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Brainstorm Careers

What it is: This phase is about taking your Ideal Job Description and coming up with as many possible career/job matches as possible. You do not evaluate the idea in this phase, just come up with the idea.

 

Go for quantity not quality. Because this is about brainstorming, go for high numbers of potential careers. The list will be narrowed down later.

 

They are not 100% matches. Some ideas might match 80% of your criteria, some might only match 40%. That’s ok.

 

There are no restrictions. When you are in the brainstorming phase, acknowledge your secret dreams. Aspirational examples might be:

  • Professional athlete

  • YouTuber

  • Mermaid

 

Write them all down! Not because we think you’ll actually become a mermaid, but because it’s good to understand what draws you to these other careers and how you might bring those aspects into your life.

  • Do you want to live near the ocean?

  • Do you want to be able to swim 3 times a week?

  • Do you want to have a side hobby of doing hair and makeup?

 

Don’t know enough careers to properly brainstorm?

 

Different ways to brainstorm

 

List of Jobs (Pantherville)

Explore our map to read through a list of companies and jobs compiled by your Eastside career coaches! Which seem most interesting to you and why?

 

Use Online tools

  • My Next Move- Answer a series of questions and this tool will suggest many different careers that might be a good fit for you.

  • O*Net- This is a great resource to just search careers, regardless of whether you took their assessment.

 

LinkedIn

Search keywords that are interesting to you (from your Ideal Job Description). Look at:

  • People’s profiles to see what job they have and jobs they’ve had in the past.

  • Job postings to identify job titles that might be interesting to you.

 

Talking to people

  1. Boil down the most important aspects (from the skills and interests section) of your Ideal Job Description into a few bullets.

  2. Ask a wide variety of people— after they listen to what you are interested in— if they know of any jobs or careers that meet any of those criteria. That, in combination with what they already know about you (e.g. values, personality traits, etc.), can be insightful

    • Examples:

      • I love being creative in photography, video, and editing. I also love building relationships with people and communicating. Do you know of any career paths or jobs that require those skills?

      • I love analyzing data, looking for trends, and using numbers to make things more efficient. I’m interested in the tech and automotive industries, but not restricted to only those two. Do you know any career paths or jobs where I could do that?

      • I enjoy listening to people’s problems, giving advice and building relationships. I’m very passionate about giving back to my community and would love to help women and children who are low-income, immigrants, and possibly survivors of domestic abuse. Do you know of any career paths or jobs that use those skills and/or help that population?

  3. If they offer suggestions:

    • Write the names of the careers down.

    • Ask if they know anyone in those careers and if you could talk to them.

 

After you find careers that are interesting to you, write them down and share them with your Eastside Career Coach.

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