Why Do Most People Regret Their Career Choices?

Hi folks,  today I'm going to deliberate the issue most of us stumple on quite frequently along our career:   We're not satisfied with it!   We get up at the morning, brush our teeth,  drink coffee and maybe have a quick breakfast, and then - we move reluctantly  towards our car or bus for another day of not-so-bad-not-so-good  work.

So how many people are actually satisfied with their career?  In other words: out of 100 workers, how many would tell you they wouldn't change their profession or job?  Recent article have shown an astonishing figure: only 10% of the people in western societies are fully satisfied with their career.  The vast majority would change either  their profession or workng place.


Now, wait a minute: if  almost everyone is unsatisfied with their careers, we must ask ourselves what's going wrong with people's career choice?  How come almost every young man or woman take a choice which after a few years would become a source of exasperation for them?

I'll tell what I think and you will challange me if you don't agree:

1.   Peer & family pressure  - I'm sure most of you have noticed that young people tend to pick up careers common in their  surroundings, whether  their families or communties.  Very often one can stumple on an attourney whose father or uncle is also an attourney.  We all have met families of police officers where the grandfather, the father and the son  all wear blue uniforms from their early 20s.
 Well, this is a terrific source of troubles, as people who go into an unsuitable careers for them tend to have major difficulties in running those careers.   Suitability to one's career is not less important than the suitability to one's spouse.

2.  Choosing a career too early - it's hard to believe that a 20 years old man or woman can effectively choose a career at an age which in this generation is still highly immature.  Look at that this way:  a person in western societies spends 40-50 hours a week at work, usually much more than with the spouse.
Would you recommend a 18-21 years old person to get married?  most of you wouldn't.  So why do you think it's recommended to choose a career at such an age?

3. Overlooking the job & wage prospects  of a career - it's true that the job market sees changes in demand for different occupations, but along decades more or less the same professionals enjoy high demand and high wages.  It's widely believed that High-Tech (software & electronics) professionals and medical (doctors, nurses etc.) professionals enjoy prosperous job market along decades, while humanities graduates enjoy a medium job market.  This figure most probably is not going to change from now to about year 2040.
Many young people overlook the consequences of their  career choices in this matter.

4. Unawareness of one's true personality -  Let me tell you about my old friend Jenny.  When she was 20 years old, she began studying Library studies and worked as a library clerk in a college library.  Throughout her studies, she began feeling an uneasy sensation of shame: most of her  friends went to Engineering school as she was preparing herself for a career as a clerk.
Jenny was unaware of her level of ambition and caused herself a waste of time studying for a career which basically couldn't be fulfilling for her mentally.

5.  Thinking only about the money -  as Madonna's song says: "We live in a material world".  Today's young people tend to choose their career solely by the average annual revenue it might give them.  As choosing a career solely by interest while overlooking its job & wage prospects is ridiculous in my view, making decisions solely based on the material aspect is very problematic.   Why?  because a person engaging in an unsuitable career may retire after a couple of years from the career because of early burnout and opt for another career. 6. Not going through a professional diagnosis procedure - A professional career consultant has the full capacity of making a career choice from an irritating task to a straight forward one. Simple psychological test like the 4-type test or Holland test can give you a narrow range of recommended careers and moreover, a list of unrecommended careers. So guess how many people out of 100 go through career diagnosis? You've guessed it right: less than 20%. Summary - I've said enough. Now it's you - tell me what do you think, either by email (at the title of the blog) or by a comment. Cheers!