If it isn’t for life, a career is certainly a decision that remains with you for a very long time indeed. Fresh out of school, or university, the path you choose is one you will most likely follow for anything up to half a century. So it pays to get it right.

The first thing that really does need to be taken into consideration is whether the career path you choose has a future. Or, to be more discriminating, whether your vocation of choice is one that is likely to be insulated from the rapid technological change which the world is undergoing. Most of us will know somebody who’s life’s work vanished before their eyes when their trade or field of expertise became obsolete. Print finishers, typewriter manufacturers, people who installed tobacco machines in bars – all of these were only one invention or one piece of state legislation away from superfluity.

Enjoying Your Work

So high up on the list of criteria when embarking upon a career has to be whether there is a demand for your services now but, more importantly, whether there is likely to be one in the future.

Subject to this proviso, the next best piece of advice has to be to look for something that you actually enjoy doing. The best years of a person’s life are spent at work and there can be nothing more soul-destroying that spending a lifetime dreading the thought of getting up for work literally morning after morning. And this applies whether you are running your own business, or working for somebody else.

Yes, it is possible to change tack midstream, and technically it is never too late to try something new. But sadly the deal is that you start at the bottom again, right where you were when you left school, although you’ll have more bills to pay and probably less enthusiasm. It’s always best to get it right first time.