The Minutiae in Demystifying My Career Path

“The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!” – Earl Nightingale

Up to this point, I have been learned many of the minutiae in demystifying my career path. The various wandering-maps, wisdom builders, mindsets, and ultimately the explanatory interview have been opened my eyes to my many career opportunities in the future. 

Pic. Src.: bestcareeradvisor.com

If there is one thing that I have learned so far, it is that there are no rules in achieving your destiny, your career. It is your journey, you are free to explore all the opportunities that you have and those you will have. Although there are no certain precepts in pursuing your career, fortunately there are some tips or tricks that may help you in achieving your dream job. 

Wandering-map is one of the tips. It basically needs you to draw a map about things that exist in your mind; it could be about your major, your career or your achievements. In my humble opinion, it would help you connecting the scatter ideas that you might have in your mind; it would also help you making the appropriate preparations so long that you draw your map honestly. 

In order to be able to assess yourself; you need to understand yourself first; you need to understand how you think on things. That is way mastering and developing your own mindsets is the next trick. There are many types of mindsets. The heart of the problem, on the one hand, is how to identify your own mindsets so that you would be able to know your strengths and weaknesses.  On the other hand, however, you also need to invent or at least develop the mindsets that you think would help you in your career pursuit. 

Being able to draw an excellent wandering maps and mastering your own mindsets is a good start. Unfortunately, however, it would not sufficient in demystifying your future career. Knowing how to build an excellent resume is your next skill to master. I have learned, both in class and during my time with my career counselor, that resume is the first impression you will give to your future employer. A good resume would describe your personality and highlight your qualification so that your employer will know whether you are suitable to the position or not. In addition, a good resume would also increase your chance to get the job, as your capability in selling yourself and highlighting the skills that you have in order to succeed in that position. 

When it comes to my future occupation, I would like to think that it is not just a matter of choices. Katharine Brooks (2010) argued that it’s not so much about whether each is a good or a bad choice but rather what will be the effect of your choice (p. 157). 

I have learned and discovered that I have the ability to analyze legal problems, I love to read Supreme Court’s holdings, I love to study and compare laws among countries in the context of international relations. With this in mind, I am positive that I made a right choice when I decided to pursue my career in the legal field. 

As of my preconceptions about my future career, I hope very much that I would be able to finish my undergraduate studies timely and then go to a Law school.  Law, in my opinion, is the bedrock of a nation, it tells us who we are, and also gives us the guidance of everyday living. Moreover, there are still so many countries, including my own country, that still struggling in enforcing the law effectively. That is way I do really want to pursue my future career in the legal field.

However, law is a sui generis subject as it is arguably hard to deduce from a legal prose or legal holding without knowing legal English and some method of interpretations. This part somewhat surprised me along with my concerted efforts to pursue my career in this field. 

Another thing that also helped me in demystifying my career path was the explanatory interview. With regard to the chaos theory, as Pryor & Bright (2011) explained that the chaos theory of careers construes both individuals and the contexts in which they develop their in terms of complex dynamical systems (p. 1). Therefore, I believe my explanatory interview has proved that there is no linear path in a career pursuit. 

Despite the facts that there is no linear path in a career pursuit, people discern that we need to do something to prepare our future, including our future career. With regard to this, I personally still have many things to prepare, including, but not limited to, legal interpretations, public speaking, French and Latin languages, as well as a better understanding of the law itself. 

Most of the people may find themselves in the middle of nowhere when talking about their future career. They struggle in that they typically do not have as much exposure to their future career as expected. Fortunately, however, we could do something better by preparing ourselves so that we would be ready when the time has come.

“You have your bad moments in your career and your good moments. And it’s been a good ride so far, but it’s not over yet.” – Maria Sharapova

References

Brooks, K. (2010). You Majored in What?. New York: Penguin Group

Brigh, J. E. H., & Pryor, R. G. L. (2011). Journal of Employment Counseling. The Chaos Theory of Careers, 58, 163.