11 Questions to Set Your Career Path

As a college student preparing for a future career through hard work in all your classes, doing homework, studying late into the night and typing paper after paper it would be dreadful to end up without any actual career and stuck in a dead-end job. While some may get lucky and just happen to wind up on the road to success others do not and part of that can be attributed to the lack of career planning beforehand. So before you graduate college whether a month or year from now take the time to plan out your future career path.

The Path to Accomplishment

Visualization is an excellent tool in helping to define where you want to go in your future career. Visualize where you want to be in the future. It can reflect where you want to be tomorrow, next week, next year or beyond. If you can see it you can achieve it. Pick an alternate career goal as well; it’s always a good idea to select more than one optimal career choice.

Are you ready to begin building a vision for your desired professional target, close your eyes, let your imagination run free and ask yourself these 11 questions:

If anything were possible, what would I want to be different in my career?
What type of job would I want?
What would I want to be responsible for?
What type of boss/co-workers/team would I want?
What kind of hours would I want to work?
What type of company would I want to work for?
What type of environment would I like to work in?
What sort of culture would I want the company to have?
What city would I want to live in?
What salary would I want to earn?
What would I want my approach to stress, my workload, and deadlines to be?

As you consider these questions in your mind there are no right or wrong answers. It’s only what’s right for you not what someone else wants. Listen to yourself and your heart.

After you have visualized what you want to do there are more tangible steps you can take to implement you career plans. After you have visualized your career path whatever it may be assess what educational requirements you must have in order to obtain your dream position. How long you will need to go to school for, how much it will cost and are you willing to put in the time and effort, if attending school would take longer than what you would like. Also consider if your career path can be achieved as soon as you would like, if you want to be a psychologist but don’t want to spend eight years in school then your second choice to be manager of a publishing company can be accomplished sooner with just a 4-year degree in Business Management. After you have assessed the educational requirements consider other requirements and additions that can help in your career path; from internships in the area of interest you want to work, or whether you will be required to receive other certifications other than just a college degree. By preparing ahead of time for your future career your efforts in school can be well compensated and you can increase your chances of future career success and happiness.