How to Choose a Career that You Will Enjoy

In modern-day society, a person's career is often of paramount importance. The right job provides financial stability, rewarding tasks, a general sense of fulfillment, and genuine enjoyment, in addition to secondary benefits such as potentially forming new relationships, gaining new training and knowledge, and providing a setting for fun events.

But for many, it can be a long, arduous journey before they discover their ideal fit for long-term employment. People want to land a gig that will make them happy, and not spend years bouncing from company to company performing work that only depresses them in the end.

So, how do you choose a career that makes you happy? It turns out that there are a few key factors to keep in mind in order to make the choice easier.

Prior Enjoyment

Far too often, someone pursues a field of study toward a career choice because they believe it "sounds cool" or "looks interesting." The issue with this line of thinking is that, often, their perception is based on media portrayal and not on actual front-line experience. For instance, the arena of forensics has always been a necessary part of law enforcement, but the popularity of relevantly themed televisions shows such as C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation) and its spin-offs caused an explosion of interest in newly enrolling students. However, now, many of those once interested are now becoming disillusioned as they realize how sincerely difficult the duty is.

Instead, a much wiser impetus for career choice is to engage in a job market related to an activity that you already enjoy. Do you like sports? Then if you are good at writing, you could start e-mailing contacts until you earn steady work as a freelance sportswriter, or even start your own blog. Or perhaps you could earn a position with the local professional or semi-professional team, depending on your talents. That is just one example among countless; often, converting a hobby into a career is very difficult at first and requires a remarkable initial time investment, but if enjoyment is a priority for you, then it may be an option that richly pays off in the end. Otherwise, even in a general sense, it is a good idea to look for a job you know you will enjoy doing every day, rather than search for riches or "cool" factor.

Coworker Chemistry

Even those outside the occupational environment have the common sense to realize that, if you have incredibly annoying coworkers, your work day is going to be less enjoyable. If you have coworkers that are constantly bothering you, or are completely incompetent, or have glaring character flaws, or ignore you, or are unbelievably unfriendly, or threaten you with violence on a daily basis, or smell horrifically, or insist on ruining your experience, then your job is not going to be pleasant.

Coworker chemistry is such an enormously important component that hundreds of thousands of businesses across the world have an annual budget specifically for the purpose of teamwork exercises, teambuilding initiatives, small group sessions, departmental retreats, and other group staff development items. If you have an interview scheduled with a new company, see if you can not only get a tour while you are at the facility, but also arrange to meet some of the people you would be working with if you are awarded the position. Not only will this prove to be valuable for your own knowledge, but it will probably impress the interviewer as well. Another option is to consider seeking job pool needs with a friend, or starting a business with loved ones with a similar passion, or even starting your own self-business to avoid the coworker problem altogether.

Dynamically Rewarding

Each human being is unique, and we all have innumerable differences in our personalities. Some people are quite content to work on an assembly line for 30 years before retiring happily. Others would be driven crazy with repetition and need a job that either changes with the times, is seasonal, or offers creative freedom in different directions. Some people require a solid amount of consistency in their work. Some folks have a deep need for human interaction, while others would actually prefer to never interact with anyone else at work at all. So, for example, customer service would be a genuinely rewarding prospect for certain people, but definitely more like a nightmare scenario to others.

Ultimately, to choose a career that makes you happy, you should adhere to the maxim of "Know thyself," trust your gut, and tackle the ideal opportunity when it comes along. Ask yourself relevant questions during the search, like "Could I do this for 30 years?" "Is this something I really do enjoy?" "Do I have opportunities for worthwhile advancement?" Etc.

In the end, everyone's path will look distinctly different from everyone else's; fortunately, though, we all have many of the same desires in mind, and thus can follow a few generally helpful hints in order to meet and fulfilll our career dreams.