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Writer's pictureSwati Saini

Career Awareness: Take Charge of Your Career




What do you want to be in your life? It is a question that can leave any student confused. Many intellectual scholars and toppers who can solve any given problem in minutes find themselves struggling to answer this question. This is because most of us only have some vague ideas about careers during our student’s lives. We leave it up to our parents, teachers, or even relatives to think and decide about it. Sometimes, we only choose a career just because our friend chose it. Choosing a career after an idol is another common thing among students.


Somewhere in between all of this, we forget the fact that career choice does not work like that. It is an extremely important decision of life as the rest of our lives revolve around the kind of career we choose. So, personalizing your career choice becomes a necessity.

Developing a broader understanding of different career options is the first step towards raising your career awareness. Having a good career awareness helps you find your dream career. For this, you need to evaluate your career options on the factors that matter the most to you. These can be different depending on the individual to individual. However, some of the basic factors to look at while choosing your career could be

  • What do you love to do and find the most value in doing?

  • What are you good at?

  • Does your career match with your personality?

  • What education or training would you need to pursue your career?

  • What is the financial value of your career?

  • What is the work environment in your chosen career field?

  • Does this career will provide meaning to you in the long term?

  • What unique value will I be bringing to the world through this career?



Thinking about all these questions for deciding a career can be overwhelming at times. However, if you go deeper into the context of what a career really is all these factors will start making sense to you.



Think of it in this way, on an average you spend around 8 hours in a day in your profession, that is, 48 hours in a week; 208 hours a month and 2496 hours in a year which is equal to 104 days straight that you will be spending in a year working. Imagine working in a job that you don’t like for such a long time. We all have limited time in our lives and every second of it counts. Nobody will want to spend it in a career where they don’t feel happy pursuing.

As a working professional, your office becomes your first family where you spend most of your time in a day. And if this family does not make you feel good about yourself than just getting paid good money will not be a major motivator for you to go to work. That is why choosing the right career matters greatly. But people struggle the most while making this decision of their lives. And rightly so!



This does not mean that you should start overthinking about your career and take unnecessary stress. Having a well-developed career plan can offer a great solution to this confusing problem. Career awareness helps you to build an action plan for yourself customized to your needs and kind of lifestyle.



Career awareness involves making a career decision based on full-fledged knowledge about its compatibility with yourself. For choosing your career you must understand what your potential is and then choose your profession accordingly. Passion is the key factor in determining a career in life. If you are passionate about your work it will feel like play to you. You will love every second of your life doing that thing. Even after getting tired of working you still will not feel any loss of enthusiasm for it. And that’s when you know that you are in the right direction in life.



Once you decide what you want to be whether it is engineering, painting, dancing, cooking, plumbing, or a thousand other things; look around people who are already into these professions. Talk to them and try to know what it is like to work full-time in these professions. What values do these professions need you to have to pursue them? Does it match your personality? How is the work environment? Are you comfortable working long hours in that environment? And finally what amounts of money you can make in these professions? Is it enough for you to fulfill your financial goals? Will you be happy after coming back home from work?



After evaluating the answers to all these questions and finding the right fit for yourself- make a career plan on how to achieve your desired career. Figure out the different paths that you can take to accomplish your goals. Seek help wherever necessary. In this era of information, there is nothing difficult to know about. You can get hundreds of pages of information on the internet just with one click! Now isn’t it amazing?…. All you need is to be motivated and passionate about what you really what to do in your life and the world will help you in its procurement. You never know you could be the next Beyonce` in music, the next Pablo Picasso in painting, the next Nikola Tesla in engineering or next Jeff Bezos in business, or maybe you become one of a kind in a field that people look up to and want to be like.



All that it takes to step-up your career game is to know your options, values, plans, and most importantly- YOU. If you have a clear understanding of what you stand for, you are already successful. But if you don’t know it yet then don’t worry because “Great things take time.” Be patient and introspect where you are in life. What is it that you seek in your life and you shall find the calling of your soul.



Remember career is not the way to make money only. A career is something that defines your personality and beliefs. So don’t choose a career just for the sake of money or because it is a very cool job to do or your parents want you to do it. Pursue a career only when it makes you feel more like yourself and gives you the reason to wake up from your bed every morning happily. That’s when you will truly be SUCCESSFUL in life.


Now that you know the essence of a career in life becoming the BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF ain’t that far!


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