Do Your Research: The Way To Your Dream Career

Do Your Research: The Way To Your Dream Career!

When it comes to career planning, conducting independent research is key! Why you may be asking? Well, without research, you may not fully understand what encompasses the career you are working towards! Without research, you may:

• Miss out on opportunities in your field of interest because you aren't looking for them 
• Not know if there is further education needed or specific professional development required for your career of choice
• Misunderstand or have a limited understanding of what your desired career path entails as far as job description and duties 
• Have no clear direction when it comes to properly network within your desired field

The best thing about today's age is the biggest resource: the internet! Because the internet is so broad, it can be confusing getting to all the information you need to know but it also can be the gateway to the most helpful information. Don't stress, we're here to tell you what to look for online to help you find your dream career.

1. Career Assessments
Remember when we mentioned missing out on opportunities you don't know about? This is where career assessments come in. Online career assessments are your best friend! Available through Career Zone's website, you can take numerous career assessments through multiple websites.

Career assessments are tests/quizzes where individuals answer questions based on a variety of personal attributes: values, preferences, motivations, skills, etc. In the end, these attributes are assessed to develop a list of suggested career choices! These attributes affect your career options and environments and the assessment offers career choices that meet your interests, motivations, preferences etc!

2. Post Graduate / Masters / Continuing Education 
When you do discover your dream career - or even if you are still searching, researching continuing education is essential. Many career options require or prefer an individual with different levels of education, depending on the career!

This is possible by researching a specific career and searching programs relevant through universities and colleges offering degrees, certificates and much more. This can be done through specific schools direct websites or online at websites such as universitystudy.ca or ontariocolleges.ca!

3. LinkedIn 
One of the best online networking platforms is LinkedIn! How can it help you with researching your dream job? In many ways:

• Connecting with individuals who have a position in your desired field, seeing how they achieve this position - through what schooling or past experience
• Discovering position postings all over the world at a wide range of companies 
• Following a specific industry or company for updates on their positions - you can learn a lot from accessing their list of empty or filled positions
• Keeping up to date with new and upcoming events to attend for networking purposes
• Discovering other's careers which interest you 

These are just three ways to get you started on researching your possibilities. Warning: once you start looking into it, you might not be able to stop!