chat
expand_more

Chat with our Pricing Wizard

clear

Industry News and Information

Choose a Road, Choose a Path

Yvonne LaRose AvatarYvonne LaRose
October 20, 2005


It’s fine to say you want to go into The Arts or the law or, as someone recently said, Accounting. That’s the big picture. Having some concept of what the big picture is constitutes a major step in embarking on the most amazing journey of your life.


What has happened in making that decision is there’s been a choice, among the enormous patchwork of options, to follow a particular road. Roads are so huge. They’re like superhighways. Sometimes, in order to reach the destination, it is necessary to take a side road or a path (smaller road) that’s a narrower channel and offers less likelihood of getting pushed off the journey.
It’s important to chart a progression across the map of choices in order to get to a final destination and not aimlessly wander all over the place. Once the big picture is in view and you gain more knowledge about the journey, you can say you want to get to being a screen or song writer or a choreographer if the goal is The Arts. If law is the destination, you may find you’re really suited to being a process server or collections agent instead of a lawyer.
In accounting, there are so many branches of the tree. We should know by now (in light of so much controversy in that industry) that there’s auditing, account management, consulting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, investments, tax practice.
It’s quite appropriate to say you want to go into an industry. That’s looking at a general area after you’ve decided that you’re going to take the journey. The next step is focusing on a more specific area.
The step after that is finding out whether you’re suited to that particular discipline. Do it through skills and interest assessments. Do it through internships or volunteer work. Do it through informational interviews either in person or over the phone. Do it through observing others in that position, taking note of how they interface with you and whether you believe you could put yourself in their shoes day in and day out over the long haul.
It’s great to have a view of the big picture. Grab hold of that big picture and start to parse it out by looking at the options within. I like going to my Career Center to use the tools there. There are a couple that are priceless in this endeavor.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook, a resource that provides not only the names of various occupations within professions (you may want to use the “Search” option in the top right corner) but also a description of the various job titles, related occupations, required education, and pay ranges. It’s extremely helpful to get hold of something like this in order to see what options are available. Not everyone really wants to be a judge or lawyer. Not everyone wants to spend their entire day reconciling the general ledger.
In addition to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (for finding related careers), I find looking up salary information for a particular job title on Salary.com is extremely useful. The results provide not only the salary range for a specific geographic area, they also describe the position functions and related fields.
While it’s great to start out with a focus on the general, it’s very important to start narrowing the view as one progresses toward the destination. With each class, with each venture into some aspect of doing work in that field (or incorporating it into your usual affairs), there should be an assessment of whether that particular aspect of the practice is the right fit for you.
If it takes formal education to become qualified, as graduation day looms in the extremely near future, it’s time to start doing additional homework on gaining intern experience or incorporating the discipline into your usual work so that you gain the work experience credit for it and are recognized as having the skill.

Related Articles

No Related Posts.
View More Articles