What is a Career?
A career meaning involves a clearly defined, long-term path that helps you achieve your career dreams. It is the work that you do with passion and love, and it requires planning and goal-setting. It’s the result of the positions and experiences you’ve had and the certificates, training, and educational courses that have enabled you to make progress and climb the career ladder.
What is the Career Meaning?
A career is a profession or occupation that a person does for a long period. Other than a job that may be ephemeral, a career develops with you and grows over a long time.
I have a degree; what career path should I take? This is the question that rattles a graduate’s brain about the future after graduation.
Some will pursue a career according to what they have already studied in college, and others may start to learn and master a skill to become their main career since options often aren’t limited by degree subject.
So, let’s clarify the meaning of a career, give you some examples of career paths, and discuss how to decide on a career path.
What is the difference between a Career and a job?
A career is your chosen field of work that typically includes ongoing training and development. People who want to start a career consider what they can do now to achieve their career goals.
In contrast, a job is work that a person does regularly to earn a regular income to meet his needs. It is a type of temporary work or you can say that it’s more like a step in your career that you will change sooner or later to a better one in the career ladder.
What is a career path with examples?
The career path is defined as the set of jobs that a person occupies over the years of a professional career, and others define it as the employee’s career progression within an organisation.
The main objective of a career path is to give you a clear plan and motivate you to progress and be productive, which contributes to your career development.
Here are 4 examples of career paths in various industries:
- Writer/Editor: Intern > Journalist > Associate Editor > Editor > Senior Editor > Chief Editor
- Human Resources: HR Coordinator > HR Specialist > Assistant Director > HR Director > Chief of HR
- Marketing: Marketing Coordinator or Marketing Specialist > Marketing Manager > Director of Marketing > Senior Marketing Professional > Chief Marketing Officer
- Education: Classroom Teacher > Curriculum Coordinator > Assistant Principal > Principal
7 Steps to Decide on a Career Path
When we start thinking about our future career and career path, we think about many factors that can influence someone’s career choice.
Here are some steps to take into account for a successful career path, and you can always check a new opportunity on our Find Jobs, it may be the one you’ve been waiting for.
1- Start by identifying your interests and career goals.
Again and again! It’s vital to learn about yourself and what you enjoy the most. Take a deep breath and think.
And now make a list of your favourite activities, your career goals and how you plan to achieve them.
Your interests and the activities that you like maybe a motive in determining the career path as part of your life and personality. Make sure that your goals align with your interests. For example, you enjoy writing novels, so why should you not look for a career as a content writer or journalist? Also, you can work as a graphic designer if you are skilled in art and technology.
This is the source of passion; it’s when we work on careers that are related to our natural interests.
2- Know your strengths and weaknesses.
It is important to know how to leverage your strengths and improve your weaknesses during your career path.
For example, a creative and detail-oriented person can use this strength to work as a content creator. This means that he cares a lot about word choice and how to make a unique and appealing piece.
Also, a collaborative person can use this to explain how he enjoys a lot in teamwork, which leads to better outcomes, solving problems, and increased performance and productivity in the company.
By taking courses and putting the strategies you’ve learned into practice, you can strengthen any weaknesses you may have, such as a lack of expertise in a specific skill related to your career.
3- Identify your skills and previous experience.
The secret to building a successful career path is identifying the skills and experience required for the jobs in your career path.
Just because you’ve held a management role for two years doesn’t guarantee you’ll be promoted to senior manager. To advance, you must prove your worth.
You must exhibit certain skills that prove you are prepared for the next step in your career. So, you have to keep improving your skills through learning in online courses, training, reading, practicing, and volunteering to become a better version of yourself.
4- Do a thorough market analysis.
The goal of determining a professional career path is to achieve job stability and ensure a successful career ladder in line with the requirements of the labor market, your passions, and your goals.
Therefore, it is important to do market research to find the most in-demand skills related to your line of work and understand the market’s future direction.
This contributes to determining the skills that you need to develop that will help you in the recruitment process and obtain suitable job opportunities.
5- Decide on a career that matches your personality.
Your attempt to discover your personality and characteristics affects the determination of your professional path, and that is through your interpretation of the positions and decisions that you make, whether they are based on thinking or feeling.
For example, if you want to avoid routine, you might choose entrepreneurship, a career path that provides lots of opportunities. Between coming up with an idea, finding the resources to put that idea into action, and connecting with customers or clients, there’s rarely time for boredom or routine.
6- Focus on the benefits of the career.
You have the right to think about the material and moral benefits and incentives defining your career path that you want to obtain, as every employee whose primary goal of work is to obtain a benefit.
Be sure when choosing the path to take into account that the job includes benefit packages that suit your experience and competence. Such as salaries, bonuses, vacations, and health insurance.
This requires you to make a great effort at the level of self-development.
7- Be adaptable and optimistic.
Remember, nothing comes easy. It’s crucial to be able to adapt to the unexpected changes that come your way in your career path.
With so many career options available today, we understand that you’re feeling confused, and overwhelmed and can’t decide on a career. However, this should not be the focus of your thinking!
You have to be proud. You have made great academic progress; we know it wasn’t that easy. But it’s time to make the right career path that will eventually lead to a successful professional future. And don’t forget, you will reap what you sow one day.
Need More Help!
At any point in your life. You might feel stuck in your career. Whitecollars offers professional career counselling to help you identify your skills and interests and use them to achieve your career goals and get on the right track.
