Choosing a Future

by Eugene T. Buckner

Last week a clean-cut young college sophomore walked into my office at the Career Advisement Center and announced that now that he was almost finished with the general requirements, he was ready to choose a career. Unfortunately it is not unusual to meet a student who expects to choose the field in which he may spend the rest of his life as routinely as he picked out his breakfast cereal or a tie to wear with a new sports coat. All too often this is the case. Running a close second in the “Best Ways Not to Choose a Career” category is the freshman who came to see me this morning.

“I want to be a doctor,” he announced decisively. It was pleasant to speak to someone so secure in his goals. Yet when I observed, “You must enjoy the sciences very much,” he admitted that he had been an average student in chemistry and biology in high school. On further questioning, it seemed that the only aspect of medicine that interested him was the money. When it became obvious to him that medicine was not his field, he thought for a minute and said, “Well, how about law?”

Neither of these young men had followed the basic steps for selecting a career: (1) know yourself, (2) know the possibilities, (3) know where you will receive the greatest satisfaction.

Know Yourself

First, let’s see how you can learn about yourself. Several sources can help you find out what you’re like. School performances can be a big help. It isn’t difficult for you to decide which courses come most easily to you. It might be a shop class, English, math, social studies, or a combination of courses that you have taken. You have learned this from your grades, test scores, the way you enjoyed the course. In general, it’s where you do your best.

In addition to observing what you do best, it is important that you also consider what you enjoy doing, because you will spend a substantial portion of your life doing what you choose. You may do many things and do them well; however, you may not enjoy doing them for prolonged periods of time. Most likely you know by now whether or not you like to sit long hours doing math or reading, whether you like working with people, with tools, with equipment indoors or out-of-doors, or if there are other preferences you have. You may do any or all of the above very well, but would you rather do some of them more than others?

We are living in an age of consultants. If you were an executive of a large firm, you would probably employ people to help you make the best decisions. How would you like to have a team of consultants who could advise you about your career? You already have consultants available to you just because they like you and are interested in you. Included among your consultants might be friends, neighbors, family members, relatives, Scout leaders, youth leaders, advisers, Church and school teachers, religious leaders, and, in general, any person who knows you and knows what you can do. Ask them to help you better understand your strengths.

A third resource for learning about yourself is tests. You may have already taken tests and all you need is someone to help you understand what they mean. Test information, like other data, should be used as a guide and should not be the sole determiner of what you will or will not do when selecting your career.

Learning about yourself is a lifelong process, so you shouldn’t expect to learn everything in a few short days or weeks.

Know the Possibilities

Firsthand experiences are usually more valuable than the knowledge we get from others. To be on a job and smell, feel, taste, and hear what goes on in that situation is probably the best experience that one can get. Yet it isn’t practical to do this with all of the careers we want to consider, so we must resort to other means. Again, we can use our corps of consultants, be observant as we travel, read, and in general become acquainted with as much of the world as we can.

A good way to obtain firsthand experience is to ask acquaintances who are in a given career if it would be possible for you to spend some time with them on the job. Field trips or plant tours would be desired in the absence of longer periods of time on an occupation, and many firms make special efforts to show interested people what goes on in their business. From either approach you get exposure to an interesting career and in many instances your host will be flattered that you have that much interest in the career he represents. Other careers can be explored through various Church projects such as welfare projects, fund-raising events, bazaars. Church members who are employed in careers of interest to you might also be approached to give you information about the work they do. To learn that a given career is no longer of interest to you can be valuable information as you formulate your plans for later life.

The suggestions listed above are but a few of the many ways that you can learn about the careers you wish to explore. In addition, printed material offers many good sources of career information. One excellent source available in many areas is the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This book contains information on more than 600 occupations and is available through many ward or branch libraries, public libraries, and many school counselors. The data in this book is compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor and is updated every two years. All materials should be checked to make sure that the data you use is current and reliable.

You can get additional information from your school counselor or by contacting the Church Educational and Career Advisement Center at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

Know Where You Receive the Greatest Satisfaction

The selection of a career is never a permanent decision. Just as life is dynamic and full of change, so are the careers that we select. The common idea that there is one career that will make each of us happy is probably not true. Most of us, it appears, can be happy doing several tasks, some of which are quite unrelated. The decision as to which career we will follow should be the result of considering all of the factors such as location, availability of employment, required background, working conditions, advancement, income, and the welfare and desires of our family. When data and preparation are adequate, your decision can enhance your prospects of being satisfied with your chosen career.

The Church teaches us that there should be order in our lives. How better can we keep order in our lives than to plan to select a career of choice rather than one of chance. In this way we can reach not only employment goals but also other important goals that we desire through living the gospel.

Illustrated by McRay Magleby