Career Exploration: Finding the Right Career for You

Graduating from high school can feel both liberating and terrifying. The future is yours to shape, but where do you go from here?

Make a Plan

It’s hard to know what to do next if you don’t know what you’re trying to do. You need a plan. Maybe your next step is to leave on a mission, study at a university, learn a trade, enter the job market, or just explore options for what you want to do with your life. Whatever your plan is, here are some tips to help you confidently move forward in your life.

• Get advice from trusted sources. This can be career counselors, parents, or teachers.
• Explore different jobs. Start with one you’re interested in.
• Figure out your finances. See tips for budgeting below.
• Find a place to live.
• Trust that your Heavenly Father is going to help you.

Figure Out Finances

The best way to know that you’ll have what you need is to use a budget. Try this four-step method for budgeting

1. Track what you plan to spend each month. Plan for essentials first—food, rent, tuition, transportation. But don’t forget hidden expenses. Will you have monthly subscriptions, pay for the internet, or eat fast food?
2. Figure out how much money you’ll need to make. What will your income be? If you will be attending college, include financial aid, scholarships, and government grants in your budget.
3. Identify how much you want to put into savings each month.
4. Spend less than you make. If the amount you plan to spend is more than the amount you will earn or have in savings, then you need to find a way to make more or spend less.

You can create a budget on paper or use apps and websites to keep track of your finances. Just be careful when disclosing financial information online, especially bank account numbers. Consider talking to a parent or someone else who has experience with budgeting before you get started.

Find a Place to Live

You might continue living with your family, or you might move into an apartment. Whatever you choose, living arrangements will affect your life. Here are a few things to consider:

• Will the people you live with encourage you to live gospel standards?
• Can you get along and be happy living with them?
• Do you have similar expectations about cleanliness, visitors, and the division of expenses?
• Can you afford to live there?
• Can you get to school or work easily?

Trust Heavenly Father

Trust that your Heavenly Father is going to help you. He wants you to succeed. He will guide you, support you, and give you strength as you figure out the next few months and years.

Graduating from college and entering the job market is an exciting time. You have many new decisions to make as you search for a job and continue on the path to building your future. You probably feel accomplished now that you’ve graduated from college, but in the back of your mind you may still have that nagging uncertainty of whether or not you’ll be able to find a job in your field. As you work through this process, you can rely on Heavenly Father to guide you. Seek His help and direction through prayer, temple attendance, scripture study, and service to others.

As a college graduate, you have likely already started the process of looking for employment and discovered that a job and a career are not always the same thing: jobs are the employment opportunities that should further qualify you for a career in your desired field or industry. Here are five principles to help you transition from being a student to a full-time working professional.

1. Do your research and know what you want

As you begin your job search, you should target positions based on research you have completed for the career you are ultimately seeking. The following are some potential questions to ask yourself as you identify job titles you are most interested in:

• What types of positions require my degree?
• What is the future outlook for those positions?
• What industries and companies am I interested in?
• Which skills are required for the positions I’m interested in?
• Which skills do I still need to obtain?
• What is the typical salary for those positions?

As you answer these questions, you will start to get an idea of what jobs are available and how those opportunities fit into your long-term career plan. You will also be better prepared to communicate to potential employers how your strengths can benefit their companies.

2. Have realistic expectations

While you shouldn’t lower your expectations, you should have a realistic mindset as you map out your career plan and start applying for jobs. This is why research is so important. Some graduates who haven’t researched their field expect to start making a large salary immediately after college; however, you will most likely need to work your way up to your ideal position or salary. While professional success is attainable, it doesn’t come all at once. During your education, you have gained skills and a degree that will open many opportunities for you to succeed, but you likely have a limited amount of work experience. It is helpful to consider your qualifications from a potential employer’s perspective so you can better understand their expectations. Think of your first job after graduation as a new opportunity to gain valuable work experience.

3. Set meaningful job search goals

Goals drive our actions. Develop daily job search goals that will help you meet your larger employment goal, which you have set based off your research. Daily goals help you stay organized and allow you to use your time effectively. The 15-10-2 job search technique is a proven method to successfully find employment faster than you would with a normal job search. This approach consists of finding 15 resources, making 10 contacts, and having 2 face-to-face interactions each day with people in your network or employers. As you set measurable goals such as these, it is important to evaluate and re-evaluate your progress. Write your goals down and share them with a job coach who can help keep you accountable and make improvements to your job search goals.

4. Look for opportunities to network

It is important to remember that you can’t do your job search alone. Entering the job market as a college graduate is a prime time for networking, and you already have a large network of connections that you may have not even realized existed. Friends, family, people in your ward, classmates, and your social media connections are great resources for networking. Ask yourself if you already know anyone currently working in the industry, at the company, or in the position you are interested in. Take the time to build your contacts and create new relationships with the people you associate with. In your interactions with people in your network, be clear about your goals and what you are looking for. Use any resources provided by your college to network, such as job fairs and alumni events. Talk with everyone and don’t be afraid to let them know you are searching for a job.

5. Continue to expand your horizons

Once you’ve found a job, continue learning and setting career goals for yourself. Be proactive and engage in opportunities to learn from your employer. Ask questions, gain more education, and acquire new skills. Employers notice those who take the initiative. As you seek to further your career, also remember to support and help others with their own employment goals. Continually update your resume and online employment profiles. Build long-lasting relationships in your profession by demonstrating your value and work ethic; these relationships can help you in your current organization as well as in future positions.

Making the change from college to the workforce is a process, but you will succeed as you put forth the time and effort in applying these principles to your job search.

Returning home from a mission is the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in your life. Your next steps might include finding employment or seeking further education, making this a dynamic time of career exploration. While you may also be feeling some uncertainty, know that your experiences and your missionary service have prepared you for the decisions ahead. As you start on your path to building a career, consider the following tips.

Keep Your Momentum

As a missionary, managing your time helped you make and keep appointments, study well, and establish good habits. Continue to live by a structured and planned schedule. This schedule won’t be the same as it was while you were a missionary but can help you stay productive and organized. Use a planner, whether print or digital, that allows you to keep track of your daily activities and use your time efficiently.

Plan for Education and Finances

There are often more ways than one to learn the skills you need, such as college courses, university programs, vocational training, apprenticeships, or internships. Do some research and ask for help from others to decide which educational paths are right for you.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “It matters not whether you choose to be merchant, teacher, carpenter, plumber, mechanic, doctor, or to follow any other honorable vocation. The important thing is that you qualify to be useful workers in society. It is so easy and so tragic to become a drifter, a drop-out. It is so challenging and so satisfying to be a producer” (“Watch the Switches in Your Life,” Ensign, Jan. 1973, 92).

In addition to part-time or full-time employment, seek out school, government, or community programs that provide financial resources, such as:

• Perpetual Education Fund (PEF)
• Grants
• Scholarships
• Loans
• Work-study programs
• Apprenticeships
• Internships

Effectively Communicate the Skills Gained from Your Mission

As you seek education or employment, it is important to be able to effectively communicate the skills you learned from your mission. The good habits and skills you developed as a missionary can directly carry over to your success in the workforce or as a student. Here are some of the possible skills you may have developed while on your mission:

• Time management
• Effective planning and goal setting
• Study and research habits
• Interpersonal communication: Eye contact, body language, and the ability to carry on a conversation
• Conflict management
• Public speaking
• Ability to manage and oversee the work of others
• Working as part of a team
• Active listening
• Teaching English
• Foreign language

Be sensitive when describing your missionary experiences. Consider the company, educational institution, or individual with whom you are sharing your missionary experiences and decide if doing so will have a positive or negative impact. While explaining the details of your service, be sure to express the value of your missionary experience in a way that makes sense to individuals who aren’t members of the Church. Using unfamiliar terms such as “zone leader,” “district meetings,” and “tracting” will most likely result in blank stares from hiring managers and others. The following are some examples of how you can avoid using unfamiliar terms and be specific in communicating the skills learned on your mission.

You can better describe the skills gained from your mission by using common language like the examples above. This principle can help you with job applications, resumes, job interviews, and scholarship application essays.

Continue Forward with Trust in the Lord

Rely on the Lord to help guide you after your mission, just as you relied on Him during your mission. Continue to live the gospel and have faith that God will guide you in all that you do.

Elder W. Christopher Waddell of the Seventy said, “In whatever manner the Lord may choose to bless us during the course of a mission, blessings of missionary service are not designed to end when we are released by our stake president. Your mission is a training ground for life. The experiences, lessons, and testimony obtained through faithful service are meant to provide a gospel-centered foundation that will last throughout mortality and into the eternities” (“The Opportunity of a Lifetime,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 50).