Deciding which direction you are going to go in your career is often tough. I’m going to give you eight things that you can do for yourself to discover your direction. I’d like to start by saying that if you’re just starting out in your work life, don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to do. Try not to be influenced by others in your job search, try instead to focus on the things that you most enjoy or that you are interested in.

If you don’t know what you want to do, you can always find out through trial and error, but if you can focus on specifics, then finding a job that you enjoy will be a lot faster. No matter what happens though, you always have to get past the gatekeepers to a job, usually recruiters. Recruiters, whether internal or external, will always notice if you are not focussed or really interested in the job for which you are applying.

So, let’s get to work on the question at hand: how do I find out what type of job I want to focus on applying for?
There are many free online psychometric tests and tools that can help you to narrow down your choice of job. Alternatively you can consult a career coach. But really, the basics are something that you can do for yourself:

• What type of personality do you have? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you enjoy working with other people or by yourself? Do you prefer working with numbers and data, or with the written word?
• What do you most enjoy in life? Working outdoors or indoors? Interacting with people or working on your own? For example, I enjoy understanding people’s motivations, talking and listening to people. People usually react well to interacting with me. This means that I was always going to prefer working with people and, more than that, it means that I am good at working with people, as my interactions have an authenticity that is key to building good relationships with others.
• What qualifications do you have? Whether you are leaving school, university, or an existing job you can think back to any qualifications that you opted to get. What made you choose these and what drove you to achieve them?
• What hobbies do you have? Hobbies can often tell you a lot about the things that are important to you. For example, whether you choose to participate in team sports, or individual sports. Or whether you have a creative hobby, or an intellectual hobby, etc.
• What type of life do you want to have? Do you want a job that you can leave behind when you leave work? Or would you be happy with a job that becomes a significant part of your life?
• What time do you want to be working? By this I mean, do you want a regular 9-to-5, or would you prefer more irregular hours?
• Ask you friends and family what your skills are: I have advised people to do this in the past, and they are often surprised by what they find. Your family in particular can be very honest with you.
• Find people in your network whose jobs interest you: Doing this will allow you to talk to them about their job, and find out if it’s something that would interest you.

You should think about all of these things before focussing on one career path. They may not leave you feeling certain of a particular job or career, but they will definitely give you some direction.

If you have questions feel free to contact me.