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“Ten Myths About Choosing a Career”

Filed under Career Exploration
Posted by Libraries, September 17, 2007
View all posts for September 2007

Dawn Rosenberg McKay, About.com Career Planning
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/
a/myths_choice.htm

Many of us might be quite misinformed about the whole process of career exploration and planning. This brief article dispels a number of myths about choosing a career. Here are a few of the highlights:
—“Choosing a career is simple”: in fact, this is quite an involved process, which includes a lot research into different career paths, as well as learning more about yourself. Visit the Career Resource Library’s “Career Resources by Major or Field” page to learn about different careers:
http://my.simmons.edu/library/collections/career
/bydiscipline.shtml
You can also schedule an appointment with a Career Education Center counselor to explore different assessment tools and get some great advice:
http://my.simmons.edu/services/cec/services/
counseling.shtml
—“I can’t make a living from my hobby”: Your career should be related to something you find enjoyable, since jobs are more than just the salary they provide. You’d also be surprised how applicable some of the skills learned through your hobbies may be to your future career.
—“Once I choose a career I will be stuck in it forever”: Many people change careers over the course of their professional life, as their interests, life situations, and the world around them change.
—“There’s very little I can do to learn about an occupation without actually working in it”: First-hand experience may be ideal, but there is a lot you can learn from print and Web resources or by speaking with someone in the field. Check out the CRL’s page on “Networking and Informational Interviewing” for more ideas:
http://my.simmons.edu/library/collections/
career/ntwkg.shtml

Read the article to learn about other common career exploration myths.

—Hagar Shirman