Apprentice Achievements
Are Your Struggling with Career Confusion?

Are Your Struggling with Career Confusion?

It’s that time of the year again as thousands of young people are thinking about & planning their careers.

When I left school, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life.

My career advisor, after a careful analysis of my single A4 page questionnaire, announced that I was destined to be a window cleaner, which was ok because the one thing I did know was that I needed to earn money & beyond that as a 16-year-old I couldn’t grasp the thought of a 50 + year career path.

Asked in the last 6 months of compulsory education – “What do you want to do with your life Johnson”? left me cold, & a little confused.

With the benefit of hindsight, I shouldn’t have worried.

I did try my hand at window cleaning, before becoming a labourer in an engineering factory, followed by an engineering apprenticeship & an initial career in engineering manufacture, followed by a teaching career training apprentices before moving into education management…….

I’m not sure what I’ll do when (if) I grow up, but I’ve enjoyed my journey so far!

My point is there’s know need to worry & there’s know need for excessive future career planning!

What we choose to do now is just right for where we are now, & if that changes in the future, we can change too.

Our career is a journey & some of us will have this planned in detail whilst others won’t have sight of the next steps, but that’s ok.

Everything we learn in our current job will be of value in our next job even if we move to a different sector, & as we grow our needs, values & ambitions may change requiring a shift in direction.

I spent a considerable length of time in my forever job, but things changed & my ambitions shifted in response to those changes resulting in my departure from that forever job. That doesn’t mean I’d made a mistake, rather the skills & experience I gained in that role became a springboard to a new direction on my career path, which left me nervous & excited in equal measure.

We all want to experience the excitement of a new challenge, the job that pushes us to be better & sometimes we need to change direction to achieve that next level of career satisfaction & that’s ok.

Having multiple careers in our lifetime is something to look forward to, although this is different to continual job-hopping, & our career change may be with our existing company or somewhere new.

I never envisaged when cleaning that toilet block as a labourer that I would one day be polishing a chair with my ample behind, but I can say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the journey so far & wouldn’t change any of it.

If you’re busy planning your career for the first time, or considering that scary change in job, don’t worry & don’t feel the need to plan further than that next step, it may work out to be your forever job or it could be a steppingstone to something more exciting in the future.

Just enjoy the journey you’re currently on & allow things to unfold along the way.

I hope you have a great week

Cheers

Noel