs/positions held in that field and the |
| entry-level. Clearly, I didnt have the tools | | | | competition involved, and projected job |
| we do today for finding the right career, or | | | | openings, then go to and type in any career |
| I didnt know about their existence and | | | | title or browse the index of thousands of |
| usefulness, at least. | | | | positions/job types. |
| | | | |
| For example, a lot of students will use | | | | Another brilliant tool is one that comes in |
| personality testing and employment/goal | | | | workbook form and accompanies the What Color |
| assessments for finding the right career | | | | is Your Parachute and The Boxes of Life books |
| right from the start of their semesters in | | | | by Richard Bolles. The workbooks (and books) |
| college. ERIK, Psychometric testing tools, | | | | have you take intensive (but interesting, |
| and career skills assessment batteries will | | | | fun) quizzes that lead you to slowly but |
| help to define aptitude and save you time | | | | surely deduce or do a process of illimination |
| futzing around with majors and minors that | | | | experiment that helps you in finding the |
| you THINK you MIGHT like when six years later | | | | right career FOR YOU not your Mom, your dead |
| decide you need to start all over finding the | | | | Grandfather, or the culture around you who |
| right career, as offshore drilling is not for | | | | has all kinds of opinions about who you are |
| you or interplanetary travel studies will | | | | and who you should be but who does not pay |
| take too long or anthropological studies of | | | | your rent or feed your kids when push comes |
| tribes now extinct are wiped off the college | | | | to shove. |
| catalogs three quarters of the way into your | | | | |