Kris Parlett, Procter & Gamble Pet Care External Relations team member, poses with actress Betty White during a media junket to support the Morris Animal Foundation.
Personal traits such as patience, reliability, risk taking, resourcefulness, and innovation can also affect your choice of careers. Sometimes these are learned through life experiences, but often they are innate. For instance, patience often develops naturally with experience, but it can be difficult for a timid or withdrawn person to become a gregarious risk taker. It can happen, but it requires a lot of desire, willpower, and practice. People willing to make that effort can be successful at risk taking, but they often need a lot of down time to recharge their energy. To discover your skills and traits, answer the questions in the box “Questions to Ask” (opposite).
Matching Skills and Traits with Careers
Studying the answers to the questions in “Questions to Ask” and making a list of your traits and skills, as well as your preferences in work environment and pet activities, can help you clarify your interests. You will start to see a pattern emerge, indicating whether you prefer to work with people or with information, whether you’d like a demanding career with lots of travel or a quiet one in which you work alone or with only one or two other people, and whether a high salary or job satisfaction is more important to your happiness and well-being.
Recognizing and accepting these factors is essential to choosing the right career. For instance, if you have a scientific mind and like the idea of becoming a veterinarian, but the thought of talking to dozens of dog owners every day makes you shudder, you might instead consider a career in veterinary research, studying the causes of canine diseases or contributing to the development of a new vaccine or drug. Or suppose you enjoy meeting people and traveling and you have a persuasive personality, but hitting the books for seven or more years isn’t your idea of a good time. Rather than becoming a veterinarian, you may want to consider a career in sales, marketing, or public relations for a pet-food manufacturer, pharmaceutical firm, or pet-product company in a position that would allow you to attend dog shows, veterinary conferences, and other animal-related events.
Are you on the planning committee for your high-school prom or your city’s annual Fourth of July parade? You probably have good organizational and communication skills, which can lead you to careers as disparate as event manager for a pet-food company or director of an animal-welfare foundation.
These are just a few examples of how you can evaluate your skills and personality to plan your future. You’ll also want to consider various facets of job satisfaction. Study the following list of factors and number them in order of importance from 1 to 12, with 1 being the most important. The answers will help you refine your choices.
Contributing to society
Financial rewards
Helping others
Intellectual challenge
Interacting with the public
Job security
Potential for advancement
Professional status
Recognition
Supervising or managing others
Working as part of a team
Working independently
Exploring More Sources
Once you have an idea of the type of career you want to pursue, you need to gather as much information about it as you can. In addition to reading the chapters on specific careers in this book, you should look for information in various other books and periodicals and on Web sites. Then arrange to talk with a professional in the field.
Books, Periodicals, and Web Sites
Books that can help you explore and define yourself include the latest editions of Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type, by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger (Little Brown) and What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changers, by Richard Bolles (Ten Speed Press). Do What You Are, whose authors have decades of experience training career counselors, outplacement consultants, and human-resource specialists, is a guide to personality type and can help you determine how you process information, make decisions, and interact with people. It links personality types with occupations and uses case studies to help readers tailor their job searches to their strengths or get the most out of a chosen career.
Libraries such as this one are great sources for information on occupations, on technical schools and colleges, on careers opportunities, and on other aspects of job hunting.
Financial Considerations
You may or may not make a lot of money in your chosen career. Sometimes, working in a field you love requires financial sacrifices. This is not always the case, but it’s definitely something you should be prepared for. Lots of people have an interest in working with animals, which means that employers often have their pick of the best people and can set their own terms. You have to consider whether working with animals or in a pet-related field balances out the possibility that you won’t be rolling in dog biscuits. That’s especially important if you’re thinking about making a career change.
Answering the following questions will help you decide if a career is right for you financially and whether it is feasible for you to make a career change:
What income level can I reasonably expect from this career?
What benefits (health insurance, paid vacation, sick leave, retirement plan) can I expect from this career?
If benefits are not included, can I afford to pay for them myself or do I have another source of coverage?
Would I rather work directly with dogs or would I be satisfied with a higher- paying position in a pet-related industry?
How much money do I need for personal expenses (housing, food, medical costs, utilities, transportation, child or pet care)?
If I am starting a business, how much will I need for start-up costs?
Is my credit good enough to get a loan for educational or start-up expenses?
Am I organized and disciplined enough to pay quarterly estimated taxes and keep track of my expenses? If not, can I afford to pay a bookkeeper to do those things for me?
MIND YOUR MANNERS
Remember what you learned in kindergarten: Always say please and thank you. If someone spends a great deal of time with you for an informational interview or gives you a great lead or piece of advice, write a thank-you note. Not only is it the polite thing to do, but it’s also a way for you to stand out.
Once you have a handle on your personality type, What Color Is Your Parachute? described by Fortune magazine as “the gold standard of career guides,” offers practical job-hunting advice not only for people new to the workforce but also for career changers, victims of layoffs,