Three tips for choosing your career
How to get a career you'll love!
I was born on the small island of Jamaica three years before the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt sprinted onto the earth. My childhood was a bit different from most American kids. I wasn’t told any stories about Santa Claus and if I were, I wouldn’t have believed it because we had no chimneys. I was also forced to eat vegetables for breakfast, which according to cable TV was the opposite for American kids, who ate Pop Tarts and Eggos. But despite the differences I had a lot in common with Americans.
One similarity was being asked the question “ What do you want to be when you grow up?” If you think of it, the better question is, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” But let that be a different story for a different day. Everyone, I’m sure, whether asked this question by a parent, stranger, teacher, or relative has given it some thought. So do you know the answer? If you don’t it’s fine. Many adults, some even in their 40’s are still trying to solve that life long riddle. Here are some things to consider though.
Passion and Practice
Mike Murdock likes to study careers and God-given assignments. He says that in order to help decide your career you should write down all the things that you are passionate about. It could be science, music, education, healthcare or zoology, just write it down. Next, honestly ask yourself which job you are willing to study. You can be passionate about playing the piano and having fun with your friends in a jam session, but you may have no discipline to practice and work on your scales and chords. So whatever career you intend to enjoy for the rest of your life, it must be something that you want to learn more about and improve your abilities in.
Research your pathways
Recently there has been an increase in the number of college-bound Americans opting for a degree in criminal justice. I believe this is due to the plethora of murder mystery and crime drama shows on TV. Kids watch these shows and they want to be detectives who solve crime, catch bad guys and find serial killers. However, this is not always the reality of a person with a criminal justice degree.
Don’t get me wrong, if you want to study criminal justice that’s fine. But make sure that your end goal or desired job requires such a degree. A detective usually starts by graduating from police academy, working as an officer and then maybe a detective. So in the end, don’t focus on a major just because you like the name of it (some people do that). What you should do is go onto a job site and type in the name of the job you would want to do then, look at the education and job experience requirements. That way you can have a more real understanding of what will be needed of you. And no, you are probably not too young to do this.
Pray about it
Last but definitely not least, pray about your career. Ask the Father for help and he’ll show you. You may be really scared or doubting yourself. Do you ever talk about a serious matter and your friends just laugh at you? Have you spoken to your family or even best friend about a possible career and they told you that it was a crazy idea? Have you even doubted that you were good enough to do well in a particular job? If you answered yes to all of these, then you are in good company. The Bible is filled with many stories of people who were given an assignment/job and completely doubted themselves. One of the greatest examples is in Exodus 3, when God tells Moses to go and rescue the Israelites, and he doubts himself so much he tries to refuse God!
Stories like this were not included in the Bible to make us feel good about how confident we are by comparison. Actually, these show us that even when we are filled with doubt and uncertainty, God can lead us to our answer anyway. He’ll do the same for you. Your creator would love to share with you why you were made.
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