How do you decide what career to pursue?

Question

I'm 27 years old and a college graduate with a B.A. in Art History.
I've been working in the art world for 4 years now, but I don't know if it's something I want to keep doing. I feel like I should go back to school to get a Master's degree, but I don't know what field I'd like to pursue.
I've thought of pursuing a further degree in art, and changing careers altogether to study psychology or business.
As you can see, I'm really confused about my calling in life.
How can I decide what field is right for me? I really need some guidance with this. Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi,

It really helps to go to the students' resource office and/or ask about a test they have to see how good you are in any specific area. Then this same test will tell you (after around 100 questions) how much you like such scpecific career and how much experience U have in it. Oh well, at the end it tells you what you already know, but you are more confident in deciding what to choose for your life. I will recomend you to choose the career where you have more fun and enjoy the most. Wherever you feel time pass really fast and you get to be creative and feel that you make improvement for the company, enterprice or whatever...

Good Luck!

@ngie

Answer 2

I'd take the interest inventory rather than the aptitude test. The aptitude test is pretty useless once you've been to college +/or have been working because it always tells you that you're really good at what you studied or have been doing for a living. The interest test will give you some insight into the type of work you really want to do. Most colleges and universities offer these tests, often through their career center. You don't have to be an student or alumnus to use the career center. The cost isn't very high, and they'll actually spend some time with you (individually or in a group) talking to you about your results and helping you think of some directions you could go from here. I did this a few years ago and found it really helpful - much more than all those books with tests in them.

The first things that come to mind, as far as specific careers, are museum studies or historic preservation. That is, if you really want to continue with something art related. Neither of those fields would lead to a lot of income, but they both offer a lot of options. If you're more interested in a job where every day is different, rather than a lot of money, its something to think about. If you want to check out the job situation, try www.aam-us.org, www.museumjobs.com, www.preservenet.cornell.edu, and www.ncph.org. It always seems to me that I see more jobs in art museums than anything else, but that might just be because I'm looking for history jobs :)

Good luck with the journey!

Answer 3

The first item to figure out is what is your innermost desire. What kind of work would you like to do? Many people start in a certain field and end up in a field that they would never even have considered, if they hadn't entered the workforce. Start by doing jobs that you think you might enjoy. Usually reality is far different from what you study in college. You might be surprised that a job that never even held your attention might be the one you like. That is why lots of people change careers in the course fo life.