How do I choose a profession if I don’t know what I want?

The question is answered by Elmira Davydova, the director of the career guidance center ProfGuide, a candidate of psychological sciences, a career and vocational guidance consultant.

We are often asked by adults and children, 'How to choose a profession if you don't know what you want?' and 'I don't know how to choose a profession?'. What do these people mean? Do they have many interests and find it difficult to choose between them? Or do they have no interests at all? These are two different problems. Here, we are talking about the first one. For the latter, please read 'How to choose a profession if you're not drawn to anything?'

It can be difficult to figure it out on your own, even if you have many interests. After all, you need to know what professions exist, what a person does in that profession, what object they work with, and what requirements are placed on a person for that profession. That's what you need to know when choosing a profession.

To be honest, there are probably ten suitable and enjoyable professions for each of us. But you can't go in ten directions at once: you need to choose the most enjoyable and suitable profession.

So what does the choice of profession depend on? We won't reveal anything new here. The choice of profession depends on a person's interests, abilities, values, age, financial capabilities, family plans, and place of residence. But even if you know all of this about yourself, what do you do with this knowledge? And how do you understand which profession it points to? There are two ways: try to diagnose yourself or trust me.

How to choose a profession on your own Try taking tests. There are career guidance tests and profession tests. Try both. There is a 7-step method for choosing a profession. It is not a test, but it helps to understand your desires. You can also listen to interviews with professionals, read books about professions, and even try working for a company during the holidays and pay close attention to what people do there. All of this can be very helpful, but if it doesn't work, I can help.

By the way, recently the ProfGuide career guidance center has developed a precise career orientation test, which will tell you which professions are suitable for you, provide a conclusion about your personality type and intelligence.