If you ever want to float a question in the interest of energizing a floundering barbecue or dinner party, try this one: How many times does the average person change careers in a lifetime?
Well, define your terms, people might say – and rightly so. Not every job is a career because everyone defines the terms differently. (See? People around you have perked up already.)
Then drill down to the matter of age. Although you might assume older workers might have more “staying power” than Millennials (1982-2004) – the average job tenure has still fallen from over 10 years in the 1970’s to 6 years 8 months currently. Workers under 25 are on average staying only 1 year and 8 months before changing jobs.
One significant study – “Multiple Generations @ Work” – revealed that 91 percent of millennials plan to stay in a job for less than three years, which means they will hold between 15 and 20 “positions” during their work lives. If we accept the commonly assumption of three positions before re-training or career change – that’s five to seven distinct careers in a lifetime! Clearly career changes are now common, regular and expected.
Forsee leads the way
Anyone who is trying to navigate the process of settling on a career knows the process can be fraught with stress, fear and indecision. How is it that one of the biggest decisions of our lives is most commonly made with just a “feeling”? Surely in this day and age we can use data driven research to improve the quality of the career decisions we make.
Fortunately, for people of any age, there is Forsee – a cutting edge, highly accurate psychometric testing tool that assesses 175 personality traits and interests and then suggests suitable career options based on those insights.
This new Paradox technology is based on over 25 years of research and takes only 20 minutes to complete. It reduces the stress of choosing a career. It mitigates the fear. And breeds confidence in your decisions. Following your completion of the online questionnaire the system provides you with a list of ranked list of suitable careers and information about each. From here you can shortlist your favourites and dig deeper into exactly what tasks you are likely to enjoy or dislike about individual careers.
With your shortlist of ideal career matches, you need to consider these four questions.
The four Career Choice questions
The four questions on our checklist are:
1. Does this career sound interesting?
Not everyone is “hard-wired” to jump and down, heart pumping, over a career in order to thrive in it. But on some gut level, the career should appeal to you and trigger a desire to learn more about it.
2. Does this career involve tasks that you could see yourself enjoying and doing with success?
Now here’s a question worthy of serious thought – and perhaps future exploration with a someone who belongs to that career group. Every job – and career – involves tasks that are mundane or underwhelming. But overall, you should be able to picture yourself in the career – and the picture should be positive.
3. Will this career fulfil your essential needs?
Forsee can help you identify the drivers which are most important to you. They can be thought of as life themes and it’s like swimming against the tide if you ignore them. You need to know your true priorities, be they the promise of challenge, opportunity or advancement, work-life balance or high salary. (your answer might be “all of the above.”)
4. Is this career choice in demand in the marketplace?
Up to this point, you might think that choosing a career is purely an emotional decision. But it pays to be practical, at least if you wish to remain gainfully employed and earning an income. After all, none of us want to be like the people who were selling horse shoes when cars were taking over. Speak to people in the industry you’re interested into get the lay of the land. When it comes to career forecasts, the Australian government Job Outlook can be a great help.
The biggest driver of success is enjoyment
Research shows the single biggest driver of career success is Enjoyment. You are actually three times more likely to be successful if you enjoy at least 75% of the main tasks involved in a career. Forsee ability to predict whether a career is a suitable match for your distinctive combination of personality traits and interests is unrivalled. You no longer have to navigate the unknown with just gut instinct. Use data driven research derived from the people who have gone before you and give yourself the best chance of making a great career choice!
Forsee is currently available for a no obligation trial here and includes a free report on Your Greatest Strengths.