So you’re motivated to find a good job. Given that you now understand what makes a job good, you have to ask yourself what particular job fits your interests so you can start preparing for it.

Most kids head off for college with the vaguest ideas of what they want to study, change majors a few times and end up working in a job they didn’t prepare for. 99% of those people do so because they never took the time to think about what they wanted to do. They got thoughtful around their senior year and decided being a doctor sounded cool. Or their dad was a salesman and he seemed to do pretty well. Or they loved a teacher and thought they’d like to be a cool teacher like that. That’s the least effective thing you can do.

I’d like to challenge you to make a smart decision about your education by thinking ahead.

  • Is their a particular field that fits your interests? Is there anything you have a passion for? Do you love movies, or TV, or music, or sports? Do you like the idea of being a community pillar like a small town doctor or lawyer? Does a political position intrigue you? Do you like to teach?  Do you want to be seen as an intellectual?  Do you like the idea of working in entertainment?  Do you like the idea of helping people?  You’re just looking for a general category or two at this point.
  • Once you’ve got a general category, start thinking about tasks you enjoy. Do you enjoy leading people, or trying to convince them to commit to something? Do you enjoy working by yourself? Did you like math in school, or science, or history? Did you enjoy working with a team? Make a list of the things you enjoyed doing during your high school years and summer jobs to refer back to.
  • Now think about your capabilities. What do people tell you you have a talent for? Ask people where they think your talents lie – your parents, teachers, etc. Do you communicate well, study well? Are you a whiz with figures, or great with physical work? Are you a people person or a loner?  Do you enjoy travel? Again, make a list.
  • Now start looking at your lists side by side and see if anything jumps out at you. If you were good at math, a loner and enjoyed sports, you might enjoy doing stats. If you were outgoing, a great leader and loved TV, you might think about sales within that field. If you don’t find anything immediately, don’t worry – but if you can you’ll be even better prepared.
  • Spend some time researching the industry you like.  Look at trade publications or classified ads. What kind of jobs are out there in that field? Which are plentiful? Do they pay what you want them to? Do they have sufficient prestige? What kind of education and skills are demanded of this profession? Will you have to move away to get this kind of job and is that OK with you?
  • Hopefully by this time you’ve got some ideas about what jobs you might like to fill. Now’s the time to experiment a little. Try out your potential profession. If you think you’d like to make movies, make a movie. Use a home videocam, recruit your friends and try to make the most professional looking movie you can. You’ll likely discover that it’s harder than it looks to make a great movie. You’ll also learn what about it you enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy.
  • After completing a test project, regroup and think about it. Maybe you discovered you didn’t like directing as much as doing special effects on a computer. Or maybe you enjoyed recruiting friends and selling them on the idea better than the actual movie making. Or maybe you realize you shot a horrible movie, but kept the best records of anyone you know. Try a couple of these little projects to test the waters.
  • After your projects, re-evaluate what you think you might want to do. If you found you were great at recruiting teenage actors, you probably have a talent for sales. Try getting a more serious job in that field. If you can’t get hired, volunteer. Sell ads for the yearbook. Get a job in a department store selling clothes. Test it out a little more in a situation that’s closer to the real world. If you don’t like it, go back to your experience with your projects and start again on something else.
  • When you’ve got an idea of your desired field and a general idea of the kind of job you might like, do some more research and understand the practical job path. If you want to be an NFL sportscaster, no one’s going to hand you that job straight out of school. But you might see how you could start covering local games, move on to college and then to the pros. If you want to be a big Hollywood director, you probably will need to find a day job that will build your skills (like with a local TV station or independent film company) while you work toward the creation that will put you on the map. Talk to guidance counselors, do research and understand what you’re going to have to do to get there. What kind of education do you need? What skills can you be learning from books and other independent study materials? What sort of jobs could you take as a student that would use similar skills?
  • Once you have your path laid out, start working toward it. If you want to be a sportscaster, you can probably start learning by volunteering to do menial work in the booth at local football games. Or maybe you could convince your school to let you do a student broadcast on the internet as a project. If you want to sell, learn about your desired industry and sales techniques – there are plenty of resources for free right in your local library. Get started learning.
  • If you decide in this process that you made a mistake about enjoying doing this, start over again. Go back as far in the process as you are confident and begin it again.

Be flexible when you’re looking.  For every interesting job you know about, there are other well paying jobs that are just as interesting behind the scenes.  Even if you determine you can’t be a football star, rock star, movie star or what have you, you can still be involved in these fields, often just as closely as the people in the limelight.

  • Maybe you love movies, but see that there are only a few top name directors in the world at any time. Behind every movie director there are producers, specialty directors, cameramen, technicians, special effects guys, stunt men,  writers, managers, financial experts, engineers, etc.  Establishing yourself in one of these could lead to being a director yourself.  If you really enjoy directing, you might combine it with other interests and specialize in documentaries, or corporate films, or something similar.  You might like teaching others to direct. Or you might find a better fit for yourself that you didn’t even recognize..
  • Behind every pro athelete are managers, coaches, trainers, financial experts, therapists, accountants, analysts, etc.
  • Some jobs lend themselves to any industry.  Sales, accounting, computer work, management, leadership, etc. are always in demand and have the added benefit of being able to move those skills from field to field if your interests change.

You might notice that this process is going to take some time, and it does. Most people get a late start and have to re-educate themselves by going back to school and only finding their dream jobs later in life. So start early! It’s never too early. If you can have a good idea of where you’re going before you make college plans, you can put yourself strongly ahead of the pack. It’s the difference between being another face in the crowd and a standout prospect for the recruiter that visits your school.

You’re going to be working for most of the day, most of your life – so you might as well find something that’s a joy instead of a burden. And there’s no better time than the present to get started.