monster basketball player

Three Steps To Choosing A Career

by Anne Middleton, on August 6th, 2015

Did you catch the news?  In Southern California, a 13-year old basketball phenom has already given his commitment to a local university where he will not even be eligible to attend for over five years.

LaMelo Ball has, like his two older brothers also considered basketball whizzes, has verbally committed to the University of California, Los Angeles.

For the appropriately named “Ball” family, the sport of hoops is a household passion. The brothers dribble together on a summer team that's coached by their parents, LaVar and Tina Ball. All three lads are expected to start for their hometown Chino Hills High this season.

At the tender adolescent age of 13, most of us were only focused on having lunch at the cool kids table, not planning for our future careers. 

Obviously, not every kid is able to define their life’s path at such an early age.  But as children blossom into young adults and then college co-eds, essential steps can be undertaken that will guide and help identify the path to success.

The three-step process below developed by Monster.com is a comprehensive check-list that involves identifying interests, talents and values and then exploring occupations that fit these characteristics.

Three Steps to Choosing a Career
Step One - Figure out what makes you tick by asking yourself:
• What sparks and holds my interest?
• What do I do well?
• What kind of personality and temperament do I have?
• What's really important to me?

Step Two - Learn about your career options.
College is an awesome, social and brief experience. But rarely do these higher institutes of learning offer classes that provide realistic scenarios of the working world. You have to take the initiative to explore it yourself. A superior and comprehensive resource for this is Monster's Career Snapshots where you can acquire an objective perspective for more than 2,500 occupations.

Step Three - Sort out your priorities.
After you've spent time contemplating steps one and two, your strong preferences should start to emerge. You might learn you don't want to be in a corporate environment in a typical nine to five job.  Or you may find you appreciate the structure of an office position. When you explore your preferences and inner desires, you're making important discoveries that will help you choose a fulfilling and lasting career.

If you follow this three-step process from the experts at Monster.com you won't just be sitting back waiting for careers and jobs to land in your lap. You'll be working toward ascertaining what brings you joy.

And as Monster.com reminds us, most importantly, keep it all in perspective: You don't have to live forever with any career decision you make now. Most people change careers several times during their lives as they grow and transform. So the first job you choose right after college probably won't be your career 40 or 50 years from now -- unless you want it to be. So don't put too much pressure on yourself to make the perfect decision, and always keep your eyes open.