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Writer's pictureSmita D Jain

7 Steps to Find Your Desired Career Path

Updated: Apr 18, 2023

To find the right career, you must first assess yourself and follow an organised process to increase your chances of making a good decision.

consulting career path

Do you ever stop to question whether you’re on the right career path or not? Do you keep pondering how you can find a career path that suits your skills and interests? Want to discuss with experts for consulting about career paths? Seeking a career you can enjoy and do well in? The emergence of new career fields and the availability of plenty of career choices are also aggravating his career path confusion.


Whether you are starting out in your career or already have accumulated a fair amount of experience in a particular industry, it is a challenge for each and every one to sustain themselves in this ever-evolving competitive world. You have to make the right move at the right time in your career. You will find crucial insights here to help you find the right career path.


7 Steps for Finding the Right Career


There are so many options out there when it comes to choosing a career. Choosing a career path is a composition of several smaller decisions that add up to create a big impact on your life. Determining a successful career path includes a careful assessment of your skills, abilities, potential, aspirations, and career anchors. Here are seven tips to help you proceed further.


1. Determine your career objectives


Everyone is made different and has their own set of goals, talents, interests, and values. Determine what you like to do and prefer to define your career path accordingly. If you love technology then you can think about the IT industry. If you think your management skills are quite impressive then you can try the event management or hospitality sector.


Do a preliminary exercise to match your skills and traits to define your career objectives. Ask yourself the following questions:


● What am I good at?

● What do I find fulfilling?

● What is important to me?

● What will I choose every time?

● What do I want from my career?

● What kind of lifestyle do I want?

● What are my interests and motivations?


2. Do a SWOT analysis on yourself


The SWOT acronym stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. This analysis helps you focus on your strengths and minimise your weaknesses. It also makes you understand the opportunities available to you that you can take advantage of. Furthermore, it enables you to anticipate and avert the threats that can be harmful to your career.


3. Learn about your personality


Determining your personality type and traits will help you to recognise your interests and strengths to build your career goals. Popular tests for determining personality type are as follows:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): It is an introspective self-report questionnaire. It constitutes questions to discover your psychological predilections. The indicator helps to categorise individuals based on four important dichotomies. It enables you to determine your type of personality from 16 options.


Jungian Type Index (JTI): This is a self-assessment but questions and methodology for identifying the preferred functions differ from the MBTI. It enables you to identify your personality type and suitable careers based on Jungian cognitive abilities or descriptions behind specific psychological choices.


Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS): It is a self-assessed personality questionnaire similar to Myers-Briggs. It focuses on temperaments and behaviours and not on preferences. It matches positions with the type of temperament.


4. Reflect on your motivations


Once you’ve determined your strength, weakness, opportunities and threats, put together a list of your personality traits, and now you have to examine your motivations for working. Determine whether you want a higher-level salary, or more flexibility so you can work from anywhere. It’s important to understand your priorities to narrow down relevant career choices.


You can find your priorities on the basis of the following parameters.


● Salary

● Benefits

● Autonomy

● Flexibility

● Career growth

● Work/life balance

5. Carry out a thorough market research


After self-assessment, you need to assess the market. Do a scrutiny of the market and potential areas of growth according to your skills. Talk to professionals and assess their feedback, counter them with your interest. Think about consulting experts to know your career path in a specific industry. If you find your abilities aligned, narrow down your fields/industry choices and take further steps towards a promising career.


6. Pick a suitable professional role for work


There are a variety of jobs in every field/industry. Suppose you find the IT field worth proceeding to, then you will have a variety of professional roles like Software engineering, Business Development, Sales, Research & Development, Administration, Quality, HR and so on to choose from. Pick a suitable role while keeping your talents, traits, and values in mind.


7. Get the required training and education


You can enter a field of work with your skills and traits but if you have to get ahead of the competition, you need to gain expertise. Get required skill development training for ensuring career growth. Keep up the pace with the latest technology and development in your industry by upgrading your skills regularly.


When you finally find your dream job, ensure a smooth transition if you are already working in some other field. Once you take it, be very optimistic and adaptable in your approach to boost your career. Be a constant learner, and ready for challenges that may come your way in your career. That approach will help you in setting yourself on a successful and fulfilling career path.


Are you in the right job? Take the Free ‘Are You in The Right Career Assessment’ to identify whether you are in the right job and discover what type of jobs you will excel at. The results of this test will be your guide towards a successful career change.

Smita D Jain is a Certified Life Coach, Executive Coach and NLP Practitioner. Smita’s ‘Empower Yourself’ Personal Clarity Coaching Programs enable busy professionals unhappy in their jobs to tap into their passions and transform them into professions so that they work because they want to, not because they have to.


Before her journey as a coach, Smita had extensive experience of 14 years as a corporate and business strategy professional with Fortune 500 companies. She is also a speaker at various public forums, a published writer, and an Amazon bestselling author.


You can learn more about Personal Empowerment Life Coach and Executive Coach Smita D Jain’s ‘Empower Yourself’ Coaching Programs by visiting www.lifecoachsmitadjain.com and book a strategy session at https://www.lifecoachsmitadjain.com/booking.



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