Finding your chosen career
They say finding your career is simple. Enrol in the right subjects in High School, go study a course based on what you love, graduate and voila, your entire, amazing career life lies in front of you, bursting with opportunity for you to tap into.
But what if you have no idea what your chosen career path looks like? Or even worse, what your passions are?
Let me tell you something.
As Project Manager at Agrijob, when I started my career path, I didn’t know what my chosen career would be either. Among other, I did Physical Science, Life Science and German at school. I studied BSc (Agric) Animal Science and then Teaching. Then when I started working and gained practical experience, I realised very quickly that being a teacher is not for me.
Today I love my job, as Project Manager/ Agricultural Recruiter at Agrijob.
Statistics vary around how many people don’t know what they will do after school.
The good news is that there are ways that you can find out.
According to Jennifer Herrity from Indeed.com, the first step is to outline your career goals. While this sounds daunting, there are 5 questions you can ask:
- What activities do you enjoy the most?
- What interests you?
- What are you good at?
- What are your core values?
- Would you like to be in a technical or a managerial role in future?
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Photo by Romain Dancre on Unsplash
The next step is to figure out where you would like to be in 5 or 10 years’ time. If this is still overwhelming, where would you like to be in 6 months from now? And in a year?
Thirdly, think about your personality type. Are you introverted or extroverted? Do you want an office job, or do you prefer working in the lab or the field? There are also plenty of personality and aptitude tests you can do online.
What experience do you have? Remember any experience, including any type of holiday work and job shadowing counts. What did you learn about yourself during those experiences? If you don’t have experience, it’s never too late to start.
Other questions you can ask are what skills you have, and what your salary needs are.
And of course, our AgriCAREERConnect events are there to guide you and expose you to the various fields in Agriculture, so that you can gain clarity on what career direction you would like to pursue.
In my chosen career path, I have changed careers twice. I am only 28. I know of someone who has changed careers 8 times. I have witnessed someone go from a Maintenance role into IT. While this is not ideal, you spend most of your week at work, so it’s very important to be happy.
My point?
It takes time to find yourself and your passion. Only you know what is right for you. As you develop and grow, so will your passions. Make them commercially viable, combine them with your interests, your plan, your values, your goals, etc. and you will find your chosen career. You are young, and the world is your oyster. It may take time, but it will be worth it. Never give up and remember you are entitled to change your mind.
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Reference: Herrity, J. 2023. How To Choose A Career Path in 9 Steps (With Examples Included).
Compiled by: Tanja Werle