Common errors when making career decisions

The following are the eight most common career-choice errors.

1. Choosing the first or easiest job you can get. To choose a job based on its ease is not being a good steward of the talents and abilities that God has given (Proverbs 13:4). Our goal should always be to move into areas in which we are using our strongest talents and abilities in our work.
2. Choosing a job based on salary. This error is so established in our culture that it’ll take a strong commitment to faith in God’s guidance to choose a job based on talents, rather than on salary. A job chosen based on salary will not be satisfying (Ecclesiastes 5:10). God will supply our needs if we trust Him totally.
3. Choosing a job because it provides a good title. Doing what you’re good at and what you enjoy is generally a far better consideration in choosing a career than selecting a title and doing the work that accompanies it (Proverbs 12:9).
4. Taking a job just because management offers it. Discuss your work-related attributes with your employer to indicate the areas that will be the best fit for you. You may be better off expanding your area of responsibility in your present job, instead of moving away from your skills and area of expertise.
5. Choosing a job because that’s what your parents do. Don’t choose a career track because that’s what your parents do. God has created you to be unique. Discover that uniqueness and develop your career plans around it.
6. Choosing a job to fulfill your parents’ unfulfilled dream. Parents must be careful not to steer their children to something they themselves would like; rather, children should be encouraged to follow a career path that best suits their God-given talents and abilities.
7. Choosing a job just because you have the minimum ability to do it. There are many jobs we can do, but they are not necessarily God’s plan for us. Usually His plan also involves our strongest skills, our personalities, and our motivations.