Selecting Career(s)

Jobs Versus Careers

One man's trash is another man's treasure, and one person's job is another's career.  A job is a means to an ends, meaning that you are working someone out of necessity in order to be able to do something else.  When people are working 1) just to get paid, 2) in order to try and get a different job, 3) to get away from other spaces,  4) because of convenience, it might just be a job.

A career is a field of work where you are able to combine your interests, passions and dreams with your skills and expertise.  Some careers are entrepreneurial and you get to be your own boss by starting your own business, while others have a clear ladder to climb a career path.   Careers often reward experience, have built in professional growth and developments, and allow you to feel energized  and excited about working.

Researching the Career for You

Some people know their calling, while others are not sure, and that's ok!  Most people in your generation are 40% more likely to change careers and jobs than your grandparents, and with an ever evolving economy adapting to knew technology and globalization, its very likely you'll make several career changes over your lifetime.  As you're checking out some of the options below, keep a list of the careers that interests you (I'd recommend using a tracker like this to help keep you organized).

Informational Interviews

Informational interviews are when you ask questions to friends, family members, or industry experts about their work and how they got there.  While it might be easier to talk to people you know, you might not always know someone who has the same passions and interests as you, which is when you cold call strangers!   You can use a script to help you either call or email folks about informational interviews.

Once you've secured an informational interview, here's some ways to prepare:

1. What you will wear

2. How you'll get there

3. Your handshake & small talk (how you're doing, thank you for meeting with me, etc)

4. Introduce your interests and why you requested the informational interview

5. Prepare 10 questions (preferably open-ended questions that allow the person you're interviewing to explain more about your areas of interests)

6. Research leads to other related work, ask them if they know of any other people you could interview or opportunities for you to further explore your interests.

7. How you'll take notes during the meeting

Job Shadows

It's one thing to hear about or read about a career, but its another thing to actually experience it yourself.  During a job shadow, your primary responsibility to take notes and be a sponge that absorbs all the things happening with the person you're shadowing.  You'll follow someone around for 3-8 hours and they'll explain what their doing and answer any questions that you have.  

Once you've secured your job shadow, you'll want to prepare:

1. What to wear

2. How to get there

3. Reflect on what you anticipate seeing during the job shadow

4. Prepare your handshake & introduction (your opportunity to ask about specific things that you hope to see)

5. Identify any questions you want to ask

6. How you will take notes

Internships

Getting to intern gives you a chance to build your resume, develop new soft and technical skills, develop a relationship with a mentor that you can use as a reference, contribute to a cool organization, earn high school or college credit, and sometimes get paid in kind or a stipend.  Internships are great ways to get exposure to business or organizations where you would otherwise be under-qualified to work at.   Some internships are advertised and organizations recruit interns, while others start organically because a mentor wants to help a young person's growth and development.   At an internship, you'll either have a project that you will work on over multiple weeks to support an organization, or you'll have daily tasks and lessons that will help drive your learning. 

Preparing for an internship is to preparing for a job, but remember that the primary reason you are there is to learn

Career Surveys and Interest Inventories

Sometimes, taking surveys, inventories, or assessments are ways to help us unpack some of our interests and narrow our focus.  Here are some common assessments:

• Unlock My Future: 12 multiple choice questions about careers

• Truity: 6 pages of likert scale questions about career interests 

• O-Net: Traditional likert scale with 60 questions  

• Louisiana Careers Connect:  career interest profiler among other exploration tools.

• "What Major should I take": Helpful to consider how interests align with universities majors

• LSU Major's by Interest: Select from a few categories to identify college majors related to that interest