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It can be hard to decide on what career path to follow if you’re not entirely sure about what you enjoy or wish to spend your time doing. That said, understanding where you would prefer to work can help you avoid falling into another field that you may not be that interested in doing.
It might be that you transfer law schools, or that you decide to switch up your career at a later date, but even if that does happen (and don’t worry, most people don’t get exactly what they initially thought they would), it’s healthy to do a little digging in order to figure out your tastes and what you may be skilled at, to begin with.
Keeping your options open when selecting a career path is almost always advisable. In this post, we’ll determine how and why that is, as well as what steps you can use for working through your uncertain impressions in order to make a tangible choice. Even if you don’t perfect your forward approach now, you will have laid the foundation for further thinking. Let’s consider this, below:
Building Transferable Skills
Building transferable skills is an essential element of choosing a worthwhile career path. Why is this? Well, because while we can specialize in one direction, it’s healthier for us to build the foundational skills that may help us work a similar role in many different industries. For instance, consider those who wish to become a video editor for the film industry. They would also be served by learning how to edit music videos, how to color grade footage, how to work on set as someone who tracks shots and makes notes, as well as someone who could work in a marketing capacity if necessary. These surrounding skills make the chance of achieving the main dream more appropriate.
This is quite a specific example, so let us consider the additional considerations. For instance, administrative capabilities, archiving skills, the ability to communicate to a large audience, and the willingness to work in a clinical environment are all examples of transferable skills you could build for the better.
Going Back To School
Going back to school is something that many of us rule out if we start on a certain path, but it could be that doing so could be a fantastic resource in helping you specialize and become accredited in a better field than you may be working in now. For instance, heading to law school, an art school, or even taking on online university courses to help refine your resume and give you a more impressive skillset can be key in investing in yourself, and the results may pay off more quickly than you expect. Furthermore, school can often be applied for even if you’re a little later on in life, as perhaps a more specialist qualification could help you pivot in your current career with flexibility. If you never rule this out as an option, you may be surprised as to just how worthwhile that approach can be.
Working Within Different Industries
It’s healthy to work within different industries, as pivoting and learning from them all can make a massive difference. For instance, those who have worked in managing hospitality are often quite considerate when managing projects in other administrative fields, because they’ve already worked to heavy deadlines while keeping measures like health and safety, inventory rotation, event management, employee care, and more in constant balance.
Working within different industries can also help you develop a coherent approach to figuring out what you’d like to do, or how you’d like to pivot. In some cases, striking out alone as an entrepreneur can be fully informed by your experience in a certain field because if you hope to compete in an industry, knowing its ins and outs and what gaps in the market there are can truly help you become the best professional possible – only this time completely on your own terms and more.
Widening Your Lifestyle Preferences
It might be that you think you can ‘only’ operate within a certain field, but that not might be the case at all. Perhaps you’ve managed to get all of your active working out of your system, and so the office life is feeling more secure, comfortable, and cerebral at this time in your life. Perhaps the opposite is true. At least with this perspective, you’ll be keeping your options open and that can yield better results.
With this advice, we hope you can continue to keep your options open when selecting a career path.
