When Is the Right Time to Think About Your Career?

How do you think about your career when you’re in high school or at college? It seems so far away, yet it’s obvious that it’s happening at some point in time – and that it is a huge deal.

This is not meant to put pressure on you, but highlight the importance of thinking about profession and taking actionable steps.

There are great resources out there and awesome articles that can help you along the way. Here we compiled several that we found most interesting and helpful.

Think About Your Values

Let’s say you’re in high school, enjoying life, parties, juicy gossip here and there. But you’re also a responsible young adult who wants to know where they’re going.

If you have a high school counselor, odds are they can help you in choosing your career path. There are also specific institutions that provide professional psychological and career orientation tests, which can have a huge impact.

But what if you want to do a trial run, so to speak, on your own? Where would you start?

The good place would be to first consider your values. What is most important to you? Is it an adventure, family, wealth and financial security, freedom, creativity, or something else? These are all very different and call for very different occupations.

This article “The Best Advice We’ve Found for Helping Students Find Career Paths” says you should list about 5 core values, no more, and then prioritize them. You don’t even have to choose the occupation right away – just being aware of these will get your wheels rolling in the right direction.

Testing Phase

Once you’ve established your values, you might want to start thinking about the occupations that best reflect your top priorities.

For example, if your top value is financial security, you would be seeking highly-paid jobs, probably not as adventurous or creative, and would be willing to invest a lot of time into learning and improving yourself. You wouldn’t shy away from working overtime and would nurture your ambitions and boost your employee engagement.

Clearly, this would fit with managers, CEOs, various directors – the people who hold great responsibility and handle significant amounts of stress but are also awarded financially.

On the other hand, if your top priority is adventure or creativity, but you’re ok with a little financial risk here and there, you might look into journalism, writing, art, or professional sports, nature photography, and freelancing in general.

You get the idea. Different priorities call for different occupations.

Does this mean that every manager is boring and that every nature photographer is poor? Absolutely not. As you work on your craft, you can expand and incorporate other values. But you have to start somewhere.

There’s No Experience Like Real Experience

Ok, so you narrowed down professions a bit. You can do two things now: a) talk to a mentor or a counselor within the chosen field, and b) take it even a step further.

Obviously, finding a mentor within the career you want would be a huge advantage. You’ll get ins and outs of the field, and know what to look out for.

But, why not take it a step further? Time permitting, ask a mentor or a company if they would be willing to give you a short internship.

Even if you spend two weeks or a month only serving coffee to these people and cleaning their desks, you will still have gained something invaluable by observing them: the real-life experience of what your career might look like.

Perhaps some of these won’t be what you had imagined at all. Choose something else, until you are happy with what you see and experience.

On to College

By now, you will have gained an enormous advantage over, we’d say, about 95% of the average student body.

A lot of students choose a college based on what they like, what they’re good at, with only a vague idea what it would entail once they graduate.

Now, since you are already aware of this, you can plan further.

Talking to your mentors in the previous step will have you noticing what other qualities they look for in an employee. Is it persistence, a strong work ethic, maybe a little bit of a rebel on the side? Think about ways to demonstrate these qualities to your future employer.

Perhaps it’s an extracurricular activity – for example, a drama club, a sports team, a science lab show teamwork within different fields.

Also, make use of your college counselor to learn about various opportunities. If there’s a (un)paid internship that’s right up your alley, take it. The ROI will be manifold once you start looking for actual jobs.

Finally, remember why you’re doing all of this – and have fun. You are creating an independent, satisfying life within the profession you’ve chosen and you’re doing it the smart way.

The Goal Is a Fulfilling Career Aligned With Your Values

Odds are that you will change your career several times during your life.

Make sure it’s the right one.

We’ve provided you with several ideas to get the ball rolling, now it’s up to you. Use all the resources, both in your high school/college and on the internet, to make an informed decision.

And for other things that will help you during your high school/college years, check out our blog and read other articles on students’ life.