The career you choose has a huge impact on your life. If you work full-time, you spend at least 40 hours a week at work. In many jobs, the hours are even longer. Finding a job you like or can at least tolerate well is one of the most important things you can do.
Given the importance of choosing a good career path, you’d think people would choose carefully and wisely. Unfortunately, many people end up in jobs they hate. It’s amazing that so many people botch such an important decision.
To be fair, choosing a career is difficult for several reasons.
- People usually have to commit to career path long before they get to experience what it is like doing the work. This is because training can take years. People have to guess what it will feel like doing the work day after day.
- People change over time. It is difficult to guess what will be important to you decades from now.
- Jobs change over time. Technology can change how work is done. A job that you would have like may be transformed into one you can’t stand.
- It takes discipline to pursue many jobs. People who can’t or won’t take years developing their careers often have limited options.
- Your coworkers matter. If you end up in a workplace surrounded by people you don’t like, you are likely to be unhappy.
These problems make choosing a career difficult. How people choose a career sheds some light on how people simplify complex problems so they can make a decision. Even when the consequences of a decision are high, people simplify because it is sometimes the only way to move forward.
