What Career to Pursue?

Even if you've been an adult for a long time, it's probably not your fault if you still don't know what you want to be when you grow up. Reasonably, you assumed school would help you figure out what career to pursue. Alas, teachers and especially professors, live in an ivory tower, so most are ill-suited to helping you find a career. And even most students who go to their school's career center leave still unsure what they want to do.

After that, most people take whatever job they can get, and then with the golden handcuffs of having experience in one field are reluctant to change careers.

Or the career searcher reads a career guide or sees a career counselor who administers some "tests," such as the Myers-Briggs or Strong Interest Inventory, both of which are notable for their lack of predictive validity.

Or a career counselor or self-help book helps you identify your abilities and interests and then a matching career. That approach often fails because:

• None of your abilities and interests stand out from the rest.
• You identify abilities but those apply to too many jobs, like "people skills."
• You identify an ability or interest that's unlikely to yield a decent living, for example, painting or singing.
• A career fits your abilities and interests but somehow feels wrong.
• You identify a career interest that is of interest to half the population: for example, the environment.
  

The following offers a better approach to finding a career:

Step 1. Scan annotated lists of careers in such guides as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, or my book, Cool Careers for Dummies.

For even more under-the-radar but currently in-demand careers, go to indeed.com and search on a work-related skill you'd like to use in your work, for example, writing, analyzing, organizing, selling, or programming. Pick out the one, two, or three careers you find most intriguing.

Step 2. Google the name of that career and the word "careers," for example, "geologist careers." or "writing careers." Read a few articles that seem on-point.

Step 3. For any career that still seems interesting, search Amazon for a book on that career. In the best such books, each chapter is a different person's report on what it's like in that career.

Step 4. For any career that remains of interest, job shadow at least three (one or two might give unrepresentative perspectives) people in the field. Find them in the Yellow Pages, on the website of the profession's professional association, for example, The American Optometric Association, your alumni association, or simply ask your in-person or LinkedIn or Facebook network for referrals.

While you're job shadowing, ask questions such as, "What's your typical day like?" "What ends up being most important for success in this career?" "Why might someone leave this career?" and "What's the best way to get training so you're excellent in this career?"

Step 5. If a career still sounds good, choose it even if you're not 100 percent sure. Otherwise, you're likely to be waiting for Godot. Usually, career contentment comes only after you've entered the career and, like a great-looking suit, tailored and accessorized to fit you.

For example, career and life coaching fit me only moderately but I now love it, in large measure because I adapted it to fit me: I made nonnegotiable that I'd work from home and that I'd be a more active participant in sessions than is the typical counselor who mainly just listens. I also stayed committed to getting better and better rather than giving up after a couple of years of mediocre performance.

The Career Advice I Offered on the Ronn Owens Program

This morning, I made one of my every-three-months appearances on the Ronn Owens Program, (he's pictured right.) It's one of the most listened-to radio shows on the West Coast.

The foci were: choosing a career, landing a job, and being successfully self-employed in these tough times. The show is archived HERE. for one week only.

Most of the program consisted of my answering questions from listeners but Ronn asked me some good questions. Here are the ones I recall and a paraphrased and sometimes expanded version of my answers:

If you had an adult child facing this job market, what advice would you give?

If my child wanted the false security of a paycheck, I'd have him or her work for a top company, for example, P&G, Google, GE, Infosys--even if he had to start in the mail room. I'd teach him how to build relationships with higher-ups so he could move up.

But if my kid showed even the slightest potential for being able to run his or her own business, I'd have my child get an internship at the elbow of a successful ethical entrepreneur and then start a simple, offshoreproof business: for example, selling Harry Potter paraphernalia out of a box near movie theatres. Simple, cloneable, not-offshoreable businesses, especially low-status ones, may be the surest route to successful employment in the coming decades.

Relatedly, a caller asked for advice about how to start a simple healthy food business.

I suggested he have a soup cart called Souper, in which he sold organic, low-sodium, delicious minestrone, clam chowder, and--Jewish penicillin--chicken soup, located in the best location the police department, which issues the permits, will allow.

Let's say your brother or sister were in his 40s and just laid-off. What would be your advice?

You've been around a while so you've met lots of people. You don't need to be close. They only need to have liked you. Tell them what you're looking for or your best couple of skills and ask if they know someone you should talk with about a job or consultancy. Don't be too picky about the field. Be pickier about the boss and that it will be moderately challenging.

If your brother were 60, would your advice be any different?

Well, maybe it would be interesting to hear what I myself would do if I were 60 and looking for work. I'd run for office on a radical honesty platform:

• There will be ever fewer good-paying jobs, so it's wise to find contentment in a materially simpler life. Look to relationships, creativity, beauty, etc.
• Let's stop spending so much on education, including HeadStart. Education accomplishes far less than we wish it would. The money is better in your pocket.
• America has neither the guts nor the money to win wars nor be the world's policeman. We need to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and become a more typical member of the world of nations. I'd return that money to the taxpayer. You will better spend the money than we in the government would. Your expenditures will create more jobs than the shovel-ready jobs that weren't, the stimulus that didn't.

I no doubt couldn't get elected to high office so, for starters, I'd try to get a city council job--It's often not that difficult to land such a job in a small city, and while they don't pay big, they often do pay and offer benefits. And in running for office, you meet lots of people, perhaps one who'd be interested in hiring you.

You always have at least one under-the-radar career you're bullish on. What do you have for us today?

With ever fewer people affording to buy a home, more people are renting. So if I were a blue-collar guy, I'd look for a job with a property management firm or for a developer that rehabbed distressed apartment buildings. If I were more entrepreneurial, I'd find some small apartment building that the tenants had ruined, get some friends or others to invest in my syndicate, we'd buy it, clean it up, and sell it.

The New York Times reported that people are staying put in their current job, afraid they won't find a better one. Do you have any new strategies for landing a job that are likely to work, even in these tough times?

One of my favorites is to interview biggies for an article you'd write for a trade publication. I had a client in finance. He got to interview a half dozen luminaries for the article, and at the end of each interview, he said he'd love to work for that person. One of them offered him a job.

Another strategy is to add ahead-of-the-pack collateral material to your applications for jobs. My favorite is a White Paper. Say you want a job in the fuel cell industry. Write a 2-to-5-page paper outlining core issues in the fuel cell field for 2012. That can give you an edge over most applicants, who just submit a sterile resume and cover letter.

Marty Nemko on KGO Radio's Ronn Owens Program

This Monday, July 18 from 10:07 am to 11 am, I will be making my every-three-months appearance as the guest on KGO-AM (ABC-San Francisco)'s Ronn Owens program. It is among the most listened-to shows on the West Coast.

I'll be answering questions about how to choose a career, land a job, keep a job, and be successfully self-employed in this difficult economy.

You can hear it from most places on the West Coast on AM-810 or worldwide on kgoradio.com.

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.

Top Careers for 2011 and Beyond

I've given these careers and fields a high overall score on job satisfaction, and compensation including benefits and job security.

These picks are a distillation of the many thousands of nuggets that have entered my brain: from my career counseling clients, colleagues, radio show guests and callers, friends, reading (and I'm a pretty voracious reader of career material,) plus self-generated thoughts.

• Optometry. This has long been one of my top-recommended careers. Yes an O.D. degree requires four years of post-bachelor's study or a six-year B.S./O.D. degree, but the career has major pluses. Optometrists, unlike many other health care providers, have a very high cure rate, they rarely get a middle-of-the-night emergency call, there's no blood, guts, nor communicable diseases, the aging population increases demand for optometrists, and optometrists make a six-figure income.
  

Note: optometrists are different from opticians, who dispense lenses and glasses, and from ophthalmologists who are MDs and do major surgery. Optometrists fit patients for lenses, diagnoses diseases, may prescribe some medications and eye exercises, and even do some minor surgeries.

• Grant/Proposal Writer. The government, foundations, and nonprofits, distribute money through a proposal submission process. So whether it's a desk manufacturer who'd like to sell to the state, a Native American Dance Troupe that would like a grant from the Feds, or a drug addict job training program that wants money from a nonprofit, all of them need grant writers.

• Fundraiser. Money is nonprofits' lifeblood. So nonprofits generally pay the highest salaries to fundraisers and, of course, to the executive director, who is also responsible for fundraising. So even if there are program cutbacks, nonprofits are likely to keep spending serious dollars on back-office development staff (those who research prospects to identify their hot buttons,) developers and maintainers of the donor database, fundraising event planners, and of course, pitchers: those with the moxie to extract big bucks from wealthy individuals and corporations.

• Adult Day Care (the entire field, not just direct care providers.) Most elders want to age in place, that is, in their homes, but they'd do well to have meals prepared and companions to eat and recreate with, someone to be sure they take their pills, etc. Less expensive than 24/7 assisted living, adult day care is growing in popularity with elders, their families, and long-term care insurers. Typically a bus picks the clients up in the morning and drops them back home after dinner. These facilities, like all businesses, employ a wide range of people: from accountants to HR people to CEOs, as well as, of course, cooks, janitors, nurses, patient supervisors, etc.
• Military. I believe the U.S. will enter a period of decreased foreign adventurism yet will continue to maintain a large headcount. Benefits are extraordinary: for example, free housing and education for the servicemember and family after just 90 days of service! Please know that the military offers an enormous range of careers beyond grunt: from artists to engineers.
• Health care administration. The 2,500-page ObamaCare programs will cover an additional 32-45,000,000 disproportionately low-income high health care users plus 12,000,000 more when Obama fulfills his promise to legalize illegal immigrants and their family members. All of that will profoundly affect health care in the U.S. Hospitals, physician group practices, health organizations such as Kaiser, Humana, Sutter, etc., will, for the foreseeable future, be employing large numbers of people to deal with the myriad required changes.

• Bilingual special education teachers, school psychologists, and speech therapists. Limited-English-proficient students are America's fastest growing category of students, and, by definition, they have extensive, often expensive, special needs. Unlike education for regular education kids, services to special education students are absolutely mandated by law, no matter how tough the economy or how great the cutbacks to other students. So funding will exist to pay for teachers, school psychologists, speech therapists, special bus drivers, etc., to provide the mandated "free and appropriate education" for all special education students.

• Federal manager. Despite the Tea Party win, the Keynesian administration and Senate remain in charge. That means the federal government will not shrink and, for non-star employees, the federal government, compliments of the taxpayer, continues to offer the best deal in town: surprisingly high salary and unsurprisingly excellent benefits, holidays, vacation, retirement, and job security. At this moment, there are 190 U.S. federal manager positions advertised on usajobs.gov. Half of them pay over $100,000.

• Welding. I've often read that this field has shortages, especially stainless-steel welding and welding in tight spaces--for example, inside oil refinery pipes. That's true not just in the U.S. A recent 60 Minutes reported a severe welder shortage in Brazil.

Self-employment ideas

I like these because they require short training and small investment, have high profit margins, are likely to survive a tough economy, and are minimally subject to trend risk--that is, demand is unlikely to wane.

• Parking-lot oil changing. Give an owner of a mall- or large employer parking lot a fee in exchange for allowing you to use a few of their parking spaces for changing oil while the car owners are shopping or at work.
• Gourmet salad and sandwich (including burrito) trucks or carts. I've been touting these for years. Last year, they caught on big-time on the coasts. I believe there's still room in high-foot-traffic locations in non-coastal cities.
• Wellness coaching. I believe the days of the "ten more pushups!" fitness trainer are waning. People are turning to wellness coaches who help them with all aspects of wellness: alcohol, drugs, and smoking, stress reduction, weight control, and yes, "Ten more pushups!"

Have a job search or career change success story?

Do you have a job search or a career change success story that you'd like me to share on my radio show? If so, email me at mnemko@comcast.net