Advice on Finding a Wedding Dress and a Career

My oldest daughter was recently engaged to be married. We love our future son-in-law and believe that the two of them will be a blessing to each other. After a few hours of celebrating their engagement, we kicked into wedding planning mode. Of course, one of the main components of any wedding planning is finding the perfect wedding dress. It was after the third dress when I began to realize that looking for a bridal gown that not only is beautiful, but fits a person's unique body shape, is a lot like finding a career that fits.

When we walked into our first bridal shop, we were overwhelmed with the sheer number of dresses. Who knew there were so many shades of white? The first question the salesperson asked was, "Do you know what style of dress you are looking for?" In other words, she was telling us to begin narrowing the field, unless, of course, we had an entire lifetime to find a dress. Similarly, when exploring potential careers, the first step is to begin with a general knowledge of what you like and don't like. With approximately 20,000 career titles to choose from in the U.S., you must begin narrowing the field, unless, of course, you have several lifetimes to find a career.

Once we narrowed the field of wedding dresses by style, my daughter tried on a lot of dresses. Within each style there was still much variety, but she had to reserve judgment until she tried on each dress. After all, a dress is designed to look beautiful on a woman, not a hanger! Likewise, once you have narrowed your career interests, you must be willing to "try on" a lot of different careers.  For example, you may have identified that you interested in careers that directly help people. Within this social interest there are numerous career options:  nursing, counseling, social work, teaching, pastor, etc. Take the time to investigate the details of these careers. Don't judge whether or not you will like the job before you "try it on." Here is a helpful website to help you in your investigation: www.onetonline.org.

Eventually the time came to make a decision. There were a dozen dresses that made the "maybe" list. Each dress was exquisite in its own way and would add to the beauty of my daughter's special day. The truth is there wasn't just one dress that would work for her, there were several. Similarly, we must dispel the myth that there is absolutely only one career that will fit you. When you talk to people who have been at this career thing for awhile, you will soon discover that they probably have had several different jobs and were satisfied at each one for different reasons.

To help us in dispelling the myth, there is a phenomenon called reality. We saw dresses priced from $79 to $5,000. My daughter's budget was much closer to the $79 end. I am sure the $5,000 dress would have looked beautiful on her and it may have even disguised itself as the "one," but reality would have cried, "Yes, it is beautiful, but you can't afford it—move on!" In the same way, we leave room for reality when choosing a career. I am not saying that you shouldn't follow a dream, but make sure there is a healthy dose of realism included.

My daughter came home that day with a beautiful wedding gown priced within her budget. The process of finding it was a blessing. Although she had a definite price restriction, we focused on the blessings and the bigger picture of the event.  Finding a career should have a similar feel. Despite the overwhelming nature of the search and the current economic climate, try to focus on the blessings within the search. To begin with, you have the privilege and freedom to choose a career—not everyone in this world has that. I am hoping that your career search process will finally lead you to a career that fits.