The late Russian author Maxim Gorky once said, “When work is a pleasure, life is a joy. When work is a duty, life is slavery.” These are profound words, indeed, but they do not provide any insight into how to obtain pleasurable work. After all, if work were all pleasurable, would it still be called “work”? Even if work cannot be all fun, most of us would like to have career that we derive pleasure and a sense of purpose from. And yet, depending on the research you read, anywhere from 40%-60% of the American workforce is less than satisfied with their current job. Clearly, finding satisfying work is not as easy as it may seem. WHY?

1. “I don’t know what’s out there?”
   The 2010 Standard Occupational Classification system established by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has classified 840 different jobs, contained within 97 “minor” groups and 27 “major” groups. Elsewhere in their database, the same Bureau of Labor Statistics has classified 1022 different occupations. The US Department of Labor has coordinated another database, the Occupational Information Network, classifies 965 different occupations. It seems that the exact number of occupations available is yet to be firmly agreed upon, but it does seem clear that the options are many. An individual trying to select an occupation that is most likely to provide meaning, pleasure, and satisfaction, is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Based on the pure number of options, the odds seem stacked against us.
2. “This is what I have always done.”
   Many of us stumbled into our careers because of a connection or because we were able to do a job well. Or, many of us were pressured by family members or friends. Regardless of the reason, before long, we find it becoming part of our identity. Some people spend their entire lives following a career path or job to one day discover that this is not what they want to do. Or more importantly, it is not what they are passionate about. Do you want your life to turn out this way?
3. “I don’t know what would fit me?”
   Most of us have not taken the time to thoroughly and professionally examine what our personality strengths and weaknesses are – those factors that contribute to a good person-career fit. We also rarely examine what jobs correlate with our true passions. Lastly, we often do not understand our true capabilities. We lack insight into ourselves. Ultimately, we are lost.

Career counseling helps to answer these questions and eliminate career-related dissatisfaction. Career counselors help to find your unique path and work direction. A reputable counselor is trained to:

A) Help individuals sort through the massive pool of career fields in order to better increase the likelihood
of finding that ideal fit between you and your chosen career.

B) Strengthen and empower an individual to initiate and follow-through with career change – one of the most challenging life steps.

C) Provide scientifically-validated assessments, interviews, questionnaires, and open dialogue to help individuals better understand their personality traits, capabilities, and values. All of this insight allows for more seamless career transition and appropriate career-person fit.

Be clear that neither career counselors nor career coaches will advise you or tell you which career or career field you should pursue. Rather, through collaboration with a career counselor or coach, you will be able to better make that decision on your own. There are literally thousands of qualified career counselors and coaches. It seems like a healthy decision to take advantage of their presence in order to better assure long-term satisfaction in performing what typically consumes more than one third of each weekday for the typical adult.