How to choose a career that makes you happy... :)

In modern-day society, a person’s career is often of paramount importance. The right job provides financial stability, rewarding tasks, a general sense of fulfillment, and genuine enjoyment, in addition to secondary benefits such as potentially forming new relationships, gaining new training and knowledge, and providing a setting for fun events.

But for many, it can be a long, arduous journey before they discover their ideal fit for long-term employment. People want to land a gig that will make them happy, and not spend years bouncing from company to company performing work that only depresses them in the end.

So, how do you choose a career that makes you happy? It turns out that there are a few key factors to keep in mind in order to make the choice easier.

Prior Enjoyment

Far too often, someone pursues a field of study toward a career choice because they believe it “sounds cool” or “looks interesting.” The issue with this line of thinking is that, often, their perception is based on media portrayal and not on actual front-line experience. For instance, the arena of forensics has always been a necessary part of law enforcement, but the popularity of relevantly themed televisions shows such as C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation) and its spin-offs caused an explosion of interest in newly enrolling students. However, now, many of those once interested are now becoming disillusioned as they realize how sincerely difficult the duty is.

Instead, a much wiser impetus for career choice is to engage in a job market related to an activity that you already enjoy. Do you like sports? Then if you are good at writing, you could start e-mailing contacts until you earn steady work as a freelance sportswriter, or even start your own blog. Or perhaps you could earn a position with the local professional or semi-professional team, depending on your talents. That is just one example among countless; often, converting a hobby into a career is very difficult at first and requires a remarkable initial time investment, but if enjoyment is a priority for you, then it may be an option that richly pays off in the end. Otherwise, even in a general sense, it is a good idea to look for a job you know you will enjoy doing every day, rather than search for riches or “cool” factor.

Newspaper....

In a day and age where millions of people across the world receive their information by digital means through the internet, on their cell phones, and via other devices, the overall effect of newspapers is sometimes thought to be in decline, with a decrease in relevancy and saturation.

However, as newspapers reorganize and learn to be hyperlocal in order to attract consumers, in addition to diversifying online content, they still hold a stake in the arena of elements that can affect your career. Providing up-to-date information in an easy-to-read medium, quality print newspapers can certainly affect and provide benefits to your career in a few different ways.

The idea is simple: Newspapers provide news. This means that their staff of reporters, editors, and other workers are constantly searching for the latest, hottest, biggest pieces of information to provide their readers. It is in their best interest to publish pieces and articles that are highly desired by a wide audience.

This means that, for your career, a local newspaper is capable of providing a lens through which to view valuable data. What is the general public looking for in a product or service? What are the current “hot items” that people are seeking? How is the economy doing, and how will that affect buying decisions? Are some specific industries suddenly surging while others are barely holding on to slim profit margins? The daily, weekly, or special edition newspapers can offer a unique window into these and related questions, to show an overarching perspective on trends.

Competition Insights

Although corporations may utilize ulterior means of gaining intelligence on their competing companies, including such creative ideas as hacking and outright spying, a regular newspaper can still be a viable source of such information.

If you have one big competitor in the area, how are they doing? This can be gauged by whether they are purchasing a lot of ads, what sorts of sales they are holding, what public events they are becoming a part of, and what press releases hit the public eye. How about from an industry-wide view, what are the big stories? A newspaper will often have them in the appropriate section, along with a potential sneak-peek at competitors.

Networking Opportunities

The old adage is still true that who you know might be more important than what you know. Not only can a quality newspaper have ads for vendors that may be useful contacts, but for someone who is jaded, discontent, or just job-searching, the newspaper can be an invaluable lead for finding a new company who needs work; after all, just check the Help Wanted ads. A complete change in career is definitely a significant way your career can be affected, and a newspaper publication may hold the means to create that change.

For so many elements of life, you will get out of it what you put into it; in other words, “you reap what you sow.” A newspaper is no exception: With equal parts creativity, opportunism, and effort, it can be used as a great tool to affect your career.