Savvy Library

How To Choose The Right Job For You

Trying to decide on the right career path for you can be a daunting process, and may at times feel overwhelming as the desire to find the ‘perfect’ job can leave you unsure of which direction to go in. However, the days when a job was one for life and when you chose a career path you stuck with it are long gone. Job hunting can be a tiring task which is why it may be helpful to read a step by step guide to job hunting to help you get employed quickly. Now there is far greater flexibility and freedom when it comes to choosing the right job for you. Perhaps you are a recent graduate or looking to change career? Whatever your situation, if you are looking to find the right job then it is worth considering some important points such as whether you want to go freelance or be on a contract, and what sort of setting appeals most to your personality. For example, the fast-paced adrenaline-pumping environment of working in an Emergency Room may not be the right place for you if you panic at the sight of blood and would prefer to find a management job in the retail service, like these interim management roles uk, due to the communication and customer satisfaction skills you possess.

To choose the best path, consider what interests you most and where you are most suited.

Freelance vs. Contract


Perhaps you are already in a contracted role and long for the freedom and flexibility of freelance life. Before taking the jump and handing your notice in, however, it is worth considering the pluses and minuses of each option. Even companies deciding who to hire have to make big decisions. There are also things they need to consider, like looking to check whether potential employees’ have any criminal records. If you are a company in Australia or hope to find a job here, you could look into a site like https://www.nationalcrimecheck.com.au/, where you can obtain police certificates for individuals looking for employment, education or other legal needs. This will be important for both a contracted or freelance role.In recent years, freelancing has become an increasingly popular way to earn a living. There are many benefits to freelancing, including the ability to work from anywhere in the world and the freedom to choose your own hours. Additionally, freelancing allows you to work while you’re a student or without a degree. There is no need to make some fake transcripts online, you just need your knowledge and skills. However, with traditional jobs, you often have to wait months or even years before you’re able to start earning a decent salary. However, with freelancing, you can start building up your client base and earning an income right away

Being in a contracted position offers stability and knowing how much you will have coming in at the end of each month. Freelancing allows you greater freedom, for example, you can take a day off whenever you like, but you will not have the security of a regular paycheck, nor sick pay and maternity leave options that working for a company can provide.

In a contracted job you may know the position and company inside and out, which can be both a positive and negative. Knowing your colleagues, the work systems and what is expected of you can help you to complete jobs faster and progress in your career, but if you are seeking new challenges and you thrive on new experiences then perhaps freelance project-based work is better suited to you.

If you choose to go freelance, depending on what you specialize in, you may be able to travel the world and work remotely from anywhere including a beach in Goa or the top of a mountain in the French Alps. It can be hugely appealing, but you also need to ensure there is a market for you. Do your research and check that your skills are needed and that people will pay for them. For example, if you are a writer, you could offer your skills to copywriting websites that will pay per article or go traveling and write travel pieces for newspapers or online travel blogs. If you have a skill that is valuable to businesses, maybe you are a specialist in digital marketing, then you can sell yourself as a marketing consultant to local businesses. If you decide to try freelancing, then you will need to approach yourself as a business brand, setting up a website and bank account and treating each new introduction as a potential new client.

What Setting Most Suits You?


When choosing a new job or career, consider what setting is best suited to your personality. Do you enjoy meeting new people, are you personable and like being customer-focused? If you answered ‘yes,’ then a job in retail may suit you. Working in retail does not necessarily mean being a cashier or customer service assistant. If you are good at managing and motivating staff, remain calm and positive when dealing with customer complaints or issues, and are happy monitoring sales figures and meeting sales targets you could be a manager of a retail store or an area manager of a series of stores.

Perhaps working within an education setting is right for you if you like working with children and young people, are enthusiastic and patient, enjoy watching children learn and are creative in your abilities to pass information on? If so, consider a job as a teacher. Being a teacher is a role where you can have a real and lasting impact on future generations, and a good teacher is someone who can open up possibilities for children and motivate and engage them in new challenges.

Perhaps the field of healthcare could be a good choice for you. Healthcare and medicine offer a diverse range of options regarding work settings, from working in a general practice clinic to being a doctor on a military base or working in a research lab focusing on developing new medicines. There is also the option of working abroad, being a medic on a cruise ship, or volunteering with a charity who send doctors to areas in crisis. Do you work well under pressure and can remain flexible and calm at all times? If the answer is ‘yes’ then perhaps a job as a paramedic or ER doctor is well suited to you.

Perhaps you might actually be thinking that the one thing that you would really love to do is sell people homes. The very idea of being the reason that someone finds the house they love is something that really excites you. If this is the case then you need to make sure that you get a realtor license first before you can start the job of your dreams.

Consider nursing as a career if you enjoy caring for people, are compassionate and want to work directly with patients. Within nursing, there are many specialties you can pursue, for example, you could become a psychiatric nurse if you want to work within a mental health setting or a labor and delivery nurse if helping to deliver babies sounds ideal. You could become a nurse practitioner, an advanced practice nursing professional, which is a role that sits between physicians and staff nurses. The benefits of a nurse practitioner include working holistically with patients to create integrated healthcare plans that focus on the whole person and not just the isolated medical issue.

What is driving you?


Working out what is motivating you can help to focus your job hunt and allow you to find a role that truly satisfies you, and understanding what is driving you will help you to make the right choices. Write down the things you are looking for in your career and your long-term goals and work backward to assess what the right steps are to make them a reality. Perhaps money and earning a high wage is a primary motivator for you, in which case research jobs with the highest earnings and look at the career paths of people who are successful in those fields, such as investment bankers and hedge-fund managers. Or if you know you want to work in an area such as education but also want to have high earnings research what experience is necessary and the best training path to become the principal of a school or head of an educational setting. If your values and doing a job you believe in makes you more excited than a high wage, search for positions within charities, and work as a volunteer to gain more experience and specialist skills if you need to.

Once you think you have settled on a career path, talk to as many people already working within the field as you can to find out what the realities of the job are like and whether you are suited to the specific demands of the role.

4 Comments

  • Cassidy ciazza

    I am so happy to read this article. I’ve worked in healthcare for seventeen years and am ready to leap into a new career just as soon as I can figure out what that is! This has some great tips. Thanks

  • kate g

    To me this is the single hardest decision to make. It’s so hard to know ahead of time what you will love. You might think you love it, but when you actually do it in a corporate or business setting it might not be what you anticipated. I quit a lot of jobs until I found one I loved and it was something I would never have even thought to consider when I was making career decisions. My guide was the quote “If you find a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I found that job, and it took awhile, but I never settled.

  • Abigail Schuette

    I think I would do better with the security of a contracted position my motivator is my family and their future so I want to be working in a reliable predictable setting something I know I can count on to help me reach my life goals I think this article is very informative and thought provoking and a necessary topic we as people need to think about these things great article thanks for sharing -Abigail Schuette

  • Stephanie Z

    This is a really insightful article. I have found that I work best at home and doing freelancing.