Interviewers for almost any role are nearly guaranteed to ask, “What are your interests?” or “What are your plans for your future?”. The truth to these questions, we often don’t have an accurate answer for, but they are extremely important to have a rough outline of. I’ll be giving some pointers to decide your responses to these questions and solidifying your future. You can draft a solid plan following a three-step checklist; contextualize, utilize resources, and connect!
We can pretty easily manifest or contextualize an idea within our minds that relates an interest to our character and values. Typically, this interest might be the basis of our career paths. Doctors live to see others thrive, lawyers thrive off of ensuring justice, etc. While many spend the majority of their lives searching for this purpose and relating it to their future, you can start early by analyzing when you’re happiest and making a positive impact on those around you, no matter the interest you ultimately choose. Professionals recommend recognizing patterns in your everyday life. Business Insider says, “The goal of looking for patterns is greater clarity into what skills you possess.” By assessing these skills, you can effectively combine your ideal skill set with your interest that relates to your character and values, this will help you pinpoint more than a general career area, but perhaps even a role or position within it.
After contextualizing, we enter the “deal breaker” or resource utilizing period. This is when you will research the field or specific role you have chosen- in depth. The most important rule of thumb here is that you gain your information from experienced and verified sources. While social media and the internet is a great resource for researching potential paths, realize that people can be whoever they want to be without credentials and if you want to take them seriously, you should be verifying their legitimacy. Schools often host career fairs or have a guidance counselor available to consult about these decisions, both of which provide you an opportunity to conduct well-verifiable research.
The most action-packed step appears when you put yourself out there or connect, using the resources you have gathered from your online resources, literature resources, school fairs, and guidance counselor. Real-life experience is the most telling sign of your opinion towards any matter, especially those that are most important- your career and interests. Reach out to people you know or even don’t know in similar fields. Networking is key to landing that experience. Draft an email or a letter inquiring about shadowing or internship opportunities, if you’re comfortable enough, drop a phone call! You will be grateful in the end if you tried your hand at the experience rather than jumping into a career or passion without fitting it to your lifestyle.
A small amount of preparation now can save you endless amounts of time and money in the long run. Deciding your entire life at a young age is intimidating and stressful, however, your interests and passions may change. You can always reevaluate as needed. Streamlining these processes with the aforementioned guide helps to make this time slightly less burdensome. Contextualize,
use resources, and connect!
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