through day-to-day living but may be learned in school or the workplace.
Questions to Ask
To find the career that will match your talents and bring you the most satisfaction, begin by asking yourself the following questions:
Personality Traits
How do I enjoy spending my days?
What do I like thinking, learning, and talking about?
Do I enjoy talking to people or am I the quiet type?
Do I like asking people questions?
What kind of people do I enjoy being around?
Do I like being the center of attention, or do I prefer the background?
Would I rather live in the city or in the country?
Do I like to travel, or am I a homebody?
What are my favorite volunteer activities, hobbies, or sports?
Skills
Am I analytical or creative?
Do I have artistic abilities in writing, photography, or art?
Do I excel in science and mathematics classes?
Am I good at selling things or persuading people to my way of thinking?
Work Environment
Would I rather work for a big corporation, a small company, or myself?
Do I prefer to be part of a team or to work on my own?
Do I like being busy all the time, or do I need plenty of time to spend with friends and family to be at my best?
How much money would I like to make?
Animal Specifics
What animal-related activities do I enjoy?
Am I good at teaching my pet tricks or behaviors?
Do I enjoy spending time making sure my pet is clean and beautiful?
Kris Parlett, Procter & Gamble Pet Care External Relations team member, poses with actress Betty White during a media junket to support the Morris Animal Foundation.
Personal traits such as patience, reliability, risk taking, resourcefulness, and innovation can also affect your choice of careers. Sometimes these are learned through life experiences, but often they are innate. For instance, patience often develops naturally with experience, but it can be difficult for a timid or withdrawn person to become a gregarious risk taker. It can happen, but it requires a lot of desire, willpower, and practice. People willing to make that effort can be successful at risk taking, but they often need a lot of down time to recharge their energy. To discover your skills and traits, answer the questions in the box “Questions to Ask” (opposite).
Matching Skills and Traits with Careers
Studying the answers to the questions in “Questions to Ask” and making a list of your traits and skills, as well as your preferences in work environment and pet activities, can help you clarify your interests. You will start to see a pattern emerge, indicating whether you prefer to work with people or with information, whether you’d like a demanding career with lots of travel or a quiet one in which you work alone or with only one or two other people, and whether a high salary or job satisfaction is more important to your happiness and well-being.
Recognizing and accepting these factors is essential to choosing the right career. For instance, if you have a scientific mind and like the idea of becoming a veterinarian, but the thought of talking to dozens of dog owners every day makes you shudder, you might instead consider a career in veterinary research, studying the causes of canine diseases or contributing to the development of a new vaccine or drug. Or suppose you enjoy meeting people and traveling and you have a persuasive personality, but hitting the books for seven or more years isn’t your idea of a good time. Rather than becoming a veterinarian, you may want to consider a career in sales, marketing, or public relations for a pet-food manufacturer, pharmaceutical firm, or pet-product company in a position that would allow you to attend dog shows, veterinary conferences, and other animal-related events.
Are you on the planning committee for your high-school prom or your city’s annual Fourth of July parade? You probably have good organizational and communication skills, which can lead you to careers as disparate as event manager for a pet-food company or director of an animal-welfare foundation.
These are just a few examples of how you can evaluate your skills and personality to plan your future. You’ll also want to consider various facets of job satisfaction. Study the following list of factors and number them in order of importance from 1 to 12, with 1 being the most important. The answers will help you refine your choices.
Contributing to society
Financial rewards
Helping others
Intellectual challenge
Interacting with the public
Job security
Potential for advancement
Professional status
Recognition
Supervising or managing others
Working as part of a team
Working independently
Exploring More Sources
Once you have an idea of the type of career you want to pursue, you need to gather as much information about it as you can. In addition to reading the chapters on specific careers in this book, you should look for information in various other books and periodicals and on Web sites. Then arrange to talk with a professional in the field.
Books, Periodicals, and Web Sites
Books that can help you explore and define yourself include the latest editions of Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type, by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger (Little Brown) and What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changers,
