Did you know what you wanted to do when you were 18 years old?  I sure didn’t.  I thought that I might want to be a gym teacher because I loved sports.  When I got to college and started taking the PE types of courses I changed my mind.  No, I didn’t fit in, it wasn’t for me.  I met with my career counselor and she was no help at all.  I went to school in the south and in the seventies.  My southern belle career counselor pointed me towards finding a husband (she really did) and if that didn’t work, I should try elementary education.  That’s where I landed.

Hard as it is to believe now, the early seventies didn’t offer too many career choices for young women.  My choices were teaching, nursing or an administrative assistant.  These are all fine professions; my dad was a teacher, my mom was a secretary and I read Nurse Nancy and Sue Barton Senior Nurse over and over again.  My problem was the sight of blood made me nauseous.   

I taught school for one year before I decided that I wanted to do something else, but what?  I still didn’t have any answers or resources. To make a long story short, I asked myself what I liked, disliked, was good at, and where I did poorly.  Based upon that crude assessment I took the road into adult learning and the rest is history.

Today a woman asked me if I could provide her with some career assessment resources for her 21 year old daughter.  The daughter has no idea what she wants to do with her life and is taking courses at the local community college until she figures out some sort of direction. I pointed her to my website.  There is a list of various tools and assessments that measure values, interests, personality and skill sets.  Best of all, they are all free.  These tools are a start and if answered honestly, can give you an idea of the direction you may want to follow.  They are good for the 18 year old and the 78 year old. If you’re stuck and are not quite sure what you want to do with your life, have a look at them. Let me know how you do.