What Is the Right Career for You?
Are you happy with your job? Is your career all you want it to be? Do you need a change?
What, or who, is my target audience?
When I established Afterburner Success Partners, developed the course, wrote the book, and started these blog posts, the common question that kept coming up was “What (or who) is your target audience?” Any entity (business, nonprofit, etc.) must ask and then correctly answer this question to be successful. That said, if I have to answer the question, my target audience is a young adult just getting started, perhaps a late teen or an early twenty-something. That would be ideal.
But life is not always ideal. In identifying my target audience, while I would like to say I have one, a specific target audience that is interested in consuming what I’m offering, the answer is that it’s just not that simple. Because of that, I break the rules and really have two target audiences:
The first, the ideal target audience, is the late teen or twenty-something. This group typically does not think far enough ahead or in enough detail to want to lay their whole life out on a piece of paper. The aggressive ones are thinking about getting a good job and perhaps securing a spouse. The not-so-aggressive or less fortunate ones are hustling to put the next meal on the table. Then there is a smaller group with little ambition, just looking for someone to take care of them. The common thread to this demographic is that, in many cases, they are not looking far enough ahead to develop a life plan. They probably don’t think about it or decide they don’t want or need one. There may be a few that do, but that would be a very few. 3% or less, and you know where I get that number…
The second is a group of people who, mostly, are a bit older, realize that unless they change their trajectory, they are not on a path to get all they want out of life. They know they need to change and want some help developing a plan. To tell the truth, this is the most common group for me to work with. It’s why, at Afterburner Success Partners, we say, “We take you where you are!”
That said, the following discussion on careers may or may not apply to you directly, but I believe that if you are open-minded to read and understand what I’m saying, you may learn at least a little something that makes it worth your time. Let’s get into the meat of today’s post.
What is the right career for you?
Let’s assume for a minute that you are in the first group I described above. Depending on your family situation, upbringing, and your or your family's finances, you may have a wide range of options available to you. Let’s assume for a minute you do. Or maybe you don’t. Stay with me for a moment.
If you are in the second group, you likely are working, or maybe out of work, more mature, maybe have a family, and bills. Your finances may not be what you want them to be. Regardless, you know you need to do something different to get what you want out of life.
In both cases, whether you know it or can even define it, you have dreams of things you want to do. You want to live your best life. But you don’t know what to do or how to do it. This is precisely why I developed Afterburner Success Partners. So that if you are in either group, I can help you decide what you want to do and what actions you need to take to get there. The most crucial point is that you have the drive to get ahead. As you’ve probably concluded by now, there is a subset of the population that does not fall in either of these groups. Those folks are not part of my target audience. Only the ones that want to get ahead, be they young and starting out or older, wishing to change. If I own a hotdog stand on the beach, I do not expect that I’m going to sell a hot dog to someone on the ski slope. I bet you know what I’m talking about.
Because, as we have dissected the Afterburner Success Partners course week by week for 70 weeks, we have already defined what we want our finances to look like to support our dreams, we now need to think about what our career needs to look like so we can earn the income to support those goals. While I often say that if you can dream it, you can do it, I also say you sometimes have to temper your expectations, depending on your situation. I’m going to leave that part up to you. What I want to do is discuss career options for just a minute.
If you are in either of my two target audiences, you recognize that you need additional skills or experience to achieve your goals. How do you obtain that experience? Typically it is in one of several ways:
Go to a technical school
Attend college
Obtain a professional certification, such as nursing, IT, mechanics, etc.
Get into an apprentice program
Just work exceptionally hard at the job you have and look for opportunities to advance
Attend seminars
Military
Other ways?
No matter the path you choose, there are things to consider:
What are the pros and cons of each type of work?
What is the best way to develop skills?
The career I want versus the pay I want?!? Put another way, does my passion pay what I need it to so I can support my financial goals?
Pros and cons of potentially being a dual-income family?
The difficulty and cost of getting from here to there
Where do I start?
Whether you are young and starting out or older and seeking a change, if you were to ask for my advice, it would be the same for either of you. Because you know me already, you know I’m not a fan of plowing new ground and hoping that it works; I’m a fan of finding what has worked for other people and then adapting that to suit my needs. Here is what I would do:
Consult someone you know and trust and seek advice, such as a mentor or parent. Note: I believe like a person I respect and follow, Jim Stovall (Note 1): Never take advice from someone who does not have what you want.
Take the Afterburner Success Partners course or read the book (Note 2)
Read all you can on the subject. A couple of recommendations are in Notes 3, 4, and 5.
That’s all for this week!
What is the Right Career for You?
Afterburner Success Partners
http://absuccesspartners.com/
What’s in it for me?
If you want to get ahead in life, you must take meaningful action that follows a proven path. Yes, some people make it in entirely new ways, outside the standard methods. I happen to believe these people are rare and what seems like something different is really just doing something different in a proven manner. Think about that for a minute and see if you agree.
Call to Action
Just. Do. Something. Make a decision on what you want to do, define the path and get after it. Do it today.
Recommended Resources
See notes below.
Up Next
Professional success considerations.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Follow Jim Stovall: https://www.jimstovall.com
See the services section at the Afterburner Success Partners home page
What Color Is Your Parachute, by Richard Bolles: https://amzn.to/4d6g25M
Victory! by Brian Tracy: https://amzn.to/3YV1nUY
Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, by Harvey MacKay: https://amzn.to/42IiQT3