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The Ultimate Career Guide

Here’s how to find a job that fits you: Career Exploration (Career Resource No. 9)

February 7, 2022
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If you are currently finishing school or university, chances are you are wondering what career you would like to follow once you have received your degree. And if you are at the start of your working journey, you may be wondering how you can find and work towards a job that best fits to you, your lifestyle and helps you reach your goals. So, how do you best approach this? How do you find out what jobs are out there that fit to YOU? Let’s talk about career exploration – and how you can use it to navigate your career!

What is career exploration?

Career exploration is everything you do to collect information on your career options. And it can be further broken down into two types. The first one is environment exploration – you try to collect information of what is out there. What careers could be an option based on your knowledge  and skills ? Which prerequisites do you need? For example, if you enjoy complex problem-solving or presenting in front of clients, specifically look out for a job that includes these responsibilities. Or if a job you like requires basic understanding of a specific software, then this is your sign to work on that specific skill. Quite straightforward.

The second one is self-exploration and it is all about what is important to you. Your values, interests, intended lifestyle, and strengths and weaknesses take the center stage here! Only when you have identified what is important to you and what you are good at, can you find the right job that fits to you. And only then can you unfold your full potential and thrive at work and life in general. For example, if spending time with your loved ones daily is essential to you, then working a job that requires extra-hours is probably not a good idea. Or if you dislike traveling for work, a job that requires meeting clients all over the worlds would likely make you miserable sooner or later.

The key is to align your career with your needs, your goals, your lifestyle.

Do I have to step up my career exploration game?

If you want to determine whether you should engage in more exploration, here are a couple of questions that you can reflect on:

  • Do you regularly gather information about career opportunities ?
  • Do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are?
  • What are your no-go’s in terms of a job?
  • Do you have a clear idea about what lifestyle you would like to lead?
  • What are the values that you don’t want to compromise on?

Now that you got an overview on what you already know about your intended career and your personal needs, let’s see how you can find a job that fits to you!

3 ways to find the job that fits to you

1. Internships, internships, internships.

If you are a student, this should be your mantra. There is no better way to find out whether a job fits to you than trying it out for a couple of months. It is striking how much you can learn about your strengths, weaknesses, and preferences during an internship. People who thought they would thrive in project management, may find out that such a career contains too much administrative work for their liking. And they may end up switching their career plans and focus on strategy-heavy job positions. Be open to be surprised by your true (sometimes hidden) talents and interests!

Another great resource that comes with internships is the interaction with many different people in the field and the expansion of your network . At the end of the day, who could better answer questions related to a given job than people who have been working this job for years? Talk to them, ask them about their career journey, and their advice to someone considering to follow that same career path.

2. Talk to people who know you well.

If you got the feeling earlier that you are not 100% certain on your values or needs, try talking to people who know you very well. This can be your best friend, your brother, your grandma, your parents – whoever you feel comfortable talking to. Doing this can be extremely helpful because sometimes we are blind to some of our main traits, until someone points them out. Ask them what they think your superpowers are and what you could improve. What you pay a lot of attention to. What things you do not compromise on. Getting another person’s perspective of you can help you gain a better understanding of yourself. (But please don’t feel pressured to accept that information as the only truth – sometimes people may have an inaccurate impression).

3. Search for jobs with your requirements in mind.

Just as employers have certain requirements when looking for a new hire, so should you also have a list of requirements that your future job should satisfy. To facilitate your search, you could create a list of all the aspects that resulted from your career exploration.  Here’s a list of things you should include:

  • responsibilities a job should offer
  • salary
  • main topics of the job
  • your…
    • strengths
    • weaknesses
    • core values
    • (intended) lifestyle
    • mid- to long-term career goals

Write it all down, so you can refer back to it and use it as a check-list when you go through job postings. This way, you can ensure that you choose a job wisely and intentionally. It may sound like more effort than to just blindly apply, but in the long-term this effort will pay off in higher job satisfaction and a close fit between your career goals and reality.

Get the support you always wanted

We know that sometimes, small actions of reflection like the ones we suggest in this article, quickly slip our mind and before we know it, we forget about them altogether. If you need an occasional reminder, follow us on our Instagram and Facebook page – we use it as an interactive way to help each other implement the advice we suggest in our blog posts. And we love to hear about your experiences and thoughts!

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This post is based on the following sources and academic articles

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash