Personal Learning Paper: How Could I Choose A Fulfilling Career?
Personal Learning Paper: How Could I Choose A Fulfilling Career?
Personal Learning Paper: How Could I Choose A Fulfilling Career?
When I passed the university entrance exams and began to study in Foreign
Trade University, I had a lot of interests. However, which interest should I pursue
and try and turn into a job? At that time, I was really interested in philosophy. I
had read a lot of philosophies of many famous philosophers in the world. But one
of the philosophers I most enjoyed reading, Peter Unger, recently said
‘Philosophy is a bunch of empty ideas and there is no job in philosophy, anyway’.
So that was out.
I was really interested in investing and finance and I had even taken a
portion of small savings I had and invested them into authentic shoes at that
time. I knew that following the finance root would be a well-paid career, but I was
wondering maybe I would not make as much difference as I could in that, it would
not help the society. So in the end, it would not really be that fulfilling. I was left
with the question: How could I choose a fulfilling career?
I realized I did not even know how to choose a career and I read various
books, I went to career advisors but I still could not really find the information I
really needed: What skills should I learn now? Which areas are there a great
social need where I can make a difference? Well, it’s true that one of the main
things I discovered is that I have a lot to learn. Choosing a career is a complex
problem. I had done many researches and conclude that careers advice today
focuses on the wrong thing. Throughout most of the history, people basically did
what their parents did. I had thought I would follow my father’s work as an
economic inspector in the government. However, after finding out that the
environment local councils and government are working is corrupted and it could
not help me to develop myself, I quit that thought. Our generation grew up with
some differences advice in comparison with the previous one and that is you
should follow your passion. The use of this phrase increased dramatically from
the mid-nineties. After reading several articles and heading about the future
works of graduate and post-graduate students, I found that I need to move
beyond ‘Follow my passion’ as my career advices focus on and instead of asking
what my own interests and passions are, I should be focusing much more on
what I can do for other people and to make the world a better place.
When I received advices from career advisors, I saw that the ‘Follow your
passion’ rule have three steps: the first is to identify your greatest interests, the
second is find careers that match those interests, and the final is pursue those
careers no matter what. The theory behind this advice is when you get your
passion match, then you really enjoy your work, you are really motivated so you
are more likely to be successful, and if you succeed in doing what you are
passionate about you have a fulfilling career. This seems right, however, the
majority of people fail when they follow their passion (I saw this on a survey) so
the second step does not work.
I think that my interest are not a decisive factor, other things matter much
more like what your skills are, and what your mind set is. People consider
interest matter a lot more than they do because we underestimate how much
they change. When I was four years old, I was going to be an Iron man. When I
was nearly at the end of secondary school, I used to think that I wanted to be the
winner in X factor. When starting to learn in the university, I found myself
interested in playing video games with virtual characters. And now I am keen on
shoes, authentic shoes in particular, such as Nike, Adidas, Fila, et cetera. As my
passion and interest changed a lot when I grew up. I am not sure whether I
decide rightly or wrongly. People usually say if you do not try, how can you find it
is suitable for you? Therefore, I tried. I opened a small business online, a store
on facebook, just because I liked finance and shoes, ordering and selling
authentic shoes. I was happy because my interest came true and I could share
ideas and knowledge with other people who also have the same interest with me.
I gave my customers advices and recommends for them, I knew I was helping
them to get their favorite shoes more easily and effortlessly, it was a valuable
work. However, I stopped. It was neither because I had lost in my business nor
my passion with real shoes ended, it was just because I felt this field of work was
not for me.
At present, I am taking several works, including graphic designer, video
editor, coder, et cetera and various courses to an appropriate field for my fulfilling
career. Although I have not find it, I feel that it is very close to me.