Career Gray Areas: Adapting conventional advice to your situation

Clients prefer crisp, clear answers. Alas, especially in the counseling professions but even in medicine, there’s much gray. Here are some gray areas in my field: career counseling. These may help you as you make your career choices.

Better than an Informational Interview

It’s long been recommended that career searchers do informational interviews, that is, ask a person or two what the career is really like.

In my clients’ experience, there is a far better way. I outline it in my Psychology Today article today.

The Most Likely Route to Career Contentment: A contrarian perspective

My Psychology Today article today offers an antidote to career-counselor puffery such as 'follow your passion."

Your Career Values

It’s easy to assume that your values are like most people’s: be ethical, want to make a contribution, have work-life balance, etc.

But people’s values vary more than one might think. As my PsychologyToday.com contribution today, I offer a self-assessment inventory to help you home in on the sort of career or job you want. It may also help you decide if you want to stay in your current position and current career.

Finding a Career

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers an excerpt from a first career counseling session with a newly retired 50-year-old firefighter. (I've changed irrelevant details to protect his anonymity.)

Perhaps you might find the techniques I used with him to be useful to you or to someone you care about who's trying to choose a new career.

What Career to Pursue? Advice to an Older Person

I received this question from a reader:

I'm a 60 yr. old man and have never been able to answer the question, "How does one figure out what to do for a living"?

When I answered him, he responded,

"Extremely useful suggestions and ideas. I WILL heed your advice."

So I figured I'd share my answer with you.

Dear Pat (name changed,)

Here's a short answer. At 60, the most likely to be successful routes are:

a) To live your self-employment dream: create something, run something.

b) Tell everyone in your current and past that you're interested in a job, perhaps one that utilized (insert your best skill or interest) and whether they know someone you should talk with.

c) Look through directories of careers. An easy way to find them is to visit the career section of a public library.

If you end up finding work using b or c, you may well want to have a creative avocation--write , paint , take photos, act, sing, etc.

Hope that helps.

Best Careers in 2010

I just wrote an article on choosing a career that will appear in American Mensa's magazine. Part of the article consists of these descriptions of 16 careers I believe are particularly worthy of consideration by Mensans and other intelligent people. Perhaps you'll find one or more that you might want to check-out:

Researcher with expertise in two or more of these: physics, math, molecular biology, engineering, and/or computer science. Key specializations:

energy: e.g., developing space-based solar power, in-vehicle hydrogen fuel generator, algae that's genetically engineered for maximum net energy yield, efficient insulators such as nanolevel-designed coatings, long-cruising-range batteries for electric vehicles.

genomics : e.g., determining what gene clusters affect what phenotypes, developing safe, effective methods of gene knockouts and transfers.

neurophysics: e.g., understanding the physics of depression, ADD, schizophrenia, retardation, etc.

diagnostic imaging: e.g., developing molecular-level medical imaging.

pollution control: e.g., nuclear waste neutralizers, nanolevel pollution filters.

Before getting too excited, remember that after getting that hard-science/math Ph.D, you may need a one-to-two-year postdoc. Learn more: Career Guide for Scientists: www.phds.org/career-guide/. Science Careers: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/

Federal government manager, especially in homeland security, energy, health care, veterans' affairs, defense, and the environment. Common federal job titles for degree holders: program analyst, program manager, director. Also needed are country experts, especially on China, India, and Middle Eastern countries. The Federal government will be the largest source of new jobs, with 300,000 hires expected within the next two years. Learn more: Partnership for Public Service: www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/

Corporate executive specializing in global business development or managing global workforces. Being bilingual/bicultural in Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, or Farsi is a plus. Learn more: Thunderbird School of Global Management Blogs: http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/research/knowledge-network-blogs

Finance specialist, especially with skills in raising funds globally. Learn more: Global Finance Magazine: www.gfmag.com

Terrorism expert, especially on bioterrorism and nuclear/radiologic weapons of mass destruction. Learn more Careers in the Age of Terrorism: www.martynemko.com/articles/careers-in-age-terrorism_id1285

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist. The Mental Health Parity Act now requires mental health to be covered as fully as physical health, but many insurers will cover only cognitive-behavioral therapy because it 's shorter-term and has generally shown greater efficacy than traditional therapy, which explores the impact of past experiences on your psychology. Among my thousands of career coaching clients, I've found that those who have undergone long-term traditional psychotherapy often suffer side effects from the therapy: excessive self-absorption, preoccupation with their past, and/or externalization of responsibility. Learn more: Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies: www.abct.org.

Immigration expert. President Obama has promised a path to citizenship for America's 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants. After ObamaCare is passed, that will likely rise on his agenda. Experts will be needed to figure out how to successfully integrate such a large population of largely minimally educated, limited-English-speaking, and high-health-care need people. Learn more: Department of Homeland Security: www.dhs.gov. National Council of La Raza: www.nclr.org.

Optometrist. This career offers high success rate with patients, good income, status, and shorter-than-MD training: four years after a bachelors, seven years in a combined BS/OD program. Learn more: Bureau of Labor Statistics profile: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos073.htm

Genetic counselor. With personal DNA sequencing becoming ever more informative and affordable, people face many more gene-related decisions, for example, if your genome doubles your risk of breast cancer, should you have a preventive mastectomy? Or you're pregnant and a test reveals your baby has the gene for a genetic disease that may or may not be serious. Should you abort? Genetic counselors help people figure out what to do. A master's is the terminal degree. Learn more: National Society of Genetic Counselors: www.nsgc.org/career.

Health informatics specialist. Hospitals, insurers, and regional collaboratives are switching to electronic medical records. Nurses and doctors, urged to do more evidence-based medicine, are using computerized expert systems to guide diagnoses and treatment recommendations. Healthcare providers also are collecting more data to evaluate quality of care. Learn more: American Medical Informatics Organization: www.amia.org, American Health Information Management Association: www.ahima.org.

Patient Advocate. Even Christopher Columbus would have had a tough time navigating the tricky waters of the U.S. healthcare system, and most people, especially when ill, aren't the best navigators. Enter patient advocates. They help ensure that the patient gets to see the right specialist. They do Internet research so the patient is informed when talking to the doctor. They educate family members on how to support the patient during a hospital stay. And they sort through the mountains of bills and, if necessary, negotiate fees with the healthcare provider, insurance company, or other payer. ("Medicare, how dare you refuse to pay for that surgery?!") Learn more: Becoming a Patient Advocate: http://patients.about.com/od/caringforotherpatients/ss/becomeadvocate.htm.

Program Evaluator. Not withstanding politicians' rhetoric, is Head Start really worth the taxpayer dollars? What are the benefits and liabilities of online versus in-person training of lab techs? How might a teen-pregnancy prevention program further reduce teen pregnancy? Program evaluators address such questions. Learn more: Basic Guide to Program Evaluation: www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/fnl_eval.htm.

Higher Education Administrator. Even in tough times and despite annual more-than-inflation price increases and low freshman-to-senior achievement growth, many people continue to view higher education as worth the money. So manager types may find the job market better in higher education than in corporate America. Also, colleges are among the more felicitous work environments for bright people. Plus you get lots of vacation: Neat niche: Student affairs administrator. (No, I'm not talk about assignations.) Learn more: the book, The College Administrator's Survival Guide.

Physical Therapist. Job satisfaction surveys rate this career near the top. One-on-one interaction, with progress usual, reasonable work hours, and you get to spend more than the physician's 12 minutes per patient. In addition, the job market will be decent as aging boomers are ever more likely to sustain weekend-warrior injuries and worse. A three-year Doctor of Physical Therapy has become the standard terminal degree. Learn more: Dept of Labor profile: Department of Labor profile. American Physical Therapy Association: www.apta.org.

Veterinarian. For many people, this career is more desirable than physician: shorter training, you get to do a wider range of procedures, less insurance paperwork, and you avoid the uncertainties of health care reform. Of course, your patients can't describe what's wrong with them. Learn more: About.com's veterinary career portal: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/occupations/p/veterinarian.htm.

Media coach. I include this self-employment opportunity because it has near-zero start-up costs, demand is strong and likely to grow, and many people would find it fun. Media coaches prepare executives, job seekers and others, to do well in front of a camera or microphone: YouTube, intranet, video-resume, as well as traditional TV and radio. Learn more: the book Media Training, A-Z.

The World's Fastest Way to Find a Career?

This has to be the world's fastest way to find a career that matches your abilities.

Here's how it works. At this federally created site, just click on all the skills/abilities you'd like to use in your next career, click "Go" and up pops a list of best-fitting careers.

Scan all the careers on the the list and use your intuition to pick one or more that's worthy of investigation. Just click on that career and you'll get useful info on it.

Still interested, Google the name of the career and the word "career." (For example: "Accountant career"). Want still more, read a book(s) on the career. You can find on-target ones by searching amazon.com--Again, search on the name of the career and the word "career."

Finally, speak with or, better, visit one or more people on-site in that career. If it still feels right, you probably have found a well-suited career.

Five Recession-Resistant Careers

This article lists five recession-resistant careers. Thanks to social-network marketing guru Adam Metz for emailing it to me.

Where the Jobs Are

Fans of squooshy or artsy careers, alas the news isn't good. Here's Vickie Elmer's report in the Washington Post on where the jobs are:

If you're seeing the storm clouds of the economy
darken, you might want to grab a career more likely
to withstand a recession. Go into
sales, software development or design if you want
something safe, suggests Jobfox, a McLean, Va.
career website. Its new list of the most
recession-proof professions also includes nurses
accounting staff, business analysts and network
administrators. Financial executives and
administrative assistants also are prime positions,
according to Jobfox. CareerBuilder, run by a group
of newspaper companies and Microsoft, has a similar
list. Engineering, health-care jobs such as
physical therapists, medical assistants, radiology
technicians as well as nurses and information
technology positions including systems analysis and
web development are among the best. State and local
government jobs also could be safe bets.
CareerBuilder reports are based on its own research
and Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

How to Finally Figure Out What You Want to Be When You Grow Up

It’s often scary. You're seeing lots of your peers in full career flower: good income, power and influence, and a job title their parents just love to brag about.

And there you are, still fumbling around, toting a copy of What Color is Your Parachute or the results of the Strong Interest Inventory or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Here are some other ways to figure out what the hell you want to be when you grow up, even if you’re already supposed to be a grownup:

— Check the website of your undergraduate and, if you've got one, graduate degree program. They often contain a list of careers that people have entered with your degree.

— Attend alumni events where graduates from your program will be in attendance.

— On an online discussion group in your field, post a query such as, “What sorts of careers are people entering with a masters in physiological psychology (or whatever)?”

— Google terms such as careers philosophy or Ph.D. careers “molecular biology.”

— Visit the exhibit area at professional conferences in your field. Those booths are often staffed by senior people with the power to hire you. You'd ordinarily have a hard time gaining access to such people, yet at a conference, they're available to you in quantity.

One approach to a booth is to scan the written material on the booth’s table, then approach its staffer. Explain the sorts of things you might do for that organization and ask if that might be of interest. Then ask if the person could imagine other ways the organization might use someone like you. If you find a hot prospect, you might invite the person to a meal or a drink. That request might be too forward under normal circumstances, but at a conference, if it feels right, it’s probably an appropriate request.

— Browse annotated lists of careers. For example, there’s the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which comprehensively profiles 250 careers. Or consider (Warning: bias-alert here!) my misleadingly titled, Cool Careers for Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley, 2007), which offers brief, more subjective profiles of 500 careers, each with a recommended website or book for more information. The book also contains “The 35 Most Revealing Questions,” which also may help you home in on the right career choice.