How to choose a career direction?

When our career development reaches a certain bottleneck, we will face the problem of choosing a direction. When faced with the choice of career direction, what should we do? In response to this problem, the author provides a solution, hoping to help you.

I am often asked career development questions such as:

• Should I change jobs now?
• I want to change my career, but I'm afraid it won't be successful.
• Should I join a startup?

I am optimistic about the development of AI and want to work for an AI company. Is this possible? In fact, everyone will encounter this kind of question more or less . Especially in the first few years of working in the workplace, people are generally confused. When your career development reaches a certain bottleneck, you will also face the problem of choosing a direction.

I have a solution to this problem that I would like to share with you.

1. Capabilities and risks

Want to know which development path you should take in the future?

You can decide based on your professional ability level and risk tolerance .

If we divide both ability level and risk tolerance into high and low, we can combine the two into a four-quadrant matrix, with four different options in different quadrants.

2. Steady and steady progress

The first situation is when both ability and risk tolerance are very weak . This stage is a bit like a fresh graduate with insufficient work experience and little savings.

In this case, the better choice is to choose a conservative direction first and proceed step by step . Only by solving the problem of personal food and clothing first can we seek a breakthrough.

A few days ago, I heard a point of view that was very similar to this situation.

At that time, people were discussing which was more important, Tao or Shu.

There is a saying in the Tao Te Ching: "If one has the Way but no technique, one can still seek it. If one has technique but no Way, one will only be able to achieve the technique."

Applying this sentence to the workplace means that if you can know the rules of being a person and doing things, then the method of doing things can be learned slowly. But if you only know the method of doing things and don’t know the rules of being a person and doing things, then you can only complete the work at hand and cannot develop further.

Some people say: "If you have skills but no moral principles, you can still accumulate experience. If you have moral principles but no skills, you will starve to death immediately."

This means that if you only know the rules but don't know how to do things, no company will hire you and you will be out of work quickly. But if you have basic skills, you can at least find a job, gradually accumulate experience and understand higher wisdom.

This statement is very appropriate. For people with weaker abilities, taking it step by step is a better option.

3. Choose a track

The second situation is that although your ability is not very strong, you have a higher risk tolerance. Maybe you have some savings or your family provides you with some support. In short, you can bear more risks than the first type of people. In this case, you can try some directions that are risky but also bring rewards , such as choosing a job that is in its rising period.

For example, artificial intelligence is very popular recently, and this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. There is a high probability that there will be a shortage of artificial intelligence talents in the future, and this career direction is on the rise . If you can invest in it early, you may have a good start in the future and become an early practitioner in this field.

However, this choice also has risks . The current commercialization path of artificial intelligence is not clear enough, and the future skill requirements for artificial intelligence talents are not particularly clear, so choosing this path may result in a lot of useless work. If you don’t have a certain risk tolerance, choosing this path is very dangerous. If it fails, the situation will be embarrassing.

Of course, in addition to risk tolerance, your risk preference also needs to be considered. If you are a person who seeks stability, then even if you have the risk tolerance, it is recommended that you proceed with a steady approach.

4. Upgrade Track

The third situation is that the ability is very strong, but the risk tolerance is relatively weak .

For example, you may have become the backbone of a company, but due to poor financial planning, you have taken on too heavy a mortgage and have insufficient savings.

In this case, it is recommended to stay on the original track, but increase the difficulty of the track.

Staying on the original track means staying in the industry you are familiar with as much as possible , and not going to an industry you are not familiar with. Upgrading the difficulty of the track means doing more challenging work in the original track, so as to achieve career advancement.

In other words, you can change jobs, but you should jump to an industry that you are more familiar with. Or you can stay in the original company and work hard to achieve career advancement, do more difficult work than before, and improve your ability and status.

5. Choose an industry

The fourth situation is that the ability is very strong and the ability to resist risks is also strong.

In this case, you can try to actively choose new and promising industries.

This direction seems a bit like choosing a track, but people with low ability choose a track to choose a job direction , and they generally do not have the ability to actively choose an industry. For example, a fresh graduate chooses to do data analysis, but whether to go to an e-commerce company or an o2o company is not something he can decide. Basically, it depends on which company accepts him in the end, and at most he can choose the direction he is interested in.

For people with high abilities, they can take the initiative to choose the industry direction . Many general abilities can actually be reused, such as professional quality, communication skills, promotion ability, etc. Therefore, people with high abilities and the ability to withstand the wind direction can take the initiative to go to the industry they think is good and start a new career. Let their professional abilities match the dividends of the industry and gain greater life opportunities.

Take myself as an example. Two years ago, I took the initiative to switch from an Internet financial company to a medical company. It was because I was still relatively capable at that time, and I saw the future development of the medical and health field, so I took the initiative to join the medical and health industry.

Switching to another industry, although a lot of things can be reused, after all, a lot of experience accumulated in the original industry is useless. In addition, due to the lack of understanding of the new industry, this choice still has certain risks, and you must have the ability to withstand risks.

summary

If you are not sure about your current status, how should you take the next step?

I hope that today's thinking tool can help you clarify your position and the direction you should take in the future.

Author: Sanyuanfangcha, WeChat public account: Sanyuanfangcha