The College Student's Guide How to Discover the Perfect Career: The Secret to Finding a Satisfying, Money-Making Career That is Right for U

By Stan Welch

How college students can choose a career where will they will have the greatest chance for success and happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9780991056446

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Introduction

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been!

John Greenleaf Whittier

After you graduate from high school and select your college, the next step is to review the course catalog to choose the classes you will take in college. Why do this? So you can structure your college major in the best way possible to prepare yourself for what you hope will be a successful and satisfying career.

There before you, in the course catalog is page after page of classes from which to structure your major. It is like paging through a cookbook, trying to figure out what to make for dinner from the wide array of available recipes.

There is a big difference, however, between choosing your college major and choosing a dinner menu. By the time you are eighteen years old, if you have eaten three meals a day you will have eaten almost 20,000 meals, and by then, you clearly know what you like to eat. But you probably have never had a career before so how do you know what you will like?

Out of all the possible careers in front of you, how are you going to select yours? Will you work in the same occupation as your parents? Will you look at your test scores to see what you are good at and allow them to determine your career path? Will you throw a dart at the career board and see where it lands?

Any of these methods can lead you toward a career. But, will that career be something you truly enjoy? How can you know in advance if a career will work for you before you work for it?

The time spent in college is intended to prepare you for a career that you may be in for over forty years. If you choose a career that is not right for you, you may feel that you wasted your time and your financial investment in college. The more you know about choosing a career that will satisfy you, the easier it will be to find one that will be satisfying.

Contained within this book are the secrets to choosing a career that can bring you satisfaction, joy, and success. This book will take you step by step through the evaluation process and show you how to discover your best possible career choices. When you know how to choose the right career, you can begin a happy and success-filled life.

Chapter 1

The Challenge of Choosing a Career

Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You are off and away. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go

You have finally made it to college. So what do you plan to do besides party? You are given a little help in answer to that question because you know you are required to take certain classes in order to eventually graduate. But, beyond that, you are on your own, and as Dr. Seuss said, you will have to decide where to go. So, what is your plan?

You are expected to choose a college major that will lead you to a career. If you have never had a career—and I’m not talking about jobs that require you to ask Do you want fries with that?—what are you going to do? What criteria will you use to choose your career?

Choosing