7 Tips to Find Your Job Interest And Choose a Career Accordingly

Highlights

1. Identify your interests, strengths, and values to find a career that suits you.
2. Use career assessment tests to explore suitable job options and work styles.
3. Evaluate transferable skills and match them with in-demand career opportunities.
4. Consider salary expectations, work-life balance, and long-term career growth.
5. Test career options through networking, short courses, and practical experience before committing.

Ask a room full of adults how they ended up in their jobs and watch the faces. A few will say they always knew. The rest will tell you about a friend’s referral, a degree picked at eighteen with almost no information, or a gig that was only supposed to last the summer.

Nothing wrong with any of that. But if you’re reading this, “it just sort of happened” has probably stopped cutting it, and you want to know how to choose a career on purpose this time.

Good news: it’s learnable. Not easy, but learnable. Here’s how you should approach choosing a career path without spiraling.

First, You’re Not the Only One Stuck

Career doubt is everywhere. A Resume Now survey of 1,000 workers in the US, UK, France and Germany found that 66% of adults have some kind of work-related regret (HR Dive). Half said they regret the career they picked in the first place, 50% of respondents (HR Daily Advisor). hrdivehrdailyadvisor

Go further afield and it’s the same story. SEEK’s 2024-25 research found 52% of Australian workers would pick a different career if they could start over (SEEK). In New Zealand it was 54% (1News). seek1news

The cost shows up at work, too. Gallup’s 2025 report put global employee engagement at just 21% (Gallup), and the newest edition has it sliding to 20% in 2025, the lowest since 2020 (Benefits and Pensions Monitor). That’s a lot of people spending most of their waking week on something that does nothing for them. gallupbenefitsandpensionsmonitor

So yes, it’s worth the effort. Here’s where to begin.

1. Forget Job Titles for a Minute

Most people trying to find their job interest start with titles. Doctor. Designer. Accountant. It feels logical, but titles are just packaging. What matters is what’s inside the box.

So instead of focusing on branding ask yourself a few questions. 

1. When did you last lose track of time, and what were you doing? 
2. What do friends always ask you to help with? 
3. What do you end up reading about at 1 a.m.? 
4. Which parts of your old jobs did you quietly enjoy, even the dull-looking ones?

Don’t judge the answers. “I like planning my friends’ trips” isn’t a career. But it points at logistics, organizing, and making things easier for other people, and those themes show up in dozens of jobs you haven’t thought of.

Try this for a week. Jot things down as they happen instead of trying to remember later. Patterns show up faster than you’d expect.

2. Take a Career Assessment Test, But Don’t Worship It

A career assessment test can’t hand you the answer. What it can do is hold up a mirror and organize what you already half know.

Look for ones that cover interests (what you like), strengths (what you’re good at) and work style (how you like to operate). The U.S. Department of Labor’s free My Next Move Interest Profiler is a decent starting point, and plenty of libraries and schools offer others at no cost.

Searching for the best career for your personality? Personality quizzes can help there, but read them as hints. An introvert can be a great salesperson. An extrovert can love spreadsheets. Personality tells you what kind of environment you’ll probably enjoy, not what you’re allowed to do.

My advice is to take two or three different tests and look for the overlap. If all of them keep nudging you toward “solving people’s problems,” that means something.

3. Count What You Can Actually Do

Now for career options based on skills, which is where a lot of people sell themselves short.

Make three lists. One for skills you’re good at, one for skills you enjoy using (these aren’t always the same, annoyingly), and one for skills employers pay for. Job postings are the easiest way to fill out that last one. The spot where all three lists overlap is your sweet spot.

And think transferable. For instance, if you are a teacher who can explain things well, you can do great in corporate training, customer success, or UX writing. Or, if you are a retail manager who juggles schedules all day, you already have half the toolkit for operations or HR. So, the point is you think you are going to start from scratch if you start something new, but it’s not. 

Plus, switching isn’t as unusual as it sounds. SEEK found that half of Australian workers have already worked in at least three different industries (NewsWire/SEEK). Your skills travel. albanyadvertiser

4. Be Honest About Money and Dealbreakers

This one feels unromantic, so people skip it. Don’t.

Interest doesn’t pay rent. In the New Zealand survey, not earning enough was the top reason for career regret, ahead of changing interests, unfulfilling work and poor work/life balance. And in the Resume Now research, 59% wished they’d put work-life balance first. 1newshrdailyadvisor

Before you commit to anything, write down your non-negotiables. 

1. What’s the minimum salary you can live on? 
2. How much does flexibility matter? 
3. Can you handle a high-stress job, or would that wreck you? 
4. Would you relocate, travel, or go back to school if the role demanded it?

Rank them. It isn’t about being picky. It’s about not building a career you’ll resent in five years. If you’re already weighing an offer, Yulys has a handy piece on the hidden financial factors to consider before accepting a new job offer.

5. Look at Where the Jobs Are Going

Passion is great. Knowing whether anyone’s hiring is better.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects job growth for hundreds of occupations. Between 2024 and 2034, the average occupation is expected to grow about 3.1%, but some are racing ahead. Wind turbine service technicians (50%), solar installers (42%), nurse practitioners (40%), data scientists (34%) and information security analysts (29%) lead the pack (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). 

For context, the median annual wage across all workers in 2024 was $49,500, and several of those fast-growing jobs pay well above that. Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor +2

I wouldn’t chase a hot field you’d hate just because the chart looks good. But if two paths both pull at you, let the numbers settle it. Of all the career planning tips out there, this one is the most practical.

6. Try It Before You Marry It

Here’s a number that stuck with me. In New Zealand, 41% of respondents were open to a career change, yet only 6% were actually doing something about it. 1news

Thinking about a new career is easy. Trying one teaches you something. A few cheap ways to test the waters:

1. Talk to someone doing the job. Message them, ask for 20 minutes. People say yes more often than you’d guess.
2. Shadow or volunteer. Even a weekend can tell you a lot.
3. Take a short course or build a small project. See if you like the work itself, not the idea of it.
4. Read real job descriptions. If the daily tasks bore you on paper, believe that.

You’re collecting evidence, not signing a lifetime contract. A quick “nope, not for me” after two weeks is a win. It’s way cheaper than finding out after two years.

7. Write a Plan Small Enough to Follow

Once you’ve got a direction (or two), make it concrete. Skip the ten-year roadmap. A single page is plenty: two or three target roles, the skills you’ll need to build, one 90-day experiment (say, finish a course and have three conversations with people in the field), and a date to check in with yourself.

Then give yourself permission to change your mind. In SEEK’s research, the biggest thing holding back people with career regret was the fear that it’s too late to make a change. It almost never is. Careers aren’t straight lines, and people pivot at 35, 45, 55 and beyond. seek

For more help with this stage, check out Yulys’s guide on career development tips to help you achieve your professional goals.

Keep Going on Yulys

Reading is a start, but doing is better. A few places on Yulys worth a look next:

1. Industrial Engineer Career: Responsibilities, Skills, and Pay is a good example of a full career profile, handy for judging whether a path fits.
2. Relocating for Work: What to Consider, Job Help, and Reasons Not to Move helps if your target role is in another city.
3. Build Your Resume lets you put together an ATS-friendly resume in minutes once you’ve picked a direction.
4. Find Jobs lets you browse in-house and remote roles and see which skills employers keep asking for.
5. The Yulys Blog has more on job searching, career growth and hiring.

One Last Thing

Learning how to find the right career rarely comes from one big lightbulb moment. It’s more like a pile of small ones. You notice what you enjoy, name what you’re good at, check the market, try a few things, and adjust.

You don’t need it all figured out today. Pick one tip from this list and do it this week. Take a test, message one person, or write down your dealbreakers. A year from now you’ll be glad you did.

Sources

1. Resume Now The Road Not Taken: Greatest Career Regrets Revealed Supports the statistics on career regret among workers in the US, UK, France, and Germany. 

2. HR Dive Workers Confess Career Regrets Reports that 66% of surveyed adults experienced work-related regrets. 

3. HR Daily Advisor 2/3 of Workers Have Career Regrets Supports the figures on career choice regret, work-life balance, and salary concerns. 

4. SEEK The Evolving Working Life Covers Australian workers' career regret, career changes, transferable skills, and concerns about making a career switch. 

5. 1News More Than Half of NZers Surveyed Regret Their Choice of Career Supports the statistics about career regret in New Zealand, financial concerns, and workers considering a career change. 

6. Gallup State of the Global Workplace: Global Data Summary Provides global employee engagement statistics. The 2025 report recorded 21% engagement for 2024, while the 2026 edition reports 20% for 2025. 

7. U.S. Department of Labor My Next Move Interest Profiler A free career assessment tool that helps people explore occupations based on their work interests. 

8. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Fastest Growing Occupations Provides employment growth projections for 2024–2034, including wind turbine technicians, solar photovoltaic installers, nurse practitioners, and data scientists.