It’s never too early to start planning for your future. As you return to school looking forward to charting a new year, it’s important to consider how your actions today inform your path tomorrow. This new season is the perfect time to start thinking about your career and plans for the future. Many of you already have a solid plan, while others are still creating yours. Both perspectives are perfectly normal and valid. Take the time to think about what’s important to you while you begin to shape your plans. Here are a few resources to explore when envisioning your future in the workforce.
Three Tools for Planning Your Future in the Mental Health Field
Connecting courses to careers
The work you do in your classes prepares you for the workplace. It might not show up as an exam or research paper, but it will provide you with knowledge and skills that you use daily. If you have not done so, start thinking about how the information you obtain in your courses can translate into practical use. Deepening your understanding of your learning material contributes to more innovation and creativity in the workplace. Take the time to talk with your professors to understand how the information you obtain will shape your future. You are the future of the workplace! Your skills, knowledge, and critical thinking prepare you far beyond what you can imagine. Utilizing your professors, mentors, and advisors is important to help prepare you for your next steps.
Mentorship
Mentorship is vital for career success in the mental health field and as a professional overall. Mentors have the ability to influence the trajectory of our professional careers through their advice, time invested, and access to potential opportunities. As you look to begin your professional career, seek out mentorship opportunities.
The process of finding a mentor can be deliberate or can happen naturally. Most of the time, people may have a mentor without realizing it. Think about the role teachers, professors, coaches, or staff have occupied in helping you develop. You can have someone play a significant role in guiding your professional development without consciously recognizing that they have been serving as a mentor. Here are some tips on finding a mentor:
- Find different organizations and companies with a focus on helping young professionals find mentors. Active Minds’ online platform Cause+Career has Career Connectors who have shared their career stories in the hopes of connecting with young professionals.
- Use LinkedIn and other social networking sites to connect with professionals in the field you’d like to work.
- Join professional associations, attend conferences, and participate in other professional development spaces. These are great spaces to build connections and meet new people who may become mentors.
Explore your career options
When considering pursuing a career in mental health, it’s commonly thought about through the lens of providing services — becoming a therapist, psychologist, and even psychiatrist. These roles are critically important to supporting wellness in our society; however, there are many additional paths to consider. You can pair your skills with your passion to pursue your career via Cause + Career. Cause + Career is a mental health career exploration tool designed to meet you at every step of the job search. The site features a quiz to help you determine what career path could be best for you based on your skillset and passion. You may learn your skills are best used as peer support, using your lived experience to support others on a similar journey, or using your talents in technology to be innovative in producing the next invention to support mental health. Utilize the Cause + Career tool to discover possibilities and explore what career path is best for you. And remember — your career journey does not have to be linear.
