Finding Your Career Path

I’m a firm believer that you don’t just need to have one career. I graduated from college thinking that I wanted to be Editor in Chief of a teen magazine. Three years after I worked in the magazine world I decided to give marketing a go. Then I decided that I wanted to go back to school and now, at the age of 28, I am an entrepreneur.

There was a time when I thought I was floundering, but now I truly believe that I was following my heart and finding my strengths.

So how do you figure out what you want to do? I recently interviewed a 30-year old HR manager and owner of her own networking business and here are some tips she gave:

Listen. Your friends are your best critics, so if they tell you how brilliant you are at throwing parties, giving speeches or whatever, listen to them. They might be onto something.

Journal. Journal. Journal. I could not stress this enough. This is for your eyes only, so don’t worry about grammar or what you put down. Some things to think about: what was fun that happened that day? What do you look forward to? What was the worst part of your day?

What makes you glow? A lot of people believe they have to have a 9-5 job, but there are a lot of successful women out there who set their own hours. Ahem, most entrepreneurs. Is that what you want? Or do you crave the structure of a 9-5? Think about the times when you’re the happiest.

What do you think about switching careers?

What is your advice for women who feel like they’re floundering?

Rachel Martin

Rachel Martin is a magazine editor turned entrepreneur and owner of Gen-Yise. After moving to New York a few months after graduating it took several months of networking and interviews to finally land a dream job and not once did she have to sell her soul! At 28 she’s been through the networking, heartaches, fights with the landlords, tax mishaps, etc and is now creating a social networking site to help women navigate their twenties. Let’s face it there is no Real World 101 seminar in college. Gen-Yise is women helping women through their “What I wish I had known” video blogs. Join the women of Gen-Yise on Facebook: http://tiny.cc/amrnm

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