Anish Balabhadra: How to Find Your Career Fit: Exploring New Fields and Assessing Personality Alignment

As a freshman undeclared business major, when I entered Santa Clara, I wished I had a guide to understanding different industries and evaluating personal compatibility with these potential careers. While finding the right career path can be challenging, exploring various fields and assessing your personality fit is crucial for long-term job satisfaction. Here are some strategies to help you navigate this process: 

1. Research industries and jobs separately & extensively: 

• Read industry publications and company websites to gain a picture of what the state of the industry is and where the company is positioned relatively. This helps identify whether you can see yourself enjoying working toward/looking at these challenges/opportunities 
• Follow thought leaders or CEO’s on social media to gain an idea of the future of the industry. This will help you understand whether the space even interests you or perhaps the development of the space into other tangential spaces
• Attend industry conferences and webinars to network with industry professionals as well as learn what professionals care about in the coming months 

2. Hands on Experience: 

• Pursue internships in different sectors and fields. Don’t be afraid of a role that might not interest you if the company or industry can expose you to classroom concepts. Additionally, internships have helped me learn what skills I want to actively use within my full time role, so regardless of the role, you can build those skills and have transferable experience
• Participate in job shadowing opportunities even if it is unpaid. This has really helped me understand how similar I am to professionals and what skills I would need to work on should I want to join this field. Additionally, I was able to get introductions to folks in the industry which helped me learn about other jobs that I had never previously considered
• Engaging in relevant volunteer work or side projects can also be beneficial in showcasing real skills. As a finance major, I never previously considered this route, but my machine learning project tends to be one of the most asked about experiences on my resume purely due to the intersection of finance and technology. Many professionals in the industries we are all interested in actually love learning about other spaces and seeing genuine interest - so showcasing that is a great way of differentiating yourself from the rest

3. Informational Interviews:

Similarly to webinars, connecting with professionals in fields of interest can be beneficial to gaining a foot in the door (referral) or even learning about the career more. Asking about day-to-day responsibilities and challenges can help you learn what you would be working on, what skills you would be using, as well as personality traits for success. This is crucial to understanding whether you might need to adjust a little in some areas to perform your best in the role

4. Personality Assessment: 

I am actually an advocate for personality assessments as they help you understand your communication style, preferred work environment, and more. You might not agree with them, but at the very least they help you understand your core values and priorities. Some assessments that I liked were Predictive Indicator (industry does use this), Big Five, & Meyers Briggs (not ideal) 

5. Job Description Analysis: 

Analyze job descriptions to find recurring skills and qualities that you want to learn or believe you possess. While it is important to compare requirements to your personal strengths and interests, it is more important to identify areas for potential growth and development as well as how you can show that you have those skills through other experiences. For example, if I notice that a job description asks a lot for equity research experience, I will often tailor my resume to showcase more of the skills in fundamental analysis, data driven decision making, and quick teamwork as opposed to other less relevant skills

6. Mentorship:

Finding mentors in industries you're considering is a great way to also get your foot in the door and understand whether you would fit in the field. Discussing your goals and concerns with those in the workforce can help you get honest feedback about specific roles, learn what other developing roles are coming to the market, as well as how you can best position yourself for the jobs you want

7. Reflection:

Lastly, and most importantly - reflect on your past experiences. Analyze what you enjoyed or disliked in previous roles to see what skills you want to be good at and what work environment aligns for you. Identify patterns in when your performance or satisfaction are highest to see what motivates you. Jobs are very multidimensional so consider how different aspects of the job align with your personality. This helps you identify what skills of the role you want to continue and where you didn’t like the role.