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What is the best career for me?
Executive Summary
Choosing a career is an incredibly crucial decision in ones life. However, it requires a lot of consideration and critical decision making to avoid poor choices that could affect ones life. Some individuals find themselves on the wrong career paths because of poor decisions that could be fostered by other peoples influence. This leads to major problems as the individual attempts to cope in the wrong job.
Therefore, it is advisable to assess the suitability of a given career before making the final decision to avoid regrets in life, an issue that could be extremely expensive and an extreme waste of time. Various considerations should be taken into account when choosing a career such as an individuals interests and educational qualifications, career goals, family considerations, capabilities and talents, and professional qualifications. This decision paper will give an in-depth discussion of the decisions surrounding a career choice. The central focus will be given to me, a holder of Master of Business Administration in Information Systems, and what I should consider when making decisions about my career choice.
Introduction
An individuals career is crucial in determining his or her life pattern in terms of success or failure. Career choice entails progress through ones life including formal education as well as professional work. With the emergence and advancement of various economic fields, there has been an increase in types of careers to fill the chances created to achieve success through enhanced productivity. This is because people play a great role in organizations through their expertise.
Although the emergence of a wide variety of careers is deemed to be an advantage, as it helps individuals to match their educational qualifications in different economic sectors, it has some disadvantages as well. For instance, it is linked with bringing some confusion in career choice as people are presented with a variety of options (Brown, 2002). This piece of work is a decision paper looking at what I should consider when choosing my career. My education includes a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems and the task now is to determine the best career for me.
Issue Identification
Issue identification is a significant step in decision making irrespective of the level of complexity that is involved. It assists in making the right choice among given options or available alternatives. It in return allows for success in the implementation of strategies and attainment of results regarding the identified issue. Through the identification of a problem, there is a possibility to get a long-term solution rather than having a recurrent problem that needs revisiting. Just like any other problem, career choice has become a difficult task for many individuals because they become torn among options without considering all alternatives and consequences.
Here, I am an individual who has done well in my studies by obtaining a bachelors degree in Computer sciences and a masters of Business Administration in Information Systems. Although this is a good educational background, it does not automatically guarantee me a good position in the competitive job market. Therefore, this dictates that there is still much that should be done about considering my career choice. Some of the most important factors to consider are an individuals interest, educational qualifications, job security and stability, chances of getting a promotion, and the remuneration offered.
Questions You Could Ask Yourself
In my efforts towards deciding on the best career that will fit me, I need to ask myself some questions. This will help in coming up with reasons for and reasons against different career paths. The questions may seem quite obvious but in the real sense, they are extremely helpful in determining the direction in which to take based on particular considerations. Some of the questions I need to ask myself in an attempt to identify the problem issue and come up with a reliable answer regarding the best career that suits me are; am I on the job path that best suits my talents, needs, and interests and could this be the best job?. Regarding these questions the answers are No .
This is because I do not get job satisfaction and hence I am not happy with what I do. The next question will thus be; why am I not satisfied with my current job? Some of the possible answers to this question would be the lack of opportunities to advance and poor pay that does not match my professional qualifications. The above is directly associated with the fact that I am not positioned in the right rank, which implies that the remuneration is low. Being placed at a low level or rank may also limit the chances of promotion or advancement.
Other relevant questions that could assist in dealing with my career are; what are my interests? What are my abilities? What are my values? What is my personality? What are my motivations? An evaluation of answers to these questions will help in choosing a better career. What is clear is that I am not in my best position and I should plan the steps necessary to achieve my goals.
My issue
My main problem is that I still feel that I have not reached my best career because working as a help desk technician does not fit my goals. More so, this applies when it comes to job satisfaction, an aspect that is very essential in allowing any individual to excel in any life issue. So the actual question remains to be; What is the best career for me?
Issue Analysis
Issue analysis entails looking at the problem issue in detail in an attempt to come up with the best achievable solution. Although the help desk technician job falls in line with information technology, I feel that it is not my best career. This is because of the specialties that I pursued while at school and also my interests and motivations. Since my entry-level job has also limited my chances of advancement and made my payment to be far below my expectations, this lowers my morale and thus the urge to shift to a better option.
Questions for Issue Analysis
Various questions could be used in analyzing the issue in question to gather a deeper understanding and find appropriate strategies to solve the problem. Questions that need to be asked will revolve around the problem issue for instance who is affected by the issue, the seriousness of the problem, the solutions available and how they could be implemented, the duration for which the problem has been experienced as well as the reason behind coming up with strategies aimed at resolving the problem. The main reason for the occurrence of this problem is a poor organizational culture within the company I work where individual qualifications are not matched with the positions offered.
If only the organization offered me a more advanced job position (in terms of level) rather than the entry-level, I would be in a position to exercise my potential to the fullest and at the same time get reasonable remuneration. This would greatly enhance my job satisfaction and I feel this aspect is extremely crucial to match my goals.
In my research for the possible careers that are present in the field of information technology, I was amazed by how many they are for an individual in this sector. Some of the careers include; network administrator, help desk technician, webmaster, database administrator, software programmer, and PC repair technician among others (Reynolds, 1999).
Develop Alternatives
In making any decision, alternative options should be identified. This ensures that there are some comparisons and the best option is selected to arrive at an appropriate solution. Based on my educational background and my desire to acquire a better career that will enhance growth and success irrespective of location, there are several alternatives from which I could choose a career. Some of the alternatives include software programmer, network administrator, database administrator as well as webmaster. These will fit me better as compared to a help desk technician (Fisher, 2004).
Evaluate Alternatives
Apart from developing the above-named alternatives, there is a need to evaluate the most suited option. The alternatives will be evaluated based on criteria such as the educational background, job security, remuneration, and advancement potential. To have a clearer comparison of the alternatives and then choose the most appropriate one, I will present them in a tabular form.
Make a Recommendation
From the above research and evaluation of my career path, it is evident that more time and education will be required for me to attain my goals in my career mainly because everyone is usually in the search for a better career. This is however because people make poor choices right from selecting the courses to pursue while at school as well as the job to take irrespective of interest, for example, because of the money they get or just out of desperation.
After a careful evaluation of the above alternatives, I opt to pursue a career as a software programmer because there are more job stability and greater chances for advancement. The pay is also good and it interests me. In everything that one undertakes, he or she should see to it that they are involved in a career in which they believe they have a positive effect on the world around them (Stair and Stair, 2005).
Implementation
To achieve success, I will sharpen my computer language skills. To do so, I will undertake a three-month language course starting next semester. The course will cost approximately $3,000, which I will finance from my savings. I will be aggressive in my job search and once I secure a position as a software programmer, I will utilize it for my good and that of the organization at large.
Review Plan
Plan review is crucial in evaluating the success or failure of an activity. After three years I will appraise myself to determine my career progress. This will help in making appropriate adjustments to meet my goals. In the case of the desired performance, I will maintain the steps and take caution in case of poor performance.
Review of the Decision Making Process
From the above discussion, it is evident that a very small percentage of people usually have the inner conviction that they ought to follow a given career or occupation path irrespective of the conditions associated with it for instance the pay, the status as well as the responsibilities assigned to them. This, therefore, follows that in the process of choosing a career, various factors are put into consideration for instance career goals, personal problems, capabilities, and talents, educational and professional qualifications among others.
In general, I can say that decision making is an incredibly crucial aspect at an individual and organizational level. The decision-making process needs to be systematic and founded on various firm facts rather than mere assumptions.
There is a need to have a good statement of the problem at hand to come up with effective strategies to curb the problem. Also, various alternatives should be identified after which they should be evaluated and the best one selected for implementation to attain a solution. Every step in decision making should be treated to be equally important and thus not undermined to achieve overall success. A long-term solution should also be sought to avoid recurring problems (McGraw, 1982).
References List
Brown, D. (2002). Career Choice and Development, 4th ed. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.
Fisher, K.I. (2004). How to Start a Career in Information Technology. Oakland: Ian K. Fisher.
McGraw, G.A. (1982). Decision Making: Approaches And Analysis: A Reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Reynolds, S. (1999). Jobs in the Information Technology Field. Web.
Stair, B.L. and Stair, L. (2005). Careers in Business, 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
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