How to Decide on a Career Path You’ll Love

Deciding a career path can be terribly daunting. As we grow up, our parents, teachers, and in some cases our peers ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

This very question though, is flawed from the start.

It makes it seem as though deciding a career path has to be a terminal thing. However, it doesn't. You might decide you want to be a doctor then turn right around after ten years of doing that and decide you want to teach medical students.

Rather than looking at your career choice as a linear path that constricts as time goes on, look at it as a corridor along which many doors can be opened.

With that in mind, here are a few ways to decide on a career path that you'll love whether it's your first career, or your fifth.

1. Work a Job You Hate

Need a motivator to get out of a rut? Use the rut itself. S

if you have literally no idea what you want to spend your life doing, spend some time doing something you dread.

Whether you wash dishes for minimum wage, or wait tables for the often rude and ungrateful patrons of a busy restaurant, you'll soon think of a thousand things that you would rather be doing.

2. Assess your Strengths Honestly

If you're juggling a few different ideas that are equally exciting to you but vastly different in terms of the type of work you'll be doing-ask yourself what you're already good at. For example; if you're thinking you'd like to be a lawyer or a medical professional but you don't stomach sick people or the things that come out of them well definitely go with lawyer.

3. Talk to a Career Specialist

Speaking of career decisions-there is a career for people who want to help others decide what they should do and they're good at it. Career specialists if nothing else are great people to bounce your ideas off of. Aside from that they can help you schedule career aptitude tests that will use your scores to determine what fields you'd be best suited for.

4. Take Classes

Many people think that they should know what they want to do with their life before they sign up for any classes. However, by going to a community college and studying general education or by going to a liberal arts college you will have the opportunity to take a wide range of classes you may have never considered. You might even go into one of these institutions with a career goal in mind but later decide you want to shift to another career because of one fun class with a great teacher.  

5. Job Shadow

This is something you should do even if you're certain of what you want to do. You might have had your heart set on something since you were a small child until someone in that field tells you that they hate every minute of it. In fact I wanted to be an English teacher until my high school english teacher heard this, pulled me aside in public, grabbed me by the shoulders, and said very cryptically, “Don't teach.”

6. Do What You Love

I know, it's a cliche but if you're scratching your head indecisive of a proper career path but you spend every Friday night working on code for an app you want to build 'just for fun' then you already know what you want to do. Maybe you find your passion impractical to make a living off of but people become chefs, magicians, and rodeo clowns. Seriously.

It's easy to set around and think about what you might like doing. Making a decision and running with it until you know it isn't right for you is what's scary.

A career sounds like this huge decision that you have to make before you get your adult card. That just isn't how it works. Use these tips, pick the first thing that sounds exciting, and run with it.

Do you already have a career that you love? Do you do something for money that was once a hobby you thought could never sustain a living? Let us know in the comments below!