How to choose a
career path
How to Choose a Career Path
Originally by Lawrence K. Jones, Ph.D., NCC — Professor Emeritus of Counselor Education, North Carolina State University. Updated by Juliet Jones-Vlasceanu, GCDF, J.D. — President & CEO, Career Key. Last reviewed August 2026.
Choosing a career path is really a series of smaller decisions that add up to a big impact on your well-being and happiness. You might think of them as your best bets along the way, based on information you have at the time, and keeping in mind what you can - and cannot - control.
We show you how to choose a career path using these three basic principles of good decision making:
1. Know yourself–your strengths, values, personality, and skills
Self-reflection and learning activities like these will help you decide which career path best fits you.
Discover which Holland personality types you are most like, then match your results with promising careers, college majors and training programs.
Read about John Holland's Theory of Career Choice to understand how your success and satisfaction in a job, school, or college is related to your personality.
Do the activities in Learn about Yourself and Identify Your Skills to understand yourself better.
Explore what career well-being means and how to strengthen yours.
2. Know your options and learn about each one
To learn about career paths, go to Learn about Career Options.
Job Satisfaction will help you optimize yours when you choose a career or a job. It can also help you understand why you are dissatisfied in your job and what to do about it.
To learn about education options, go to Career Clusters and Pathways - How to choose one or Choose a Major or Training Program.
Is starting your own business an option? Visit the Self-Employment Key to explore this idea.
Are you thinking of strengthening your job skills but you are unsure which ones are important? See The Foundation Skills.
3. Make a good decision
At High-Quality Decision Making you will learn a 4-step method based on many scientific studies that is widely used in business and medical settings. It’s easy to understand and use.
Still not sure? Go to Career Indecision and consider getting help from a professional counselor: Career Counseling
Career Well-Being App
Empower Your Student
Decide what to study and explore careers
Put them at ease they’re on the right track
Make sure the college investment pays off
How to make enough money doing what they enjoy
Career Assessment
Identify college major, career direction
Decide what to study
Self-knowledge to write better college essays
Connect college to careers
Shortest route to identifying college majors, training programs, and careers where they will thrive
How to choose a career with the best bets now
Career Key can help you make the best educated bets (decisions) you can, with the information available and degree of control you have right now. Sometimes the best decision means putting off a decision until later. But putting all decisions off until “the sky clears” is not realistic or advisable - who knows when that will happen?
You can always take action - it just might be a short-term decision instead of a long-term commitment. Whatever your goals are right now, we have some time-tested advice to help. Please consider us as part of your support system - we know this is a difficult time for everyone.For example, no one could have forecast the COVID 19 pandemic or economic recession. And no one knows when (and how) we will return to a pre-pandemic “normal.” There is no information you should have known or actions you should have taken that would have made any difference.
While this lack of control over our current health and economic conditions is admittedly scary, it reminds us that life contains many things outside our control. Making significant life decisions, such as choosing a career, an education program, or changing careers always involves a degree of risk because we cannot control all the inputs. Our career advice Resources help you minimize those risks as much as possible.
References
1. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.
2. Tracey, T. J. G., & Robbins, S. B. (2006). The interest–major congruence and college success relation: A longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 64–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.11.003
3. Jones, L. K., & Lohmann, R. C. (1998). The Career Decision Profile: Using a measure of career decision status in counseling. Journal of Career Assessment, 6(2), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/106907279800600207
4. Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 557–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033446