Your job should compliment, not define you

What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s probably the most difficult question any of us will have to answer in our lives. My dad is 67, has been retired for nearly eight years, and still doesn’t know. (I think it has something to do with being an expert samurai sword maker in Japan. Either that or painting on the river Rhine. It changes quite often.)

Very few lucky people can say that they’ve known what they’ve wanted to do since they were five and are currently doing it. It’s possible that there are more of them than we know about, but they stay quiet in case the rest of us get some picks and torches and form a lynch mob.

Many more people get it wrong initially and wind up in jobs that they hate. The brave call it quits and move to something far more suited to their interests and skills, but many simply stick it out until retirement age.

One of the ways to increase you chances of getting it right is to take one of those long personality tests that stick you into a category and then provide some options best suited to that category. The problem is that they’re too general. If you don’t happen to be exceedingly above average in one area, you could fall into several categories. Your careers options can then include: law, medicine, accounting, social work, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and plumbing. That really narrows it down for you and makes you glad that you forked out a small fortune for fool-proof, comprehensive, and professional help, doesn’t it?

While the tests are broad, the principle in which they are based is sound. Your personality does play a very important role in determining what career you’re likely to enjoy and succeed in. It sounds obvious, but you do know yourself best, you’re probably aware of some of your skills and limitations, and you know what environments you’re likely to sink or swim in.

In a lot of cases, indecision is a matter of not being aware of the depth of many career paths. You may know of the accounting field, but not see beyond the simple bookkeeping that your mother did for her small business run from home. Or you may be intimidated by the prospect of becoming a CA, and not realise that there are many steps you can stop at along the way.

Accounting may really suit you, but the corporate world may not. Instead of living with the contradiction and forcing yourself to don a suit and tie every morning to wade your way through piles of management accounts every month, why not give a wildlife park a try? Someone on site has to stay on top of all the monetary matters governing the daily running of our nature reserves. It might as well be you. You could live away from the rat race, get plenty of fresh air, learn more about nature, only wear a tie for posh meetings, and still bury your head in numbers.

There is no need to spend a lifetime in servitude of a job that you hate. The Internet is a treasure trove of career options. For more information on careers and personality types see http://www.personalitypage.com/careers.html, and http://bottomlinesecrets.com/blpnet/article.html?article_id=33413&sid=E102102S4A. You could be only a click away from professional fulfilment.

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Pitmans People temporary and casual labour opportunities one of the leading suppliers of temporary and casual labour to the UK workforce