Many career resources available online are more suitable for entertainment purposes than helping you find your own personal North Star.
A good career assessment will take into consideration your strengths, interests, and perhaps most importantly, your motivations. Once these are identified, you will be able to narrow your career research significantly, making the process of identifying your ideal career much easier.
Free access to a very insightful career test and the resulting personalized motivational appraisal of personal potential (MAPP) is provided, courtesy of JobForge.com. Simply visit
http://www.jobforge.com and click on the career assessment link on the index page or visit
http://tinyurl.com/career-test . This career tool will allow you to:
* Find your real motivations, interests, and talents for work
* Identify your ideal careers
* Discover your communication and leadership strengths
The free MAPP report will provide you with your top five job matches, which is plenty for many people. If you would like more career suggestions, as well as expanded test results, fee-based memberships are available.
You may also find the Jung Typology Test helpful. It should provide you with some additional personal insights. Find it at:
http://tinyurl.com/jung-typology Once you have identified one or more careers of interest, you may find consulting the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics at
http://www.bls.gov/OCO/ useful. It will give you access to hundreds of different types of jobs, such as teacher, lawyer, and nurse. The Occupational Outlook Handbook will provide you with:
* The training and education needed
* Earnings info
* Expected future job prospects
* What workers do on the job
* Working conditions
After you have narrowed the field as much as possible, don't overlook volunteering and internships as a great way to get your feet wet, while "trying on" a job to see if it is really a good fit for you. A volunteer position or internship may also expose you to careers previously unknown to you. Regardless, the experience gained will likely make excellent resume content and open doors further down the road.
Good luck narrowing the field!