5 Resources for Getting Out of "The Stalemate"

So...you're in the stalemate and you want to get out. Here are some (potentially) helpful ideas:

1. Take a career personality test.
    This is certainly not a magic genie or anything like that, but it can show you your strengths/skills in order to point you in the right direction. Here’s one site that I’ve used, but you can just Google “career personality test” and go from there: http://www.careertest.net/

2. Ask your close friends and family
    This is kind of like a career personality test of your own. Asking your friends and family what they think your skills are or what might be a good career for you is a solid place to start. Now, I don’t advise building your whole life around your grandfather’s dreams for you…but it could give you a little insight into yourself.

3. Check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook
    My brothers Joey and Daniel know what I’m talking about. Every time we’re talking about anything career-related, my dad pulls out the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Seriously. Well, apparently it’s online now and you can check out every single type of job that’s out there as well as that job’s “outlook” — growth potential, salary, the degree(s) you might need, etc.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/

4. Check out the degrees offered at your local college/university
    Tyler and I did this when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to study for graduate school. We went onto the degree offerings at UF, USF, UT and a few other schools and just went down the list, writing down anything that jumped out at us. Then, we would look into what that degree offered, job potentials, etc.

5. Get a job
    This sounds kind of lame, but I’m serious. I’m a big believer in moving forward in order to find your place. It’s kind of like the Maps app on the iPhone — it can’t tell what direction you’re going in unless you’re moving forward. So even if you work at a job that you hate…at least you can cross one thing off of your list! And you might just pick up one or two handy skills along the way. When I graduated from undergrad at UF, I started working at a company that sold vitamins. I did event marketing for them and I HATED it. But I also learned a lot about marketing, PR, social media and events. These are helpful skills for any job that I have in the future. No experience is a wasted experience, as long as you’re learning about yourself and developing along the way.