In a world of increasing demand, and increasing competition, but a limited supply of jobs, knowing where you are best to spend your time to earn the most money is crucial to success. Gone are the days when you could just take any old job – many of those jobs are gone – now you not only need to fight for what jobs are left but you need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. That isn’t easy when you don’t know what career you want to follow or are best at.
Analysing Businesses
To start with, this is a sponsored article, and we’re telling you this because it feeds into the importance of what we’re going to say. Our sponsor, wants us to direct you towards considering a career in business analytics, and there is no way around it, that is a good move for everyone. A career in business analytics isn’t just about doing business analysis, it requires you to learn more about yourself, what you’re good at, and – fundamentally – what businesses are a good fit for you. After all, if you learn how to analyse businesses, then you’ll be able to analyse which businesses are the best fit for you personally. So go on, have a look at our sponsored link, and then come back here for the rest.
Getting a Test
The first thing you could try is an online test of some kind. These are usually free and don’t take up a lot of time and often focus on “the big five” personality traits – like this one here. We tried it ourselves and got scores of 38 for Extraversion, 52 for Agreeableness, 52 for Conscientiousness, 31 for Negative Emotionality, and 65 for Open-Mindedness. It’s helpful, but what does that tell me? Well, the test does offer some insight – for me to know – but the best ones are the ones you’ll have to pay for.
There are two types of tests you can pay for, the first is just an online test like the one we just linked above but usually delves into a little more detail and provides you with a more informed response. The second type gets you a paid consultant, someone who’ll interact with you personally and explore opportunities for you based directly on you. Some of these consultants are people with high workplace experience – that is to say, they’ve worked in many industries at many different levels – while others are people who have studied businesses and best business practices and approach the question through the lens of analytics.
Now of course, many of these consultants are industry specialists – meaning they will either have a bias for particular industries or may be very knowledgeable about certain industries – but these aren’t typical job-seeking consultants or recruitment consultants. These are people who have specifically studied how to find people that are best suited for particular jobs – or how to find jobs that are best suited for particular people. Very importantly, if you find a consultant isn’t right for you they’ll often be able to provide a range of professionals with differing specialities, meaning if you pay for a large enough company with a good reputation, you should be almost guaranteed to find what you’re looking for no matter how specialised or niche.
What if you’d rather not pay money?
Well, in that case, your best option is to talk to your friends. No really. Every one of your friends will have different experiences both with you and with the industry at large, and many of them will have ideas you never would have thought of. Some of them may know of jobs that are hiring – and think you’ll be a perfect fit – others may simply be aware of career opportunities that you yourself might never have considered. Ever thought about a career in forestry management? What about a career in big data, public policy writing or cyber security? There are a lot of jobs out there that you may not realise are right for you, but the only way to learn about them is to study, ask your friends, or pay for them. I know which I’d choose (it’s the study, I’m a consummate learner), but only you know you best, and only you know which option is right for you.
