One day, you're interested in aerospace careers, and the next day, you think a career in law enforcement would be cool. The following day, you lean toward defense contracting, and the day after that, you swing back to your fascination with mechanics.
Eventually, you'll start the circle all over again, perhaps with four other interests. In short, you like everything so much -- or so it seems -- to the point that you're practically immobilized when it comes to choosing just one career to pursue.
You aren't alone. Career counselors often meet with service members and job seekers who are in your shoes. With all of the career possibilities you can explore, it's easy to do nothing, because you're trying to keep your options open. This may result in drifting from interest to interest without doing anything to explore each area or plot a career direction.
Getting your career bearings when you have too many interests isn't as difficult as you might think. Here's a four-step approach you can use:
Rule Out What You Clearly Don't Like.
You may think you enjoy everything, but you really don't. We all have dislikes and even things we hate. Work on identifying what you don't like and what you don't see yourself pursuing as a major or career. For now, rule out only those possibilities that are definitely not for you.
Prioritize What You Want to Explore Further.
Once you've eliminated the "don't likes" from your list of possibilities, take the majors and careers remaining and prioritize them as best you can, given what you know about each one; that may be very little in some cases. Which three or four areas are you most interested in exploring further, and which can go on the back burner?
Start Exploring.
This is a critical step, because in order to explore majors and careers, you have to start somewhere. I know that sounds simplistic, but you may have to remind yourself of this concept. By prioritizing what you should explore and then starting your exploration, you move closer to figuring out your career direction one small step at a time.
Consider, for example, working with a career counselor to get a better sense of your skills, personality, values, likes and dislikes. In addition, find out whether those traits match up well with the jobs you're researching.
You can learn about the major or career through reading, talking to people who are in that course of study or field, or, if possible, participating in an experiential activity -- an internship or a co-op -- to get a hands-on sense of what the major or career is all about.
Use What You've Learned to Reprioritize and Eliminate.
Once you have a better picture of yourself and the majors and careers you've explored, you'll more than likely change your list of initial priorities. Perhaps you'll even drop some options from consideration. It's unlikely that you'll narrow your options to just one major or career at this point, but that's normal and for the best in many ways.
The idea behind this process is not necessarily to eliminate all but one career, but rather to reduce your initial list to one you can more easily manage.
As you might guess, this process is neither quick nor easy -- at least not if you do it right. But if you're willing to invest time and energy, you'll slowly replace your debilitating confusion with action-oriented exploration that gets you moving toward an informed decision about your future career.
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