How to Choose the Right Career, Change a Career, or Find a Job

The following chapter in my reading journey with What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nobles asks the reader to look closely at the driver behind finding a new career path. Whether for a student fresh out of high school or a professional looking to make a career change, the motivation should be to follow your passions.

Bolles explains the simplified process of finding a job or deciding on a new career path: (1) decide what you want to do, (2) find prospective employers, (3) get hired.

Easy enough, no? In reality, this process is arduous and time-consuming. Bolles argues what you need to do is get to know yourself better. He states that you must start with you, not the job market, because "enthusiasm and passion" make all the difference.

Another big tip is to keep some stability when doing a career change. Applying this to my current situation would look like this: I am currently in marketing. My undergraduate degree and all my job experience are in this field. I am pursuing a master's in business analytics (data, algorithms, statistics, etc.). Very different fields! Instead of jumping from marketing to data science, a more doable career change would be to go from marketing to marketing analytics to data analytics.

I have tried applying to a few strictly data analytics-related jobs. I've had zero success despite my many accomplishments in marketing and being only two months away from graduating. Bolles's advice has helped me switch perspectives. I now have a more feasible career change path.

The following chapter promises to dig deeper into who you are to find what you want to do. I am looking forward to this next part!