Wow, this is a huge topic and it’s not one that’s easy to answer either, but here’s all the advice we can muster up to help you get started. Here’s our 5 tried and tested methods to help you choose the best career for your future!
Let’s start here with this quote from Mark Twain who was an American writer, humourist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Mark said: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ― Mark Twain
This quote infers that we should follow our passions when looking for a job or a career. It suggests that if we find a job we enjoy, are daily lives and our daily work isn’t going to feel like work because we will be too busy just enjoying it. So, this is our first clue to the puzzle of finding a career for you and therefore our first place to start is when choosing a career or job for the future is what do you enjoy? What are your passions?
1.What are you passionate about and what do you enjoy doing?
When I think about our students at Rockley, things they are passionate about are helping other people, being outside, being challenged, sport, watersports, travel, working in a team. These are just some of the things that spring to mind. Our students are very hands on in everything they do and when choosing to come to Rockley and start a career in Sport, they already know that they love sport, they know that they like being part of a team and working together, they normally know they are good at problem solving as well and they’re not too shy to get to the front and lead others, normally with a joke while they’re at it!
So, what about you? What are you passionate about? What things have you enjoyed at School? Scouts? Cadets? Duke of Edinburgh? Football? Volunteering? Coaching? What about things you’ve tried on holiday or things you’ve read about? What magazines to you like reading? What hobbies do you have?
2.What do you want your future life to be like?
Now you’ve spent some time thinking about you and where you are at right now, what about the future? What do you want to do in the future? I was once told to find my passion doing activities when time just flies by and I don’t realise how long something is taking. I was told to find something where I lose myself in the activity, where I am so engrossed in what I am doing that the time just disappears. Maybe something springs to mind? A lot of our students at Rockley want to work in Sport. They are looking for a career as a PE Teacher, an Activity Instructor, a Centre Manager, Fitness Instructor or Personal Trainer, some even want to run their own business, go into hospitality, travel or even work on superyachts. All these ideas come from focussing on the lifestyle they want through their work.
So, let’s look at this in more detail. Can you write a list of all the things you want your career to offer you? Do you want to travel? Work 9am to 5pm? Have a good team spirit at work? Have the opportunity to learn new skills? Develop? Be creative? Lead a Team? Work as a Manager? What does your future job and life look like?
3.Career Assessment Tools – Let the computer do the thinking!
You could use this opportunity to complete a career assessment? You can do these online and they really can be amazingly accurate. Get comfy, complete all the questions and wait for your life to be mapped out in front of you! I remember doing this when I was aged 15 with my Career’s Advisor. The assessment identified I could be a PE Teacher, a Prison Officer or Soldier. As much as I was horrified by the Prison Officer suggestion, the PE Teacher sounded fun and just right for me! What might a Career Assessment say for you? If you want to have a try, give the Career Coach assessment a go at the bottom of this post and let the computer map out your interests and future options.
4.Ask everyone else – What job do you think I would be good at?
So, you’ve done some thinking, you’ve tried a careers assessment and now what? Now’s the time to ask everyone else! What do they think? Ask as many people as you can what they think you should do for a job and what job they think you would be good at? You’ll be amazed at some of the answers! Are there any that match what you have already thought about? If there are, then that is just brilliant. Keep this in your top list! I know full well if some of our students asked their friends and family what they should do for a job, most of them would be told to be a PE Teacher, Coach, Instructor or something Sporty or to do with Sport! Our students are normally hands-on people that don’t sit still for long and like to be active, so I’m quite certain they would be advised to follow those sorts of roles.
5.Research the actual jobs
Our last and final tip for you is to research the actual jobs available for you. Now you have a list of ideas, which jobs do you know about or can find out about. We’ve produced a video on our Rockley Watersports YouTube channel which goes through the jobs available with us at Rockley. Go over to Youtube and watch the video. Do any of the roles inspire you? Could this be the role for you? The video covers all of the jobs you can do at Rockley after your Level 3 Outdoor Adventure Course?
Ok, so we’ve looked at everything here to get you started. Here’s the run down for what we’ve covered and the 4 Steps to ‘Finding the Right Career for You’.