Looking for a Satisfying Career?

Are you thinking about changing careers or jobs?  There are many career paths that a person can choose after high school.  There are also several transition points a person can experience in life that will take him from one career to another.  Happenstance, unplanned connections with people or events, will be a reason why a person will move from one job or career to another.  One of the major competencies in counseling is Career Counseling.  An interesting career theory that stuck out to me through my research was Krumboltz's Happenstance Learning Theory:


Which roads lead to your dream job?

"(1) The goal of career counseling is to help clients learn to take actions to achieve more satisfying career and personal lives—not to make a single career decision. 

(2) Assessments are used to stimulate learning, not to match personal characteristics with occupational characteristics. 

(3) Clients learn to engage in exploratory actions as a way of generating beneficial unplanned events. 

(4) The success of counseling is assessed by what the client accomplishes in the real world outside the counseling session." Link to research article

Longevity, stability, growing roots, etc. are principles that many people hold in high regard (for many good reasons) but those traditional practices wont necessarily bring personal satisfaction to everyone.  Continuing to learn about life, seeking new interests, and growing relationships with others can bring many new career or job opportunities.  Some will even happen upon you by meeting those new people or exploring those new adventures.

           

A Forbes article reported that The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people change jobs every 4.4 years.  A 2012 survey by Net Impact uncovered that 88% of employees considered "positive culture" important or essential to their dream job, and 86% reported that there dream job must be "interesting" as well.  The Forbes article also expressed that "Job -hopping helps workers reach both goals, because it means trying out a variety of roles and workplaces while learning new skills along the way."Forbes Article

Finding a new job or career doesn't have to just include signing up for indeed.com or looking through the newspaper.  Seek out a career counselor or coach, take a career assessment to create more self-awareness, learn new skills, and get involved in different activities.  You might just happen to find your dream job!

     

Tony Nichols

 --I find joy in helping other's experience hope and peace in their life.