How to decide what career to pursue?

In the past year I continually questioned myself about what I want to do with my life and particularly with my career. The main problem is that since I left school I have been involved in so many different things that I am not sure what my true calling is any more. In the end I have decided to unearth a psychologist in myself, which I am supposed to be according to the University Certificate, and do some digging into my personality followed by brainstorming.

First, I remembered reading somewhere that one cannot know what he or she likes to do unless they actually try it. It is sort of similar to food. How can you know what you like more banoffee pie or rocky road or a meringue if you never tried any of those? On top of that, there in an immeasurable number of other options that might turn out equally appealing. Well, it obvious one cannot try everything in the world. I suggest that the best option here is to stick to your strengths, interests, desires and available options. There are obviously many other factors as well, but one has to be realistic here. If one have some problems with their health or body complexion it would be really difficult to become an astronaut no matter how strong this desire might be.

So here it goes:

•         What do I like?

There are way too many people who hate their jobs. I don’t want to be one of them. Sometimes you can hear people saying that occupation they like cannot pay the bills. I prefer to think (believe, hope) that it is not the case. If you are good at something you like and have a clear mind, you can turn it into profit. I mean if one is passionate about what they do it cannot be either underestimated or unnoticed.

Here’s a list my personal list I managed to come up with:

-          Reading (might not sound very profitable, but if you are a literary critic you have to read quite a bit)

-          English (this one is my personal, because English is not my first language and it helped me quite a bit, so I dearly love it)

-          Dance (I never danced professionally but I’ve always been involved in some kind of dancing, it’s my passion and in theory if I open some sort of a dance studio, it might turn out to be profitable)

-          Data digging (if my boss asks me to unearth some kind of information for him I am absolutely happy about it, because I truly enjoy finding bits and pieces of information and putting them all together)

-          Cook (I keep experimenting in my kitchen and don’t see cooking as a burden)

-          Criminal psychology (cannot miss this one out, because it used to be my passion during the university years and even though I did not specialize in it afterward I still enjoy reading about it)

•        What am I good at?

It hard to argue that it would be very hard to earn money from something you cannot do. I am truly terrible at counseling. People back home keep expecting me to act as a “real” psychologist. For them I was supposed to be a female version of Freud, sitting next them, asking questions about their latest dreams, interpreting them and then advising how they should proceed with their lives. What rubbish! I do not like counseling psychology or developmental psychology or several other divisions of psychology. And I truly believe that I am dreadful at it.

However, there are several things I believe I am good at:

-          Academic writing (or other writing, for that matter. I am not sure if I am good when it comes to writing in English, but I believe that am not bad when I write in my native language)

-          Data digging (I like it and I believe I am good at it)

-          Data analysis (I was taught to do it at school, at university and pretty much every other course I ever took had something to do with analysis)

-          Compartmentalization (quite self-explanatory)

•          What I want to learn

I believe this question is very important to answer when someone thinks what they would like to do. Progress in a vital part of success and progress does not occur without learning.

-          More foreign languages (can’t hurt anyone)

-          More criminal psychology (I do intend to continue my education and if possible specialize in subject I like)

-          Draw and design (just to be able to do this)

-          Business skills (perhaps do MBA)

When I put everything together, I was able to draw up a relatively clear picture of what kind of job I would like to do. Some of the points got eliminated, but nobody can have everything at once. Theoretically if I decide that this time I combined points from these three lists incorrectly, I can rearrange them. I can also add and delete some of them as time passes. But they provide me with guidelines for deciding what I want to do in life and narrow down the number of possibilities. I might have to try several options, but in the end I am sure I can get it right.