Factors Affecting Career Choice

Factors Affecting Career Choice
Created At 10 Jan, 2024
Category Career Planning
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“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” —Mae West


"Are you also confused about your career?" Don’t worry, it is not only you. Career confusion is among most of the students in their twenties, but also among teenagers and kids. Before we get into the solution of "how confusion can be removed to select the right career path," Firstly, we need to know about "What is career confusion?". At this time, a number of opportunities are available in society. Only a few in thousands are clear-sighted and know the suitable direction in which they want to move ahead and what to pursue in their career. But in contrary, there are many who don’t know how to move ahead to a lighted path from a dark side in order to fulfil their dreams. The major career confusion of not knowing "what to do" or "how to do" is a  issue that can arise at any time in a person's life and will follow him as shadow for the rest of his professional career life. And the person will remain in a dilemma throughout his entire professional career life.

Factors Affecting While Selecting the Right Career

We all want the solution to the great career confusion of "How to select the right career path." But before getting into the solution to our problem, we should know the factors affecting career choices. So, the following are the factors affecting career choices and making "career confusion":

  • Family Pressure
  • Comfort Zone
  • Lack of Awareness
  • Considering every intelligent person as an advisor
  • Absence of a career counsellor
  • Being unsure about your interests

Family Pressure

The pressure of family often has a great influence on any student’s life. The arousal of doubts is created by that pressure in our minds. At that point, they are unsure whether to listen to their hearts or their families. Students get doubtful about whether their decision will get family support or not. Believe it or not, family support affects very much any individual’s career growth and just for the sake of that support, a number of people get confused in career selection.

Comfort Zone

One may get confuse to determine whether the career path they chose are going to be comforting for them, is that a right career path or not. They need to fear what may happen if they don’t grow in others. If you stay in a comfort zone for too long, it can cause you to become complacent. The comfort zone makes you afraid of moving forward and growing, and you will usually choose to stay put. In other words, if you do not perform activities that somewhat scare or challenge you, you miss out on growth opportunities.

Lack of  Awareness

The lack of awareness is the primary source of career confusion. Either you don't know what's popular in society, or you don't know what professional career path would be ideal for you. Lack of awareness leaves you with little choice and increases confusion while choosing any career. Here, lack of awareness is not only for society's awareness but also for your own self-awareness. If you don’t know about your skills and capabilities, even at that time, you will be confused about selecting the right career path.

Considering Every Intelligent Person as an Advisor

An intelligent person doesn’t mean a good advisor. That person may know about many things and have great knowledge. But that doesn’t mean they can analyse you or guide you to choose the right career path. You get confused after getting advice from so many people. They have ended up with a more confused mind as a result of listening to such advisers. These advisors put them in a doubtful position as to what to choose or what to not.

Absence of a Professional Career Counsellor

Lack of or inadequate career counseling for youths also contributes to the confusion being experienced by individuals later in life. The foundation is laid with carelessness and negligence, while most youths build their lives with no sense of purpose and eventually experience frustration later in life. A professional career counsellor will guide you to select the right career path after analysing your skills or capabilities. A professional career counsellor will also help you to learn about changing economic patterns and living standards that require defining career opportunities.

Being Unsure About your Interests

Not knowing which field or career path you want to pursue will also lead to a lot of career confusion. A lack of interest in any career or any field will not help you to lead a successful life. Even if someone starts the career with no interest, they will continue it for a limited time with no chances of successful growth. If you are aware and are known for your own skills, you can find a number of career paths for yourself on the basis of your skills and capabilities.

How to Select the Right Career Path

It’s the rule of the nature if there is any problem definitely there is a solution for the problem. We already had discussed about the causes of the problem of “Career Confusion”. Now, its the time to know about “How career confusion can be removed to select the right career path?”. All the below mentions are the solution of this problem:

  • Be optimistic about your career 
  • Trust your instincts
  • Analyze the scope of your career
  • Consider your hobbies
  • Take help of professional  career counsellor

Be Optimistic About your Career

A person should have a positive attitude toward the career they want to pursue. They should always expect the best positive outcome from their career. The optimism in them will always help them to see the upcoming opportunities and how to use them for their own growth. As a result, having a positive attitude toward your career will help you see the right career path.

Trust your Instincts

Trusting your instincts can sometimes help you clear career confusion.As for an example, you are confused between career A and career B, but according to your instinct, you feel you have skills and are capable of ursuing career A, but career B is forced on you by pressure. At that time, you should follow your instincts and clear your confusion for your career.

Analyze the Scope of your Career

If a person is confused about their career and has a number of options available to them, analysing the scope of those careers is the best solution. One can analyse their growth in those careers and choose the best one for themselves in which they can have a successful career ahead. Choosing a career that doesn’t have much future growth will disappoint you, and at last you will have to change the career path again.

Consider your Hobbies

One can also turn their hobbies into a career and achieve great success in life. For instance, if someone loves singing and keeps continuing this hobby and makes it a skill, that person can be a good singer and make it his career. Deciding to have your hobby as your career will clear all the other confusion from your mind.

Take Help of Professional Career Counsellor

A professional career counsellor will listen to your concerns, understand them, and help you find the best solutions to them. Professional career counsellors are aware of social trends and will guide you down the best path in which you can grow into a successful professional life. They will also inform you about the different opportunities according to your hobbies. A professional career counsellor can help you to reduce family pressure by explaining things to your parents as well. They will analyse the scope of the career they want you to choose and will advise you to take the best from them. A professional career counsellor will assist you in remaining optimistic about the future. Moreover, they are more experienced than our so-called advisors, so they will advise you in the best manner. The Study Lamp offers you best professional career counselling by legitimate professional career counsellors.

So, now we have both the cause of that career confusion and the solutions for how to remove the confusion to select the right career path. After all the above discussion, I feel the more effort you put into your search for the right career, the more you’ll get out of it. Invest your time and effort diligently. Identifying your true desires and pursuing them is the best way to overcome the uncertainty caused by the seemingly limitless career alternatives. Because a career is something that is not only for survival but also for one's own passion. If someone makes their career a passion, they will enjoy working and will grow 10 times faster. Also, there is a beautiful saying that tells us what a career is for passionate people.

“CAREER IS NOT JUST A GRATIFICATION, IT IS A RELATIONSHIP”