Choosing a career

"When I'll grow up, I'll be..." It was so easy when we were young... Melissa wanted to be a beautiful princess like Cinderella; Carmen, a big superstar like Britney Spears; Karl, a famous hockey player like Wayne Gretzky; Jeremy, a genius scientist like Albert Einstein; Amy, a popular actress like Angelina Jolie. The good old times, eh? Now, you have a lot of criterias to consider... Let's start!

First, let's make it clear, the tests to determine your future profession by choosing your favorite color or your lucky number don't work. Some tests that seem more serious are completely false too. If they were true, my sister would be a clown and my friend, a jail security guard. By the way, those were the real results in a "serious" test...

The most important thing to consider is your interests, not money. If you are completely bored during your sciences and biology classes, don't try to be a surgeon, even if you know surgeons make a lot of money. To go in health sciences, it takes interest, effort and a lot of time. Think about the subjects that interest you the most at school and the ones that you hate, it will eliminate some careers quickly.

Next, follow your own ideas, not what your parents want you to become. If your parents want you to become a judge or a lawyer due to a family tradition, but you freeze during in oral or an opinion essay, maybe it's not a good idea... To go in law, you need a good judgement, logic, concentration and of course, being decisive. Follow your heart, your parents should always support you in your choices, no matter what.

Also, it's very important to make the distinction between a profession and a career. If you have a profession, you'll always the same objectives and tasks. However, if you choose a career, you'll have the possibility to be promoted and occupy a new function with new challenges. A good example of a career is one in computer science. You can start by being a member of a team that works on developping a new software, then a couple of years later, you could be leading your own team! Since computer science changes constantly, you need to love to learn new things, experiment and face difficult challenges.

You also need to think about your work environment. Would you like to stay an office all day long, work outside or travel? If you have a high interest in traveling, than maybe you would love marketing or journalism. If you can convince people easily, speak fluently and love to sell your ideas, than maybe marketing is for you. Journalism could also be an option if you would like to write or be in front of the camera, meet new people, cover events and be a part of the action. However, these domains are very competitive.

Another important element is your social entourage. Would you like to work alone or with a team? Another possibility is that you want to work alone, but meet people. For example, a psychologist works alone in her office, but it's a profession that demands to be sociable. You need to be able to listen to people's problems and analyse them.

In summary, you can consider all those criterias when choosing your profession or career. Remember that this was only meant to guide you a little bit and inform you. You still have time to think about it, change your mind and finally choose.

Note: I recommend you to consult an orientator, because I did and it was really useful. If there is one at your school, you should schedule an appointment at the beginning of the year, because a lot of students want to consult him/her too.