Personally, I think another great way to escape sadness, loneliness, and other worries is to look toward the future. Now, don't get me wrong. It's of the utmost importance that you are happy NOW. If you are not happy with who you are now, you may not have the hope for the future, the confidence, or even the desire to work hard that leads toward a successful career in the future. However, being able to look forward to a successful future helps add to your present happiness.
So, all of that being said, this page is about how to prepare to have the career of your dreams, whether you want to be a superstar, a sports star, a journalist, a doctor, a lawyer, a school counselor, a teacher, a homemaker, an artist, a museum curator, a retail manager, or whatever your dreams lead you to. There are a lot of ways to figure out what you want to become and to prepare for your future career. Here are a few ideas:
- See a school guidance counselor - part of the job of a school counselor is to guide youth toward a career that might interest them. School counselors have a lot of good information about possible careers, good colleges to go to for particular careers, and other ways you can prepare for particular careers. They will also be able to help you figure out what kinds of classes you can take and other extracurricular activities you can participate in that will help prepare you for a career.
- Practice, practice, practice - if what you want to be requires a high amount of skill that you can develop while you are young, such as a professional musician, athlete, writer, etc., then the more you practice now, the better off you will be in the future. So, practice as much as you can. There is always more you can learn about a certain musical instrument or a sport or other skill. Don't settle for just being okay or even pretty good at your skill. Work hard at it always. Never think you are done practicing something.
- Develop good people skills - most (not all) careers require a certain amount of people skills both while you are applying for jobs and once you have started working. If you don't have good people skills, you might find it difficult to be hired or to keep a job once you have one. You don't want customers complaining about you to your boss or bosses who refuse to promote you because you don't get along well with your coworkers or others. Again, a school counselor would be a good resource when working on people skills. They can help give you some good ideas. It would also help a lot to take a public speaking class. Even if it scares you to death to speak in front of people, you can still learn to do it and seem like you're confident. That's really all that matters in the beginning. Fake it 'til you make it!
- Get involved in the community - when considering a career, remember that colleges and work places will be immensely impressed with your application if you can list community service and other community involvement (plays, volunteering for events, organizing, etc.). You can also gain invaluable skills from being involved in your community, not to mention good people skills.
- Take lessons or volunteer - if you want to be something like a musician, a writer, an athlete, a seamstress or tailor, a fashion designer, a computer programmer, an animator, etc., you would do well to take some lessons so that you can have a professional teach and critique your skills. If what you want to do doesn't involve some kind of lesson, you can try volunteering at a place you might like to work at, like a hospital, a law office, your city, etc. At the very least, you can call a place you are interested in learning more about and ask them if you can have a tour or talk to someone who can give you information about a career in that field.
- Do well in school - one of the worst things you can do for your future is to slack off in school. If you don't at least show that you've done your very best, you may not get into a good college or university. So, do your best, and if you struggle in school, talk to you school counselor about some things you can do to improve your school performance and maybe add some extracurricular things to your experience so that you can be a better candidate for a college/university.
- Do a lot of research - don't just assume that because you know what a doctor or fashion designer or musician or retail manager does that you know exactly what you need to know to prepare for a career in that field. Often, most careers take a good amount of schooling and/or outside experience before you can get hired. So, research your chosen career (or different careers if you still aren't sure) and find out exactly what you need to do to become what it is you want to become. If you can't find much information, find someone in your chosen career and see if they will talk to you about what they did to prepare. Better yet, find two or three or more people to talk to, since everyone's experience is different.
- Start at the bottom - Some careers are earned by starting at the lowest level jobs at a company and working your way up. So, go find a job as a store cashier or a cleaning person at a hospital or cleaning law offices or doctor's offices. Do whatever you can to get to know people in the industry you are interested in. Sometimes people get good jobs because of who they know, not just because of the schooling they have done.
- Stay in school - you will be doing yourself a serious injustice if you drop out of school. Years later you will regret it, because you can't get very far in this life without AT LEAST a high school diploma. You'll want to go to college, too, unless your chosen career field doesn't require it. But even if that is the case, you will most likely need many years of experience in that field before you start making a good amount of money.
- Never give up your dream - you may run into some obstacles when trying to get a start in your career. You may find people who tell you that you're no good or that it's too hard or will take too long. You might not have enough time or money to do certain activities that could help you prepare further. But don't give up. Do what you can, work as hard as you can, and trust that your best efforts and belief in yourself will lead you down a successful path. Hard work and confidence will always eventually lead you to a good place. So, don't give up!
Career Preparation Advice:
This section will be dedicated to advice I get from career professionals. As soon as I get any responses to my requests for advice, I will post it here.
