Choosing a Profession After College

Despite the fact that you envisioned graduating from college and immediately finding the perfect career to bring you financial and personal success, perhaps the search for the job of your dreams isn’t going as well as you’d hoped. Rather than get discouraged, try a few strategies to uncover what your major makes you suitable for, what will challenge you and what might truly make you happy.

Conduct Interviews

Although you may have expected to be the one answering questions on job interviews after college, conduct some research yourself before choosing a profession to pursue. Consider various ways to network to hear about different opportunities and meet the actual employees who perform those duties. Ask if you can shadow staff members on the job or at least take the time to inquire about their tasks on a typical day, what the company culture is like, who they report to, what the biggest challenges and rewards are and if there are many opportunities for advancement, for example. The answers to your questions may be the tipping point on whether you’d care to follow up or not.

Follow a Passion

If you have an interest that you love researching or a hobby that you love participating in, consider ways you might be able to turn it into a career. If you don’t feel that you’d be able to find a financially-viable position in a field that you’d love, talk to a counselor from your school to see if there are any related jobs you may have overlooked. If you like decorating your home, for instance, you might enjoy working as a set decorator, retail store manager or a design coordinator. An interest in criminal justice, for example, might lead to court reporting Seattle, forensic science or background screening.

Experiment

When you’re unsure about committing to a career or obtaining the additional education to qualify you for a new job, consider the different types of apprenticeships that will enable you to work in an industry to see how much you enjoy it. In addition to gauging your interest level, the training will give you the added benefits of earning a salary, providing work experience, pairing you with a mentor and developing your skills should you decide to go into that field.

Take a Gap Year

Despite the fact that a “gap year” typically refers to taking time off between high school and college, you can also use the break after graduation to clear your head. Pass the time wisely by traveling, trying out a variety of part-time jobs, volunteering for various organizations or spending time with friends and family who work in different industries to give you some possible job ideas for the future. The time off may help you feel refreshed and instill you with a new sense of purpose and direction.

Don’t be alarmed if you’ve graduated from college and still don’t know what you want to be when you grow up. Take the months after graduation to continue growing into the person you want to become and discover the career to bring you fulfillment and contentment.

BIO: Brett Clawson has a degree in Business Management and has started a couple of small businesses. When he’s not focusing his time on those, he spends time with his wife and two sons. His oldest son has entered the wonderful realm of college, and he now enjoys sharing tips that he and his son have found essential for college life.