Did you know that most people make career choices in a way that is quite random?

Instead of investing some time researching career options and developing the self knowledge that will help people to make a career choice that is a good fit, most people simply accept the first job that comes along when they finish school, or they choose the first random career that a friend or teacher mentions in passing.

Considering the amount of time you spend at work, and the multitude of ways your job impacts all other aspects of your life, it’s amazing that so many people leave this extremely important decision up to chance.

Consider this:

• If you work full time, 40 hours per week, and you take a couple of weeks off for vacation, you’ll spend about 2000 hours a year at your job.
• Over the course of a 30 year career, you’ll end up spending about 60,000 hours doing your job.
• Assuming you sleep about 8 hours a night, a 40 hour work week will consume 36% of your waking hours.

On top of that, your career choices impact the resources and choices you have available to you outside of working hours.

The career you choose impacts:

• Your income (which has an enormous effect on the way you life your life)
• Your day to day schedule and when you’ll have time to pursue interests outside of work
• Where you live
• Who you spend time with each day
• How you spend your time each day
• You feelings of self worth

Do you really want to leave all of that up to chance?

It does take a time commitment to research career options and develop the kind of self knowledge that allows you to make smart career choices. However, considering the huge impact your career choices have on so many aspects of your life, it’s well worth a little time spent to take full control of your career and your future.

To learn how to make smart career decisions, see the page Career Choices on the main Career Choice Guide site.