Interests and Hobbies

What you're good at and what you like to do can — and should — be important factors in your future career choices. Granted, you may not like the same things 5 or 10 years from now, but odds are your interests will naturally grow and expand from the things you like to do right now!

Identify Your Interests

The first step: Identify those interests. Think about your life — what do you like to do with your friends? With your family? What do you like to read? What do you like to watch on TV? What kinds of games do you like? These are all important clues.

Some of your career ideas probably come from the world you know at school — maybe your favorite subject is biology, so you want to become a marine biologist. Or you love to write, so you think about becoming a journalist.

But there are other ways to look at it, too. Say you're obsessed with playing video games; your mom's always telling you to put that thing away and do something useful. Maybe you would enjoy becoming a video-game designer. A number of trade schools and colleges offer programs in this increasingly popular field.

Love to be the one who does your friends' hair and makeup before the school dance? Maybe you're a natural makeup artist or hairdresser. This choice could take you anywhere from an upscale local salon to a Hollywood movie set!

Whatever you're interested in, keep an open mind. Think about this: The Internet was just starting out only 10 years ago. What could happen in the next 10 years? The coolest new jobs of the future probably don't even exist yet! It's up to you to imagine what lies ahead.

Clubs and Extracurriculars

School clubs, activities and after-school classes are yet another way to explore your interests. There are tons of fun things to get involved in — and you'll make new friends while you're at it. Maybe you would enjoy the yearbook club, the school newspaper or the audio-visual club. This could prepare you for careers like photography, graphic design or filmmaking — all pretty cool jobs.

Whatever you decide to do, being able to work cooperatively in a group is a huge skill and will help you get ahead in life. The employees bosses love are the ones who have great ideas, work hard, help their fellow employees and get along well with others. So get out there and join a club or two! It's a fun way to prepare yourself for what's ahead.

Have Fun with It

In the end, the important thing is to explore a lot of different hobbies, have a lot of fun while you're doing it, and just start to imagine the possibilities in terms of what you'll do when you're older. Think about what you enjoy about an activity — do you like it because it allows you to hang out with your friends? Do you like exploring, figuring out how things work? Entertaining people? Helping others? Being allowed to drift off in your own little fantasy world? These are all great things. And odds are, you will do more than one thing in your career when you're older — maybe you'll be promoted in your company, which will allow you to experience different jobs. Or maybe you'll decide to make a switch at some point, to spice things up. Having explored a lot of different interests will only help you as you get older!