Career Options and Courses after 12th: Find your path and stick to it 💪🏼

The time has come. You have to filter and narrow down on a career choice. One that you're going to have to stick to for your entire life. It's a difficult choice. Some of us have our careers and expectations decided and sorted out but the ones wandering in the unknown, the suffering, the anxiety, the stress, and the tensions- it ends here.

The decision is tough. Because once you make a decision, it's difficult to switch. Although with proper planning and insight into your passions and hunger, sticking to one career option can be made easier than before. A lot easier.

You don't have to read what the courses and degrees have to offer by giving it hours and days of your time. Obviously, some knowledge about courses is required but reading through it all is not going to help you stick to something.

Let's review what should be done step-by-step.

Step 1: Find your passions.

There's a difference between what you're supposed to do and what you want to do. What you're supposed to do, is your job. While what you want to do, is your passion. Being passionate about your work is extremely important for progress. If you're passionate about what you do, you always aim to get better at it. You switch off the outside world and just work on what you love. It allows us a huge advantage. Once you're able to find your passion and discover the various career choices it has to offer, life becomes easier.

Passions aren't made, they're found.

To find passions is to discover yourself. Trying out new things and looking for career options that go with them helped me a lot, personally. Taking up courses online would help you discover a wide range of career options and opportunities. You can refer to these websites for free as well as paid online courses.

1. Udemy

2. Coursera

3. Skillshare

4. Khan Academy

There are a lot more other websites that offer a multitude of courses ranging from all areas of life. They also offer certificates of completion, helping you build your profiles.

Step 2: Understanding yourself.

This process is a very important path when it comes to choosing careers. Self-reflection is key to finding the solution to any problem. Understand your priorities. Sort your long-term and short-term goals. Get to know what you want from your life. Once you have the end goals sorted out, focus on the process.

Keep in mind what you want to achieve from yourself and scale your vision into reality. Filter everything based on your needs.

Step 3: Explore Career Options and Courses.

The first two steps must've got you to a place where you're at least a tiny bit familiar with what you want to do with your career. Maybe you've discovered you like cooking so you could go for career options in cooking like being a Chef, Hotel Management, etc. Discovering your passions will help you get a head start. Once you know the field you want to enter, you can then dig deeper and find out the exact course or degree that you want to pursue. You can find numerous websites online that will help you discover career options tailored for you based on your interests and skills.

Step 4: Seek Guidance if you're still stuck.

If you're still unable to decide what you want to choose as a career option, you can use help. Getting a career counselor is considered to be the best option. However, it's not always cheap and accessible. In that case, you can use free websites that provide guidance and also test your abilities, likes, and dislikes to find a career path that's best suited for you.

Here are some free career counseling websites in India that you can explore:

1. National Career Service: https://www.ncs.gov.in/

2. iDreamCareer: https://idreamcareer.com/

3. Mindler: https://www.mindler.com/

4. Career Guide: https://www.careerguide.com/

If you want, you can explore more websites like these. In my experience, these would be just enough for you.

Step 5: Time to test steps 1-4.

Hobbies are sometimes volatile. Some of them fade away quickly. Testing if what you want to pursue is just a hobby and not a viable career option that would ensure solid growth within just a few years is an important process.

For example, playing professional cricket can be someone's dream. If I want to play professional cricket, I need to start early to increase my chances of getting into the sport and growing, hitting the right targets at the right time, and seizing the right opportunities as they strike.

Starting at 18 means I would have a shorter timeframe to develop the necessary skills, gain experience, and compete at a high level. Nothing is impossible, I know, but at a time like this, where every decision will create a domino effect, it's important to think about every aspect.

This was about not being able to pursue your career choice because you didn't start at the right time. Another important thing is recognizing whether you're going to be able to work that job for a lifetime. This can be done by getting first-hand experience, discovering various job opportunities, going through work cultures at the workplace, learning about the scope of the jobs when you'll be joining, and familiarizing yourself with the stuff you would have to do. Getting hands-on experience with the tasks you would have to perform would help you confirm your career preferences.

Step 6: Think about what fits and what doesn't.

If you're aiming to do something for a lifetime, you need to see if it fits with your current lifestyle. Think about where you want yourself to be in the next five years and then choose the option that best fits your vision. Align your career paths with your desired lifestyle to avoid any unexpected inconveniences.

For example, consider factors such as work hours, travel requirements, flexibility within jobs, and try to achieve the required balance between your personal and professional life. It's going to be sacrifices that take you places you can't go so if there's a thing or two that you would have to let go of for achieving success in whatever career you choose, go for it.

Step 7: Stay Flexy!

Who said that you can only choose one career path? Being adaptable is very important. Be open to new opportunities and openings. Be on the lookout for immensely growing fields and careers. IT, Healthcare and Biotechnology, Robotics, AI, Space Sciences, Machine Learning, and Data Science are some of the growing fields. Always keep your eyes wide open for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and seize them. Experimenting and taking calculated risks is necessary.