Similarly people who find working with numbers boring shouldn't become accountants. If they are accountants, they should use their background as a trail to something else such as selling tax services to the accounting profession.
Sounds overly simple?
It should be, but it isn't to a lot of employees seeking better jobs. Countless people choose professions and occupations because they're "glamorous", or because they offer big money, or because their parents want them to, without paying any regard to whether or not they are equipped to enter that field.
Members of a graduating MBA class from a prestigious Ivy League university were surveyed as to their future occupational plans. Seventy percent answered "investment banking." I'm certain that most of them chose the field because of the recent press about how young people are making big money in it. It's my convention that to be successful and fulfilled over the span of one's working life, there has to be a better motivation than just making big money for contributing little.
What are you really interested in? That's the first question you have to answer as you seek a better job. Because I've always loved what I do, it never occurred to me to moan about late hours and weekend work. The standard response to this is that because it was my business, I had a greater stake in its outcome than if I had been employed by someone. There is some obvious truth to that, but not nearly as much as we like to think. An employee who is successful works for an employer as though that business was indeed his or her own. The key, of course, is to enjoy what you're doing- and that demands entering a profession or occupation that matches up with your needs and interests.
There are millions of people who want to be writers, but never write anything.
College graduates want to eventually become CEOs of major companies, yet don't take the time and effort to prepare themselves with the qualifications necessary to achieve that level of success. People seeking better jobs wait for one to come to them, rather than going for the jobs. They wait for "luck." It never seems to arrive, so they consider themselves unlucky.
"I could have been, except for..." Fill in the blank with your own excuses.
People with shaky hands should not enter the dental profession.
People who suffer motion sickness should not pursue the goal of being the first man or woman to land on Mars.
It isn't always easy for us to evaluate ourselves objectively. What we see when we look in the mirror doesn't necessarily reflect how other people see us. Because of this, it often makes sense to seek others' opinion of our ills and interests, hopefully more objective than our self-evaluation, or the kind evaluation of us by friends and family. Avail yourself of guidance and career counseling services in your area. Many of the moffer a test series to give you a more focused and unbiased analysis of your true career potential in any given profession or job area. There are a number of books that accurately describe jobs and fields of work; a careful reading will give you a pretty good indication of what's demanded of individuals seeking success in those fields.
Be open-minded when using such services. You might be told that the last profession you should consider is medicine, yet you've wanted to be a doctor since you were five years old. That doesn't mean you have to shed that aspiration, but at least you'll be aware that it probably is going to be more difficult for you than for others whose natural interests and abilities lend themselves the edge in the medical profession.
Analyze your real motivations and the real you.
Then get moving.
