Why Happiest and Unhappiest Careers Are Unique to You

Why Happiest and Unhappiest Careers Are Unique to YouWhy Happiest and Unhappiest Careers Are Unique to YouA serious component of a happy life is a career that fulfills your dreams and goals- and yes, makes you happy too. The happiest careers consist of the jobs that will make your heart singas you go off to work every morning, but those jobs will be different for different people. A career that would make you happiest might make anotlageher person miserable. For example, working as a kindergarten teacher and pending your day with5-year-olds might be a dream job for you. But to another person, that job could be a nightmare of epic proportions. To find the happiest career for you and avoid the unhappy careers that would fill every daywith sorrow, consider five topics that will help you get started on the right path to making the best decision. Money Most people want to earn more money, but an amount of money necessary to make you feel comfortable does exist and that amount depends on your cost of living and your expectations. If you grew up with parents who earned six-figure incomes, you will have more difficulty finding happiness with a $30,000 household income than a person who grew up with parents who were poor You may think that you need to pick a career in which you will make a lot of money to have your happiest career, but you need to know that trade-offs exist for high-salaried jobs. Yes, you can make a lot of money as a partner in a big law firm, but will that job make you happy? Would earning a modest salary running your own shop make you happier? No universal answer exists for that question, but you need to think about it to create the happiest career for you. Finding Comfort in Your Own Skin If nothing makes you happier than seeing options all lined up neatly in rows, youll probably enjoy a career that involves order- like accounting or chemistry. If you live for beauty, designing is probably a better choice. If you love talking with people, a job that requires you to work from home, typing furiously away on the computer with little outside contact is not the happiest career for you. Incidentally, a lot of different jobs within career lines that can meet different requirements for happiness are available for you to pursue. If you love science and medicine and you love people, maybe a general physicians job would be the happiest career for you. If you love science and medicine but are an introvert who would rather not spend a lot of time with other humans, you still can become a doctor- but maybe one who specializes in research and doesnt have to talk with actual patients all the time. Work-Life Balance Some people love to travel. They love new sights, new sounds, new smells. They love meeting different people and the adventure of getting around a new city or a new country. This type of person would love a job that involved a lot of international travel. Another person wants to come home by 5 p.m.and cant get any rest sleeping in a hotel. Some people want flexibility. They want to take time off to volunteer in their childrens school classroom. They want to take tennis lessons during the day. Maybe they want to work from 6a.m.-3 p.m. instead of from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Theres nothing wrong with either of those preferences, but if your preference is strong, you will have more difficulty finding a career that will make you happy. Internal Happiness While you want a career that contributes to your happiness, if you expect your career to solve all of your other problems and bring you pure joy, you need to take a step back. The wrong career can make you miserable, but any tolerable job can lead to happiness if the rest of your life is in balance. A great career wont fix a rotten marriage, but a good career can make it easier to focus on your marriage. A career that is perfect for your personality still wont bring you happiness if youve got other problems that you need to solve. Get out of debt, get couns eling, and get away from toxic people. Fixing these matters will make every job happier. Networking Look around. Talk to people. When geschftsleben networking is encouraged, this is what advisors are talking about- talking to people to identify your potential happiest career and to learn what jobs are available. Yes, your network to find specific jobs and help others find work, but you also use your network to find out what is available. Career day at your high school or college just wont cut it. When you let people know what your talents and needs are and ask them if they know anybody with similar talents, youll find that doors open up. And then, you can talk to those people about what they do. - Suzanne Lucas is a freelance writer who spent 10 years in corporate human resources, where she hired, fired, managed the numbers, and double-checked with the lawyers.