Will your career provide the lifestyle of your dreams?

Do you ever wonder what kind of financial position your dream job will put you in? Doing a job you love is important for your happiness and well-being. With that in mind, fulfilling the lifestyle you want can't be overlooked when choosing a career path. One of the best ways to see how your finances will be is to budget out your future salary and expenses. Resources like Salary.com and Jobstar.org provide estimates of your salary according to your position.

Resume

Having a proper resume is key to getting that dream job you want. There are multiple different formats you can follow when constructing a resume. Here's a link to an article that provides 5 samples of different resume templates: Click here!

Choosing a Major

 I wanted to address what to think about when choosing a major. I honestly don’t it’s as huge of a decision as people make it out to be. A lot of people feel that when picking a major you should aim for a serious and practical one.  That’s okay if you’re a serious and practical person, but If going that route means disregarding what you’re really passionate about then you’re probably wasting your time.  When studying a particular major it isn’t necessarily just about getting a high paying job. It’s for developing your talents so you can do anything you’d like once you graduate. Choosing the correct major isn’t a life or death decision. What you get your degree in isn’t going to box you into certain jobs.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics have said that people can expect to change jobs 4 times during their twenties. Also, There’s a 70% chance that your first job will relate to your major but after that many people progress in their careers to jobs that seem to have little to do with it.  This is mainly important for people who have a passion and desire to go for something more unconventional. There are always those majors where some people may say, “hey, there’s no jobs for that degree” or “you should pick something that’s safer.”  Picking something that doesn’t truly interest you but satisfies those practical ideas is a disaster in the making. If you think about it, take two people, one with enthusiasm for what they’re doing, energy, and passion and someone else who is studying something which could be considered secure but they have absolutely no passion for it. Which do you think will do better? The person studying something they aren’t interested in is going to burn out and lose all the momentum they need to be successful.  The whole “follow your heart” concept can be seen as cliché. I have to admit that even I found myself a little apprehensive about it, but it’s shown to be accurate. Probably the most important quality to have if you’re going to go for what you truly love is just extreme drive. This was shown in a study done at the University of Chicago.  120 outstanding athletes, artists, and scholars were observed. The final conclusion was that intelligence, confidence, background, etc. wasn’t the number one thing responsible for these peoples’ success. It was that all these people had extraordinary drive. Considering that, you really have no choice but to go for what you love in order to be successful. Good luck trying to build up drive for something you couldn’t care less about. Ultimately, it will always be those who choose to develop a career out of their passions that will do the best

Personality and Occupation Choices

Knowing what interests you is one of the most important aspects to choosing an occupation. You need to know what motivates and energizes you, what your strength and weaknesses are, and what is really important to you. One way to learn about your inner self is through personality and vocational interest inventories. They help identify career preferences.Two of the best inventories are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Holland Codes.

For all on-campus Plymouth State University students interested, there's also the CHOICES profiler assessment. Just log into any computer in the library or HUB. Go into the start menu, go to all programs, double click "department folders", then "career", then "WChoices". It's a quick assessment that will give you specific interest areas that can help you pick a satisfying job.

Easy Steps to Sucess

Planning for your occupational future is one of the most important tasks you can do. You will likely spend more waking hours committed to your job than anything else. Your happiness and livelihood weigh heavily on what path you choose to embark on career wise. I am a college student in the early stages of career planning. I'm learning a systematic approach to making the right job decisions, and would like to share this knowledge with you.  As I explain the process in depth I will be sharing my own journey to making a career decision.

This decision-making process will consist of four easy steps:

• Find out who you really are. Your personality, interests, needs, achievements, abilities, and values.
• List alternative options. 
• Gather information
• Make the decision!