Motivation for career prospects

School, university, job. This is the flow that numerous people are following in order to build a career. The real question is though, are all people made to become careerists? And what about people who cannot afford education or people who are less fortunate and haven’t even finished school?

I started wondering about what would really motivate someone to seek a career path. Plenty of people make their choice based on economic criteria, others do it for the prestige, but there are also people who are forced by their family to follow a certain career path whether they like it or not.

In my opinion the main question would be, what would really make you happy? What would make you feel creative, passionate, thrilled, flabbergasted? What would make you wake up in the morning and say “Yeah! I’m going to work!”? And what would make you feel that you achieved something? All these questions for me would be a real motivation to choose a path.

Socialise

Nowadays there are several ways to meet new people. Start your research on a local level, check if there are any meetups, seminars or conferences that you can attend. This is a good way not only to meet people that study or work on the same industry as you do, but it’s very possible to meet people from other industries related to yours that can discuss things from a different perspective.

Google is your friend

It may sound silly, but if you google “how to become a web developer” for example you’ll get some really interesting results. There are platforms where you can attend online courses and even get a certification if you want. Some of them are Udemy, Coursera, Codeacademy. If you live at an EU country, I would also suggest to check if there’s an EU institute related to your industry as there are training programs in collaboration with very well-known enterprises designed to boost careers.

Self-discipline and devotion

When you decide to follow a certain career path you should do it on a responsible way and do your best to achieve your goals. It may be hard, it may take long, you may face difficulties but that will be the time to say that this is your moment and you’ll either do it now or never. You need to find your inner strength, believe in yourself and do the best you can.

Gain work experience

Now that’s a tricky one. You may need to start low, work a lot of hours, and not get paid enough. If this is going to help you get promoted or gain work experience in order to search for a better job, I would strongly suggest to do it. Do it step by step, don’t rush it. It’s better to make steady and slow steps rather than go fast, get disappointed and get your spirit crushed. It’s very important to keep your spirit up and keep in mind that things will become better eventually. You may also need to spend personal time on studying or practising. Knowledge is power so consider that this is not time lost but very well invested.

Do not be afraid of being rejected

So, you prepare your CV, a nice cover letter and any other document you may need to provide with your application. Then you feel confident that you’ll apply to any position that is interesting enough for you and believe that some of them will be impressed by your qualifications and respond back to schedule an interview. But instead of that, you receive answers like “Unfortunately you’re not experienced enough for this position, but we strongly urge you to apply again next year”, “We regret to inform you that we can’t invite you to the next step of recruitment right now”, “Other candidates’ qualifications match more closely to the position requirements”. DO NOT GIVE UP. There will be someone who will appreciate your qualifications and hire you at some point.

Many people out there fail not because they don’t have the ability, but because they don’t have the heart to go through adversity. You may go through some failures, but we all fail, because we’re all work in progress. Don’t allow yourself to hide yourself in fear. Don’t allow yourself to feel less important than others. Because that’s not the case, we all matter.