When choosing a career you have to remember you are going to be doing it for many years for an average of ⅓ of an hour per day, five days a week. To spend this much time doing something you dislike would not make for a happy life. Do you really want to do this for 20-40 years?
Being a professional in any industry takes time and effort. Unless there is some interest in the industry it will be difficult to maintain long term commitment to become proficient. Interest in the industry helps continuous study and skill development over the long term.
Casual interest in an industry is not enough for you to maintain the discipline it takes for you to continuously improve your skills necessary to become a leader in the industry. You will have to be curious enough to want to continue learning about the industry for years. If it was as simple as gaining a degree at a postsecondary school everyone would be leaders in their chosen careers. Since this is obviously not true something else is needed.
Every industry is a bottomless source of learning. There is always more to learn which makes it important for you to want to remain interested in the details of how to do your job better and more efficiently. This takes time and practice, a willingness to make mistakes and strength to persevere. If you are not interested in the industry you will not have the internal strength to continue when warriors present themselves.
If you are to succeed in finding a career which fits you you will need to start in an industry which you have had a long term interest in and will still be interested in without the incentive of financial reward.
A seven step process for finding career worthy interests
It may be surprising to you that what you feel are your interests are really a conglomeration of your past experiences, social pressures and personal makeup. Some are long term and some are fleeting which exist for a while until more information is learned about the topic. Once the curiosity is sated the interest dies and other interests take over.
With this in mind it is important to remember that interests change over time, even long held interests can wane as you learn more about the topic. This is to be expected and your career would be stagnant without change of some kind. The goal here is to start at the most stable position you can find and move on from there.
To determine your long term interests which stand the test of time not just your current circumstances there is a process to follow which includes a fair amount of work. If you are interested in discovering what your true interests are and how you can decide on a career which best fits into those interests, perform the following four steps. To make it easier you can download this career interest workbook pdf which has all the needed
Brainstorm a list of all interests past and present
Brainstorming is a good method of uncovering ideas which you have without really knowing it. The process is the same for any brainstorming exercise.
- With a blank piece of paper and a pen, write down everything you can remember which you were interested in.
- Delay any judgment of any ideas you have as this will hinder other ideas which are related
- Write down duplicates of ideas already on the page. This is not only an indication of it being a current interest but also could be an indication that there are more refined ideas which may be associated with the idea.
- Continue for a specific period of time without a break. Some of the best ideas are uncovered after the first flush of ideas are accumulated on the paper, by continuing after the easy ideas are written down you will be forced to look deeper for interests which may pre-exist others.
When brainstorming ideas, spend at least a half an hour without distraction. Pick a time which you will not be disturbed. Find a private location and remove any distractions which could prevent you from concentrating fully on the process.
Group interests into several buckets from different perspectives
Here is a list of possible ways to group your ideas. Remember this is not a ranking of ideas but rather a method of grouping several ideas together which are associated under a specific overarching concept.
Once you have spent your predetermined time on the process you should have at least 20-50 items listed on your interest list. It is time to group them. There are many ways to group them such as chronologically, interest level, activity based interests vs cognitive interests. To get a good idea of how interested you are in the ideas on the list you should group them several ways. This will give you an idea as to what level you are actually interested in a topic and which ones you are only interested in a certain context.
Longevity grouping
This is not a list of first to last but rather groups of interest which you have been interested in over a period of time. Your buckets should start short such as a year or two all the way up to 10-20 years. Make the time periods large enough for you to be able to group several ideas into each bucket.
The length of time you have been interested in something is a good indication that it is something you are truly interested in and not just a passing fancy. This is not to undermine the value of new interests which may provide long term curiosity which can be great options for a long term career.
Familiarity
We often group things into familiar buckets. Sports, leisure activities, foods and chores are often grouped into specific buckets. Sports like boxing and mixed martial arts can be considered violent sports whereas sports like tennis and snooker would be considered non-violent. As humans we do this naturally as we are constantly looking for patterns and ways to reduce our need to parse new information.
When it comes to your interests you can group them any way you choose from leisure activities to hobbies, self improvement projects or just things you look forward to doing. The key here is to group all the items on your interest list and put them into a group of some sort with one or two other items on the list.
Intensity
The amount of time you spend thinking about and working on ways to improve is another way of grouping items on your list. The things on your list which you spend more time thinking about or working on ways to improve on can be placed into a group and ones you think about occasionally and only engage in them in certain circumstances can be placed into another group. These groups are good indications of the value you place on each interest on your list.
There is nothing wrong with having interests which you only engage in occasionally or in certain circumstances but if an interest becomes a career you will have to engage in it for long periods of time. Such interests may not hold your attention long enough to become proficient and valuable to others in the industry.
Compare the groups for commonalities
Once you have your groups where every idea has at least one one other member grouped with it, take a holistic look at all the ways you have grouped your interests. Create a venn diagram which contains the most number of your interests in common in all three dimensions used to group them.
A venn diagram is a way to visually see the relationships of ideas with other ideas. What you want to do here is to find a venn diagram of the three methods of grouping interests which includes the most common interests in all three groups. When you have an interest which you have enjoyed over the long term, has other similar interests and you still spend time thinking and learning about them, that interest and other closely associated ones can provide you with something which may provide you with a good career option.
To perform this activity start with the largest groups you have in the three categories and place them together according to the most common items in each group. Next consider the interests which share commonality with another group. The fewer interests in each group which is left alone the better.
List the interests which are common to all three groups followed by the interests which are shared between two groups. Discard the interests which stand alone. These are great interests to have but may not stand the test of time necessary to make a career.
Research careers which each interest could support
Every interest you have has the ability to support a long term career. Everything from medical interests to smashing things and taking slow motion videos of it have provided people with long term careers. Try to write down at least 2-3 career ideas for each interest in the largest grouping. These will become options for a career which suits your interests.
Once you have a list of possible careers for each interest, review the list and look for similarities. Some interests will be exactly the same while others will be quite similar. Collect all the ideas into a master list starting with the ideas which are most common to those least common.
Eliminate careers which are weakly supported
Many people believe that having as many choices as possible raises the chances of success but in reality it divides focus and can lead to paralyzation of action. Without a clear idea of what you are working towards you will find it hard to focus on achievement. By eliminating options which are unlikely to capture your interest over the long term you will be able to focus your time on the knowledge and skills you will need to succeed in a career you are more likely to enjoy.
Consider the list you developed in the above step. Remove any careers which are stand alone. These are careers which appear once and have only weak links to other careers. Once you have eliminated these careers you will have a clearer idea of what type of career you would be interested enough to develop the needed skill, knowledge and experience to create a long and valuable career.
Look for similarities of remaining career options
It is likely that the remaining career options will be similar in some way. They will have an underlying theme to them which you can take advantage of when preparing for your career. Most careers require some basic training, a degree, trade school or some other type of education, the similarity of career options will give you a clear idea as to what your next step is.
Similarities also indicate to you what type of career would give you the most lateral movement if it turns out the career you first focus on turns out not to be what you expected it to be. This can happen when careers are not researched enough prior to entering the industry.
Consider your skills and personality style before making a decision
Interest is only one factor which makes a career manageable. Without having the skill and personality style to compete in the job market you will find it hard to maintain a long term position and respect in your chosen field. The ability to develop the needed skill to perform what is required for the position is vital to success.
Personality style is also a valuable indicator as to what aspect you will be successful in in the chosen industry/career path. Personality style can dictate your success as a salesman, lawyer or artist. Without the needed personality characteristics it can be difficult to maintain a long term career in any career.