Career Counseling Consistently Fails- I Explain My Solution
I spent 4 years and traveled to 20 countries researching and creating an online career planning eCourse.
Some may ask- why did I make the sacrifice and effort?
I will explain why.
What are the 3 most important decisions you will make in your lifetime?
- Choosing A Partner.
- Choosing Or Not Choosing To Have A Child.
- Choosing A Career
In your lifetime, you will spend 90,000 hours working.
Think about that number for a second…
You will spend more time working than with your partner.
I don’t believe in everything Sigmund Freud said but he nailed it here.
Freud defined life as “to love and to work”.
Unfortunately, there is very little research in helping people choose a career they will love.
Majority of career counseling clients report that counseling sessions are either “incomplete” or “ineffective”.
The “career tests” they are given spread very little light on how to confidently pick a specific career.
Most career counseling sessions and tests center on how to “discover your passion” or “match your personality/interests/skills” to a specific career.
More often than not, this “Passion” approach fails.
More often than not, my “Dream Career” approach succeeds.
I traveled to 20 countries and spent 4+ years developing my career planning eCourse.
I will explain my “Dream Career Approach” in helping you choose a career you love, adds value to the world, and pays a good salary.
PASSION VS DREAM CAREER APPROACH
Passion Defined: Passion is a very strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. A strong feeling that can cause you to act in a dangerous way. Passions change over time. Many people have passions that do not relate to work or education. Most of the time current “passions” are hobby-style interests with no relationship to a career.
PASSION CAREER APPROACH:
- Determine what you’re most interested in and passionate about. For example dance, history, sewing, art, math, pottery, etc.. e.g.
- Determine what careers utilize these passions/interests. For example, you have an interest/passion in pottery. Working as a potter in a potter shop would be a career option.
- You “follow your passion”. You become a potter in a potter shop.
- You will then be happy and fulfilled by becoming a potter in a potter shop. IE- you will be passionate
Example: You love pottery, embark on a career involving pottery, then work really hard to become a great potter. You will then have a lifelong passion for pottery and being a potter.
This sounds soooooo easy, doesn’t it??
No, you are not crazy. It is not that easy.
There is a problem with this approach.
- Your passions or interests change over time.
- Many of your passions or interests are something you like doing as a hobby or part-time. For example, you liked doing pottery on the weekends to relax. Doing it full time would drive you crazy. This theme was exemplified in the Canadian University study discussed in my eCourse unit “YOUR CAREER GUIDE: BULLET POINTS”.
- Your passion may use a skill of no real value to society. This could make quality employment very difficult. Could make earning a living wage problematic.
- Your passion may be a “selfish” rather than a “selfless” pursuit. Something that does not in some way help others increase the quality of their lives. Because of this, you will eventually tire and lose “passion” for this selfish pursuit.
- Why does the term “starving artist” exist? Because the pursuit of art is often a “selfish” rather than a “selfless” pursuit. Society does not care about the week you spent painting a wild orchid watercolor. If they cared, they would pay you for the painting. Is being an artist bad? Of course not, just do it as a hobby because it is a selfish pursuit. It is selfish because you are the only person who really cares about your art. The .000001% of artists that make a really good living? Guess what? They are the absolute best at what they do. Their art moves people. Their art increases the quality of life of others. Society cares about their art and skill. Because their art positively impacts others it is now a “selfless” pursuit. Because of this society pays them big $.
There is a better way…
DREAM CAREER APPROACH-6 STEPS
1) Explore different options. Learn all you can about the world. Test yourself out. Explore a variety of things.
- Early in your career practice a variety of skills. Try out different jobs.
- Explore the world. Learn more about yourself. You don’t know, what you don’t know.
- Conduct “informational interviews” with people in different careers. Use internships/part-time volunteering as a way to explore different career options.
2) Acquire skills that are in demand by society.
- Develop a specific skill that is deemed reasonably unique and IMPORTANT TO BOTH YOU & SOCIETY.
- You can loosely look to your “passions” in choosing the specific skill to develop. For example your current interests, skills, work you enjoyed in the past, events/situations you enjoyed in the past, personality, values, lifestyle, natural aptitudes, can provide some clues as to what skill you can develop and become really really good at. I examine this in future eCourse units.
3) Work in a job/career where you have power.
- Power to effect positive change
- Power typically comes when you are skilled and experienced
4) Solve a Problem. This is your goal.
- Look out into the world and find a solution to a significant societal problem or issue. Use your skill to solve this societal problem. This is your life’s work. Some of you will look to work in a career that looks to alleviate large, complex, worldwide societal issues. Others will work in a career looking to solve issues on more of a local and/or 1:1 basis. This work can be done in the for-profit as well as not for profit realm.
5) Be Flexible
- At the end of this course you will have completed a very important step. You will have chosen an initial societal problem or mission to solve. You will have chosen an initial skill set to develop. You will have chosen an initial and specific career path to embark on. But it is still a “path”. A “journey” that will follow you through life and follow a course difficult to fully predict ahead of time. This is why the “1-10 Year Career Plan” developed in my 15 day eCourse has 3 Options-A,B, & C. If Plan A does not succeed you move onto Plan B.
6) Passion
- Passion typically comes last. When you become an “expert” in a career that adds value to society you will feel fulfilled, HAPPY, and PASSIONATE about your work.
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Best-Matt