essay about a career

Essay on Career for Students and Children

500+ words essay on career.

Career is a very important thing in one’s life. Whatever career path you choose to follow, it will impact your life greatly. Your career will define your status in a society in addition to your lifestyle. In other words, your career will determine your social circle and relationships.

Therefore, it is extremely important to choose the correct career path . From a very young age, we aspire to be something or the other. While someone aims to be a doctor, some wish to become a painter. Our career choices depend on a lot of things. Thus, it is important to consider all factors before choosing a career path.

How to Choose your Career?

You must consider a number of factors before deciding on your career. Each factor plays a significant role in your choice. Firstly, always assess yourself thoroughly. You must understand your area of interest to choose a career. For instance, someone who dances well can surely become a doctor, but his interest will always be in dance. Thus, ensure that you have the caliber to perform well in the field you choose. This will come from your area of interest itself.

After that, you look for the opportunities available as per your area of interest. Now that you are aware of what you like and dislike, you can easily look for occupations matching your passion. Make a list of the occupations you can get into following your interests. Furthermore, shorten the list you have prepared. You must do so as per what suits you best. Consult with your seniors and parents to make informed decisions.

Most importantly, acquire the skills for the career option you are interested in. Ensure you earn the qualifications and degrees for it. Try taking training programs to enhance your skills. This will give you an upper hand in knowing whether you are correct in choosing the specific career plan. Furthermore, create an impressive resume which can help you get the right opportunities.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Achieve your Career Goal?

There are steps you need to take before achieving your career goal. As they say, success doesn’t come overnight. You must work along the way to accomplish your goals. There is always hope if you have the will. Firstly, create profiles on different job portals to attract the employer’s attention. When you maintain your profile well, you will be able to get good career opportunities.

Moreover, always maintain your network. Build a solid network and create sources in the field. This way you can update yourself with the latest happenings in the industry. In addition, try to attend the related seminars and workshops that happen related to your career choice. You will meet influential people of the same field who can broaden your thinking.

In short, always remember to stay determined. You can easily achieve your career goal if you set your mind to it. In other words, people usually distract themselves easily. You must not do so and focus on your career path to achieve your goals efficiently.

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Career Essay

How do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now? That question kicks start your imagination and make you visualize yourself in your future career. Maybe you are thinking about it now, but you are likely confused about expressing it in words. Unlike other essay writing , writing your career essay is exciting because you are writing about yourself, your plans, passion, and aspiration. Learn how to make your career essay impressive by reading this article.

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What Is a Career Essay?

A career essay is a text people write to detail their goals or plans for the future. In this essay, people talk about the career they want in the future and the things they have achieved so far. People often ask you to write a career essay when you send an application letter for a scholarship or submit your resume for a job.

How To Write a Rousing Career Essay

You should write your career essay seriously because it might be a deciding factor for your future. That said, in writing your essay, there are a lot of things to consider and a process you need to follow. Your end goal in writing your essay is to convince people that you are determined to walk the talk and make the things you wrote in your descriptive essay to reality.

1. Devise an Engrossing Title

The first thing to think about when writing an essay is coming up with an attention-grabbing title. When people read your essay, they pay the most attention to your title. Also, another benefit of coming up with your title first is that it will serve as a guide for you for the whole essay. 

2. Introduce With a Hook

After devising a title, deliver the next blow with an introduction that piques their curiosity. To do that, begin your essay with a hook. Your hook can be a quote, a question, or you can even provide a statistic. If your introduction is good enough, it will secure the engagement of your readers.

3. Organize Your Ideas

Writing an essay is like taking your readers for a ride. You need to set the vibe and organize the flow of your thoughts. Don’t start too strong it might make the rest of your essay bland. You need to properly build up the development of excitement and make sure the order of your ideas makes sense. 

4. Polish Your Essay

Finalize your essay by proofreading it. When people talk about their passion, they tend to talk too much and include several unnecessary things. Make sure not to do that. Omit all the details that don’t contribute to the overall impact of your reflective essay. Also, don’t forget to review your text for grammatical errors. 

Why is career planning important?

People hustle every day to reach their dream careers. Having a target career gives you a direction and sets your path. Planning your career is essential because being indecisive about it might negatively impact your life. Not having a fixed goal is like not having an end destination. Preparing for it would also make your career action plan achievable.

What is a career genogram?

A career genogram traces back an individual’s family tree and examines the career timeline they pursued. The scope of this genogram reaches the grandparents, extended family, and even the person’s close friends. This graphic representation is helpful when a person has a hard time deciding about his or her career development plan .

What is career assessment?

Career assessment is the process of identifying what career would work best for you. Most assessments are in the form of a questionnaire . It includes questions about your interests, your skills, your hobbies, and your strengths. These are some examples of questions that would help assess your future career. The result of your career assessment might give you ideas on what path to take.

The moment people read your career essay, they often rate how likely you are to succeed. Show them a piece of your mind that would erase all their doubts about your success. They say manifesting works wonders, so manifest the future that you want best by composing a rousing career essay. 

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Career Essay Examples

Crafting an engaging and informative career research essay is a crucial step for students and professionals alike who are navigating the complex landscape of career planning and development. These essays serve as a bridge between one's academic pursuits and professional aspirations, offering insights into various fields, the skills required, and future job prospects. They provide a structured way to explore and articulate career goals, understand industry trends, and reflect on personal strengths and interests in relation to the job market. Whether you're a high school student contemplating your future, a college student selecting a major, or a professional considering a career change, delving into a career research essay can illuminate the path ahead.

For anyone looking to embark on this enlightening journey, exploring research essay examples can be an invaluable first step. It offers a glimpse into effective strategies for structuring your essay, choosing relevant content, and engaging your readers. Below, find a list of 10 popular career research essay topics that span a diverse range of industries and interests, reflecting the broad spectrum of career opportunities available today:

• The Evolution of the Software Developer Role in the Tech Industry : Exploring the dynamic landscape of software development, including emerging technologies and the skills needed to succeed.
• A Day in the Life of a Healthcare Professional : Investigating the roles, responsibilities, and challenges faced by healthcare workers, from nurses to surgeons.
• The Future of Renewable Energy Careers : Analyzing the growth of the renewable energy sector and the types of careers that are becoming available.
• Careers in Digital Marketing : Understanding the impact of digital marketing on business and the variety of roles within this fast-evolving field.
• The Role of Data Science in Business Decision Making : Examining how data scientists contribute to strategic decisions in business through data analysis and interpretation.
• Legal Careers in the 21st Century : A look at the changing landscape of the legal profession and the skills modern lawyers need to possess.
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation : Exploring the journey of becoming an entrepreneur and the impact of innovation on creating new business opportunities.
• Careers in Education Beyond Teaching : Investigating the diverse roles within the education sector that contribute to shaping future generations, from administration to curriculum development.
• Engineering the Future: Careers in Civil Engineering : Understanding the role of civil engineers in developing infrastructure projects and the challenges of modern urban planning.
• The Psychology Profession: A Deep Dive into Mental Health Careers : Exploring the various specialties within psychology and the importance of mental health professionals in society.

Each of these topics not only presents a rich field of study but also reflects the vast array of career paths available to individuals with different interests, strengths, and passions. By exploring career research essay examples, you can gain insights into how to approach these topics effectively, making your career research essay both informative and engaging.

Career Essay Topics and Outline Examples

Essay title 1: navigating your career path: strategies for successful career planning and development.

Thesis Statement: This essay explores effective strategies for career planning and development, emphasizing self-assessment, goal setting, skill development, networking, and adaptability as key components.

• Introduction
• Self-Assessment: Identifying Interests, Strengths, and Values
• Goal Setting: Defining Short-Term and Long-Term Career Objectives
• Skill Development: Continuous Learning and Skill Enhancement
• Networking: Building Professional Relationships and Leveraging Connections
• Adaptability: Navigating Career Changes and Challenges
• Mentorship and Guidance: Seeking Career Advice and Support
• Conclusion: Empowering Individuals to Shape Their Career Paths

Essay Title 2: The Future of Work: Exploring Career Trends in the Digital Age and Preparing for Industry Disruptions

Thesis Statement: This essay examines emerging career trends in the digital age, including automation, remote work, and gig economy jobs, and discusses strategies for preparing for industry disruptions.

• Digital Transformation: Impact on Traditional Careers and Industries
• Automation and Artificial Intelligence: Job Displacement and Upskilling
• Remote Work: Advantages, Challenges, and Future Workforce Trends
• Gig Economy and Freelancing: The Rise of Independent Career Paths
• Reskilling and Lifelong Learning: Staying Relevant in a Changing Job Market
• Adapting to Uncertainty: Developing a Flexible Career Mindset
• Conclusion: Preparing for the Shifting Landscape of Work and Employment

Essay Title 3: Balancing Work and Life: The Importance of Career Satisfaction, Well-Being, and Achieving a Fulfilling Life

Thesis Statement: This essay discusses the significance of achieving career satisfaction and work-life balance, highlighting their impact on overall well-being and the pursuit of a fulfilling life.

• Career Satisfaction: Defining Fulfillment in Professional Life
• Work-Life Balance: Strategies for Managing Workload and Personal Life
• Mental Health and Stress Management: Coping with Career-Related Challenges
• Family and Relationships: Nurturing Personal Connections Amid Career Demands
• Passion and Purpose: Aligning Career Goals with Personal Values
• Life Goals and Achievements: Pursuing a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
• Conclusion: Striving for Career Success while Embracing Life's Joys and Challenges

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Essay on Career

Students are often asked to write an essay on Career in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Career

What is a career.

A career is the work a person does in their life. It often means the jobs they have over many years. Some people choose one job and stay there, while others switch jobs to learn new things or earn more money.

Choosing a Career

Picking a career can be exciting. It’s important to think about what you like doing. Some people enjoy helping others, so they might become teachers or doctors. Others might like building things and become engineers.

Importance of Education

Education helps you get ready for your career. Going to school teaches you about different jobs. You also learn skills that can help you do well in your work.

Working Hard

No matter what job you pick, working hard is key. When you give your best effort, you can do well and maybe even become a boss one day. Always try to learn and grow in your job.

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250 Words Essay on Career

A career is the work a person does in their life. Most people choose a job that they like and hope to get better at over time. It is not just about earning money; it is also about learning new things and growing as a person.

Picking a career can be exciting. It is important to think about what you enjoy doing. Some people like to work with computers, while others may love to cook or draw. Knowing what you are good at can help you decide.

Education and Training

To get ready for a career, you need to learn. This could mean going to school or getting special training. For example, teachers go to college to learn how to teach, and chefs might go to cooking school.

Once you start a job, working hard is key. It means doing your best and trying to get better. Even if a task is tough, it is important to keep trying and not give up.

Changing Careers

Sometimes, people change careers. This is okay because our likes and what we are good at can change. It is never too late to start something new if you are not happy with your current job.

In conclusion, a career is a big part of life. It is about finding something you like to do and getting better at it. Remember to learn, work hard, and it is okay to change if you need to.

500 Words Essay on Career

A career is the work a person does in their life. Think of it like a long journey with different jobs and experiences along the way. It’s not just one job, but many roles you might have over time. People choose careers based on what they enjoy, what they are good at, and what kind of work is available to them.

Picking a career can be exciting and a bit scary too. It’s a big decision! Some people know what they want to do from when they are very young. Others take more time to decide. It’s okay to take your time and think about what makes you happy and what you are passionate about. You can talk to family, teachers, or career counselors to get ideas and advice.

To get ready for a career, you usually need some kind of education or training. This could be school, college, university, or even learning on the job. What you need to learn depends on the career you choose. For example, to be a doctor, you have to go to medical school. But to be a chef, you might go to a cooking school or learn in a restaurant.

Different Types of Careers

There are so many types of careers out there! Some people work in offices, some work outside, some work with their hands, and some work with their minds. There are careers in business, health, art, science, education, and many more areas. What they all have in common is that they need people with different talents and interests.

Working Hours and Lifestyle

Careers can also be different in how much you work. Some jobs are nine to five, which means you start in the morning and finish in the afternoon. Others might have you working at night or on weekends. Some careers might have you traveling a lot, while others let you stay in one place. Think about what kind of lifestyle you want when you choose your career.

Change and Growth

Your career can change and grow just like you do. You might start in one job and then move to another that you like better or that pays more money. Learning new things can help you move up in your career. It’s also okay to change your career if you find out you don’t like it or you discover a new interest.

Importance of a Career

Having a career is important because it’s how you can make money to live. But it’s more than that. A career can give you a sense of purpose and help you feel like you are contributing to the world. It can make you feel proud and give you goals to work toward.

A career is a big part of your life. It’s how you will spend a lot of your time, so it’s important to choose something you like. Remember, it’s okay to ask for help when you’re deciding, and it’s okay to change your mind later. What’s most important is to find something that makes you happy and suits the life you want to live.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

February 29, 2024

• Writing Your Career Goals Essay

Check out all the blog posts in this series:

• Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
• Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
• Revise and Polish Your Application Essays

Your career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. A personal statement, by contrast, allows for some flexibility in its content, though you can – and often should – discuss your career goals. But a career goals essay has a particular and packed agenda. In fact, the prompt for a career goals essay could actually include multiple questions, and in such cases, you want to make sure you address each of them.

For example, in 2022, Kellogg asked applicants to its one-year program to respond to the following prompt: “Please discuss your post-MBA career goal, the current experience you will leverage to support the transition, and the Kellogg 1Y opportunities that will help you reach this goal.” 

This prompt has three parts: (1) What do you want to do post-MBA ? (2) Why is the 1Y program appropriate for you? And (3) what experience has so far prepared you to succeed in your target role? 

So, always pay close attention to your target school’s prompt to ensure that you answer all the questions within its “single” question. 

Three elements of a successful career goals essay

In addition to having a distinct theme , your career goals essay should achieve the following:

• Highlight specific career achievements. Choose from your most notable or defining experiences. These could be related to your work, community involvement, or extracurricular activities. The experiences you select should showcase your leadership skills , creative thinking, collaborative abilities, and personal reflections about what you learned or gained.
• Explain why your experiences and influences make your career goal a logical and wise choice.
• Demonstrate why you are suited to a particular field as a result of your education, experience, abilities, and enthusiasm. Ideally, the material you choose to include will also allow you to prove your knowledge about industry trends and suggest how your abilities and strengths can help you contribute to that field.

It’s a very tall order to achieve all this.

Putting these elements together to create your goals essay

Let’s take a look at a sample MBA Goals Essay and see how these three key elements are incorporated.  

You should be able to easily recognize why the writer’s opening is attention-getting for all the right reasons. The writer introduces herself as the supremely busy executive she visualizes becoming in the future. She trades large amounts of stock, rushes off to a Zoom conference, hurries downstairs, flags down a taxi, then hops on a plane. As she describes this whirlwind of activity, we can practically feel her heart pumping.

After establishing her voice and personality in this opening, she offers context for her MBA goal. Notice that in writing about her work as an accountant for a major firm, she provides relevant details, including how many years she has been in the field, her bilingualism, and her specialty area as an auditor. This information is her springboard to explain why she is pursuing an MBA: she’s bursting out of her limited role as an accountant. Her eyes and ambition are set on a larger playing field as an international investment manager.

Write an essay, not a list or CV

Outstanding career goals essays are not lists of an applicant’s roles and achievements. Instead, they have a narrative flow and arc that convey the candidate’s palpable excitement about their career choice. This writer’s enthusiastic, dreamy first paragraph achieves this, and she returns to that image at the end, where she paints her idealized (if frantically busy) future. She also proves her seriousness by noting that she registered for the CFA exam.

Connect your career goals to your reasons for choosing a particular program

Many essay questions, especially those for MBA programs , will ask why you have chosen the school you’re applying to. Be prepared to respond knowledgeably and enthusiastically. And the only way to become knowledgeable – and enthusiastic – is by visiting campus in-person or virtually, attending student recruitment meetings, participating in forums, reading student blogs, watching videos of students speaking about their experiences, communicating directly with students and/or recent alumni, and otherwise doing your homework. As part of your research, make sure you have familiarized yourself with the courses and specializations that are relevant to your goals.

Summary Tips

• Focus on answering each and every question asked in a career goals essay prompt. Often, there is more than one.
• Highlight specific achievements vividly and in a way that shows that your career choice is logical for you.
• Do the research so you can write about why the school is a good fit for you and do so with genuine enthusiasm.

In the next post in this series , we’ll explain how to take all this advice and apply it to create an exemplary first draft.

Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application. Check out our full catalog of application services . Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related resources:

• The Winning Ingredients of a Dynamic MBA Goals Essay , a free guide
• Grad School Personal Statement Examples
• Focus on Fit , podcast Episode 162

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How to Write an Awesome Essay About Your Career Goals

• Before you begin, ask yourself a few key questions like:
• What are my short-term and long-term career goals?
• Where do I see myself in ten years?
• What events in my life have led me to have these goals?
• What major will help me reach my goals?
• What skills do I need to reach my goals?
• What impact do I want to have on society?

Career Goals Essay Template

Need more inspiration.

After you brainstorm the responses to these questions, look for common themes, or pick out the most interesting stories. You can build your main essay “thesis” or idea around this.

Once you’ve got the main idea, create an outline to put your ideas into essay format. This will give you a general idea of structure.

You can use the career essays template below to give you some ideas. But remember that some rules are meant to be broken, so don’t be afraid to be innovative and think outside the box!

Also, when you’re done, head over to Going Merry to apply for the Career Goals scholarship essay bundle (one essay, one application, multiple scholarships!). You might as well make that essay count. Sign up for Going Merry to apply for scholarships more efficiently.

Here’s a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown:

Paragraph 1 : Establish the main theme of what you’re going to talk about. It should also grab the reader’s attention. For example, instead of starting your essay with something generic (e.g. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a zoologist), get creative with it! Try something like My greatest memory as a young girl was going to the zoo for the first time or While most kids play house or school, I always wanted to play zookeeper.

Paragraph 2 : Elaborate on what inspired your career goals. Perhaps it was a relative, a TV show, or simply an experience that you had. Remember that old writing adage, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, try to demonstrate your interest with story or description. 

Paragraph 3 : Discuss your short-term career goals and your intended major. How will your intended major help you reach these goals? What skills do you need to learn to reach them? At the end of the paragraph, try discussing how your short-term goals can help you achieve your long-term goals.

Paragraph 4 : Focus on your long-term goals and the impact that you hope to have on society. If you’re not sure what your long-term goals are, don’t sweat it; they’ll probably change anyways. You can instead focus on the difference you’d like to make overall. And don’t worry too much about the size of the impact…remember that just doing what you’re truly passionate about has a massive impact on those around you.

The last paragraph is your conclusion. You can use this paragraph to summarize what you discussed in the previous few paragraphs. If you want to be even more creative, try ending your essay with a question for your readers or a new insight. Good luck!

And now that you’re ready with that essay, put it to good use! You can recycle that same essay, when applying for the Career Goals Scholarship Bundle. We’ve joined together multiple scholarships (all requesting essays on career goals), into just ONE simple application! See more info here , or just sign up to get going.

Check out examples from other students just like you. Here are links to some great career goal essay examples:

• Example 1  
• Example 2  
• Example 3  

Or maybe you’re looking for help with an academic goals essay — we’ve got you covered there too.

Also, check out this helpful list of the 10 most common scholarship essay topics !

Sign up for Going Merry today, and upload your career goal essay right to your profile. It’s that easy!

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Examples of Scholarship Essays for the “Career Goals” Question

Emily Wong is a writer at Scholarships360. She’s worked as a social media manager and a content writer at several different startups, where she covered various topics including business, tech, job recruitment, and education. Emily grew up and went to school in the Chicago suburbs, where she studied economics and journalism at Northwestern University.

Learn about our editorial policies

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Writing an essay is often the trickiest part of the scholarship application, not to mention the most time-consuming. However, the essay section also allows room for creativity and individuality. If you can communicate effectively, you can use the essay portion to stand out from the crowd. Let’s go over some tips for writing, as well as a couple of scholarship essay examples about career goals.

How to write a scholarship essay 

At this point, you’ve probably gained plenty of experience writing papers for school. However, it may still take a couple of tries to nail the scholarship essay. Since scholarship teams often have to get through a lot of applications, it’s important to stand out while staying concise. Here are some simple guidelines for writing scholarship essays.

See also: How to write a winning scholarship essay (with examples!)

Take five minutes to brainstorm

Before you even start your essay, take some time to gather your thoughts. Think about what you’ll want the paper to focus on. Why did you choose to pursue your career path in the first place? Where do you want to be in five years? How would this scholarship help you further your studies and work toward your goals?

Once you’ve jotted down a few ideas, choose one or two to center your essay on. Identifying the focus of your paper, it’ll make it easier to keep your thoughts organized. In turn, it’ll make it easier for the reader to follow.

Related : How to start a scholarship essay (with examples!)

Stay within the word limit

Unlike the four-page essays that you may have written in English class, scholarship essays are often only a paragraph or two. In order to respect the selection committee’s time, be wary of going too far about the specified word count. A general rule of thumb is to stay within 20 words above or below the limit. That may entail a few rounds of edits to get the wording just right.

Stay positive!

Feel free to use part of your essay to talk about your life’s challenges. After all, the selection committee often wants to give the award to a candidate who needs it. However, make sure your anecdote doesn’t devolve into a sob story. If you’re going to bring up hardships you’ve endured, try to balance it by talking about how you’ve overcome them. By demonstrating resilience, you can show readers how you would use the scholarship to succeed in your current situation.

Leave time to proofread

Especially for a short scholarship essay, proofreading can take as little as 5-10 minutes. Still, it can be tempting to just hit “submit” after your first draft. However, being too impulsive can leave your essay riddled with typos and grammatical errors.

Try to avoid unnecessary mistakes by finishing your draft at least 24 hours before the scholarship deadline. That way, you can proofread it with fresh eyes before you submit it.

If you’re struggling to close out your essay, read how to end a scholarship essay in five steps .

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How to write a 100-word “career goals” essay.

When writing a 100-word essay, you’ll have to choose your content carefully. Since space is limited, you’ll want to identify the most important details to include beforehand.

First and foremost, make sure to clearly communicate your current pursuits. Talk about your academic and extracurricular activities related to your career goals. Additionally, it’s important to be specific about what you plan to do in the future. Then, if you have extra room, you can talk about how the scholarship will help you reach your goals.

My name is Alison MacBride, and I’m a sophomore at the University of Illinois. I’m currently pursuing a major in Journalism with a minor in Natural Resource Conservation. After completing my program, I plan to combine my areas of interest to become an environmental journalist.

During high school, I volunteered at an eco-conscious farm, where I learned about how our actions affect the earth. Since then, I’ve been set on raising awareness for the environment. This scholarship would go a long way in helping me finish my degree with the skills I need to investigate and report about critical issues.

Word count: 100

How to write a 250-word “career goals” essay

For the 250-word essay, you can go into more detail. Give the readers some context by talking about how you first got interested in your chosen career. Storytelling can be especially effective in engaging your audience. Try to capture their attention by choosing one or two concrete examples and relaying them vividly.

Additionally, you can spend more time talking about the scholarship and how it’ll make a difference in your studies. Go into more detail about how and why you need the award, but remember to keep it positive! For more help, check out how to write a 250 word essay . 

I first decided that I wanted to pursue a career in environmentalism in early high school. The summer after my freshman year, I joined a volunteer program at an eco-conscious farm in my community. In addition to helping out with the operations, I learned about current environmental issues related to farming and other consumer industries.

After learning about the agricultural industry’s impact on the planet, I was inspired to make a difference. The next year, I started a monthly earth magazine at my high school in which we broke down environmental issues and offered tips on how to be more eco-friendly. When I started college, I founded an on-campus publication with the same mission.

In recent years, I’ve been troubled to see how some media outlets downplay the gravity of issues like climate change and deforestation. I’ve admired reporters who publish trustworthy and comprehensible information about environmental issues, and I aim to follow in their footsteps.

When I entered college, I was initially concerned that I wouldn’t have enough money to finish my degree. Fortunately, I’ve been able to cover most of my tuition using merit scholarships and paychecks from my part-time job on campus. Receiving this scholarship would allow me more time to focus on acing my classes and pursuing environmental advocacy work on campus.

Word count: 261

Final thoughts

Planning is essential in making your “career goals” essay clear and concise. Hopefully, these scholarship essay examples about career goals can be your guide to writing a scholarship-winning essay. Good luck!

Additional resources

Maybe you need to write a longer scholarship essay? We can help with our writing a 500 word essay guide ! Be prepared and learn how to write essays about yourself and how to craft an impressive personal statement . Learn the differences between a personal statement and a statement of purpose as the terms might come up on college websites. If you haven’t decided on a college already, check out our guide on how to choose a college . No matter where you are in your educational journey, make sure that you apply for all the scholarships you qualify for!

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113 Career Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Choosing a career path is a significant decision that can shape our lives. Whether you are a high school student exploring your options or a working professional considering a career change, writing a career essay can be a valuable exercise in self-reflection and goal-setting. To help you get started, here are 113 career essay topic ideas and examples that can inspire your writing:

Why I chose my current career path.

The influence of my family on my career choices.

Exploring unconventional career options.

The impact of technology on the job market.

The role of internships in career development.

How to navigate a successful career in a competitive industry.

Strategies for finding work-life balance in a demanding career.

The importance of professional networking for career growth.

Challenges faced by women in male-dominated industries.

The role of education in career success.

The pros and cons of freelance work.

How to turn a hobby into a career.

The future of remote work and its implications for careers.

The impact of automation on job opportunities.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector.

The role of mentors in career development.

The importance of continuous learning in a rapidly changing world.

Exploring careers in the healthcare industry.

The challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.

The impact of globalization on career opportunities.

The role of personal branding in career advancement.

The benefits of cross-cultural work experience.

The role of emotional intelligence in career success.

Exploring careers in the creative arts.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the military.

The impact of social media on career opportunities.

The importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

The benefits of pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM).

The challenges and rewards of a career in education.

The role of leadership skills in career advancement.

The impact of climate change on future career opportunities.

Exploring careers in the hospitality industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the environmental sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in law enforcement.

The role of communication skills in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job displacement.

The importance of financial literacy in career planning.

Exploring careers in the fashion industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in public service.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the entertainment industry.

The role of resilience in overcoming career setbacks.

The impact of social entrepreneurship on career options.

The importance of work culture in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the sports industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the technology sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in the aviation industry.

The role of adaptability in navigating a changing career landscape.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job creation.

The importance of work-life integration in career fulfillment.

Exploring careers in the tourism industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in the financial sector.

The challenges and rewards of a career in healthcare administration.

The role of organizational skills in career success.

The impact of online learning on career development.

The importance of workplace diversity for innovation.

Exploring careers in the film industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in engineering.

The challenges and rewards of a career in social work.

The role of negotiation skills in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on employee well-being.

The importance of emotional well-being in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the gaming industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in marketing.

The challenges and rewards of a career in nonprofit management.

The role of time management in career success.

The impact of social media on personal branding.

The importance of cultural intelligence in global careers.

Exploring careers in the culinary industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in journalism.

The challenges and rewards of a career in architecture.

The role of problem-solving skills in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on team collaboration.

The importance of work-life harmony in career fulfillment.

Exploring careers in the music industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in psychology.

The challenges and rewards of a career in event planning.

The role of decision-making skills in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job satisfaction.

The importance of mentorship in career development.

Exploring careers in the automotive industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in entrepreneurship.

The challenges and rewards of a career in graphic design.

The role of creativity in career advancement.

The impact of remote work on organizational culture.

The importance of work-life boundaries in career satisfaction.

Exploring careers in the publishing industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in human resources.

The challenges and rewards of a career in interior design.

The role of teamwork in career success.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job security.

The importance of self-reflection in career planning.

Exploring careers in the education technology industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in healthcare research.

The challenges and rewards of a career in social media management.

The role of adaptability in overcoming career obstacles.

The impact of remote work on employee engagement.

The importance of work-life integration in career success.

Exploring careers in the renewable energy sector.

The benefits of pursuing a career in data analytics.

The challenges and rewards of a career in public relations.

The role of critical thinking skills in career advancement.

The impact of artificial intelligence on job recruitment.

The importance of lifelong learning in career growth.

Exploring careers in the e-commerce industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in healthcare policy.

The challenges and rewards of a career in software development.

The role of adaptability in navigating a changing job market.

The impact of remote work on work-life balance.

The importance of personal development in career success.

Exploring careers in the renewable energy industry.

The benefits of pursuing a career in user experience design.

The challenges and rewards of a career in cybersecurity.

The role of emotional intelligence in career advancement.

These 113 career essay topic ideas and examples cover a wide range of industries, skills, and challenges. Whether you are passionate about a particular field or looking for inspiration, these topics can help you explore various aspects of careers and find your own unique path. Remember, writing a career essay is not only about showcasing your knowledge and skills but also about understanding yourself and the world of work. Good luck on your writing journey!

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What Is a Career Goals Essay?

An opportunity to expand, what to avoid in a career goals essay, final thoughts, how to write a career goals essay.

Updated January 15, 2024

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As the name suggests, a career goals essay is a personal document that outlines your professional plans.

It describes your educational and work history, and your ambitions for the future.

A career goals essay is generally used in three situations:

• When applying to a school or college
• When applying for a scholarship to fund education
• When applying for a new job

It allows the reader to better understand your personality and fully appreciate why you are making the application.

Career goals essays help admissions staff and hiring managers to select the ideal candidates for a position.

What Should a Career Goals Essay Contain?

A little backstory.

This essay is an opportunity for you to allow your personality and experiences to shine, so avoid generic statements.

The document should be personal and concisely describe your life experiences.

You should explain why you have chosen this career path.

If there was a pivotal moment in your life that led you to this application, be sure to highlight it.

Outline Your Goals

The main focus of the essay should be your goals for the future.

Readers want to see that you are ambitious and driven, with a genuine passion for the role or course you are applying for.

These career goals should be split into your short-term goals (looking over the next one to three years) and your long-term goals (which might look as far as 10 years into the future).

Show How This Application Will Help You Reach Your Goals

Critically, your career goals essay must show how this degree or job will help you achieve your goals .

If your long-term goal is to become a veterinary surgeon, studying a veterinary medicine program will obviously be essential.

However, your goal may be more nuanced than that. For example, you might want to become an expert in a particular piece of technology or software. Your application must show how your success in this role will enable you to become an industry leader.

This will also emphasize to the reader that you have done your research and understand the skills required for that particular sector.

You will have likely submitted a CV and covering letter at other points throughout the application process.

Remember, your career goals essay should complement these documents rather than repeat them.

This letter allows you to expand on the points mentioned in the earlier documents, aligning your previous experience with your goals for the future.

If you are writing a career goals essay as part of an application for a new job, be sure to refer back to the job description and person specification.

These documents highlight the exact type of individual the employer is searching for, so be sure your career goals essay matches the content in them.

Most career goals essays will be submitted via email, so an appropriate title is essential.

‘The Career Goals of [Name]’ isn’t a title that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Don’t forget, whether you are applying to a school or an employer, the reader will have the job of sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of applications .

Where candidates have very similar experiences and education, their creativity and personality will be used to make the final decision.

Example titles:

How a Digital Marketing Degree Will Allow Me to Support Sustainable Businesses

How My Next Role in Nursing Will Help Me Help Others

An Introduction

Your introduction should set the theme for the essay, and crucially, outline your why .

Many candidates find the introduction the most challenging part of the essay to write. Therefore, it often makes the most sense to write it last.

Your introduction should be an honest and personable account of why you have chosen this field of study.

Starting with a generic opening paragraph will not inspire or motivate your reader. Stay away from phrases such as “I have wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a little girl.”

This sentence tells the reader very little about your current aspirations.

It can also damage your integrity, as we all know most small children dream of being a movie star or astronaut before the job of lawyer ever springs to mind.

Example introduction:

Most individuals in the US are lucky enough to never need the law to protect them. However, many fail to see how the intricate details of the constitution support their life every day. I have a particular fascination with criminal law after being introduced to the field by a family friend. The monumental impact a lawyer can have on the life and welfare of an individual truly astounded me, and I have spent the years since investigating the effects of the American legal system. This is why I have tailored my education so far to prepare me for a legal career. I work every day on developing my research and analytical ability, and now feel ready to dedicate myself fully to the legal field.

School-Specific Content

Admissions staff, tutors and hiring managers want to know that their applicants have done their research.

You can show them that you have done yours by adding a small paragraph straight after your introduction showing why you chose this school to study at or this company to work for.

First example of school-specific content:

[Insert company name] has an incredible global reputation, with clients in every continent. I can see that staff retention rates are incredibly high, indicating strong career opportunities and the prospect of continuous development. The company values show that diversity and integrity are of the utmost importance, and I would love the opportunity to work for an organization whose principles align with my own.

Second example of school-specific content:

[Insert school name] is well known for producing the highest caliber of graduates, with an excellent global reputation. The school leaderboards show that the grades from [insert school name] ranked within the top five in the country for the past 10 years. I would be proud to associate myself with an establishment that holds itself in such high regard and am thrilled at the prospect of learning alongside the best.

Your Long-term Vision

Remember, it is crucial you show why and how you are actively working towards these goals. For example, merely stating, 'My long-term goal is to become a lawyer with my own practice’ is worthless.

The reader wants to see how this goal aligns with your personality and why you have chosen this route.

The goals set out in this essay should be precise and meaningful .

Example of long-term vision:

Law is an area of study that affects us all. The law protects us, and I am fascinated by its impact on both an individual and global scale. Of course, I want to graduate with a top-class degree, but I am also passionate about the connections and network I will build along the way. My goal is to open my own practice one day, specializing in family law. At the moment, I volunteer in my local practice, gaining experience and building a network that will help me later in my career. I believe the combination of world-class education and hands-on legal experience will help me to achieve this ambitious long-term goal.

Your Short-term Vision

Next, it is crucial to discuss your short-term goals .

If you're applying to school, your short-term goals will explain what you aim to achieve throughout the degree or program.

For a job application, these goals will outline your targets for your first year in the role.

Example of short-term vision:

In the short term, my goal is to build a network in the legal sector. I have already begun doing this through my weekly volunteering role. However, this degree will undoubtedly allow me to meet a much broader spectrum of people. I am excited to curate this network with a range of legal specialists, from students at the start of their careers to tutors with many years of experience in the industry.

The Conclusion

As with any essay, your conclusion should summarize what you have discussed throughout.

You should not throw in any new ideas, subjects or theories at this point. Otherwise, it indicates to the reader that you have not cohesively written the essay.

Your conclusion should be about the same length as the introduction, mentioning your final goals and the name of the establishment you are applying to.

You must outline again why you want to work for this company or study at this school. Using a statistic or fact will show that you have conducted thorough research.

Example conclusion:

I am immensely excited to begin my experience with [insert school name]. Ultimately, this education will allow me to fulfill my dreams of becoming a lawyer and one day opening my own practice. I will bring hard work, determination and enthusiasm to the law school, never forgetting why I began this journey.

Vague or Weak Statements

Every sentence in your essay should be specific to you.

For example, statements such as ‘I want to study medicine because it will allow me to get a good job’ does not show the reader that you are passionate or enthusiastic about this position.

Discussing Financial Remuneration

Whether the essay is aimed at a prospective employer or a college admissions office, they want to see why you want the position personally.

Someone solely focused on the financial rewards will likely not have longevity in the career.

Controversial Topics

Of course, there will be times where politics and current affairs are relevant to the discussion.

However, showing a one-sided argument that doesn’t align with the readers can alienate your application before you even begin.

A career goals essay is an opportunity for your personality to shine through. It isn’t a test of who has the best grades or the most experience , but a chance to show how this job or degree can change your life.

Although the reader is excited to hear about your goals, they are more interested in how this role links to your ambitions.

Be sure to constantly reflect upon how obtaining a place on this course, or securing the job role, is intrinsically linked to your goals.

A word limit is often applied to career goal essays. Where there is no limit, be sure to write no more than 1,000 words.

This piece should be concise and to the point, showing the reader you can effectively convey your thoughts and ideas.

You might also be interested in these other Wikijob articles:

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Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)

• Apply For A Job
• Applying To Multiple Jobs At The Same Company
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• Corporate Titles
• Career Goals Essay
• Internal Applicants Only
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Find a Job You Really Want In

Scholarship programs often want you to write a career goals essay to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll apply your education to a specific career path. This helps show a scholarship committee why you’re seeking funds for the next step on the path toward your success.

Answering “what are your career goals” effectively can help increase your odds of impressing landing a scholarship opportunity. If you’re a prospective student applying for scholarships, this article will provide tips on how to write a career goals essay, along with essays on career goals examples to help you get an idea of what scholarship committees are looking for.

Key Takeaways:

When you’re writing a career goals essay, make sure to write about the goals that are relevant to the scholarship.

Be honest and use your own voice to stand out in your scholarship essay.

Go into detail about how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals.

What is a career goals essay?

Why scholarship essays ask about career goals, example career goals essay prompts, career goals essay examples, tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals, what to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed, career goals essay for a scholarship faq.

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A career goals essay is a personal written explanation that discusses your background, why you’re interested in participating in the program, and what career you’d like this degree to lead into. A scholarship essay functions to explain why you want to achieve your professional goals and how you intend to get there.

In almost every application process, a portion asks the candidate to answer an essay question. When applying to an educational program, like an MBA, the essay prompt usually relates to your career goals .

Scholarship essays ask about career goals to assess your enthusiasm for the program, learn more about how the scholarship will help you, and ensure that you’ve considered how the program will help you achieve your goals for the future:

Assess your enthusiasm. Passion is important for scholarship administrators, and if you’re able to articulate your enthusiasm for a specific career path , it will show that you’re determined to meet the requirements to reach that goal. The most specific and well-thought-out your essay is, the easier it will be for a reader to understand your devotion and commitment to the program and the field it will allow you to enter.

Learn how the scholarship will help you. Having a firm grasp of your career goals is great, but it’s equally important that you express exactly how the specific program relates to those goals. This shows that you’ve researched the merits of the program and understand exactly how it fits into your professional goals.

Show you’ve considered your future. This goes along with the first two points — show that you know how to set goals and consider the path toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have an easier time convincing the reader that you’ll know how to set goals while participating in the program. They’ll see that you know how to prioritize education because you have a clear vision for navigating your career path.

While some scholarships might come right out and simply ask, “What are your career goals?” most will rework the question into something different that still accomplishes the same goal.

Below are some examples of career goals essay prompts that a scholarship program could pose to its applicants:

Discuss your career goals. Many scholarships prefer the most direct approach when giving an essay prompt to their applicants. This type of question gives the candidate a lot of wiggle room to discuss their passions, motivations, and career goals.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years ? This question is often used as a prompt for a career goals essay because it gives the applicant a timeline to describe their aspirations. It forces them to be realistic about where their career will be and how they will accomplish this within the next ten years.

How will this scholarship contribute to your professional success? A scholarship committee wants to be sure that the money they’re giving will contribute to a student’s overall professional success. This question asks about the applicant’s game plan in the long-term and evaluates how this program is going to assist in their future.

What is your dream job ? Since a dream job is often categorized as a person’s career goals, this is a common question phrasing in scholarship essays. Asking about a candidate’s dream job answers whether this program aligns with the student’s long-term career goals.

What matters most to you and why? Sometimes, a scholarship essay prompt won’t ask about your career or future at all. Instead, they’ll ask a question like this that assesses your motivations , values, and character.

Use these examples of career goals essays for scholarships to help write your own. Pay special attention to how they’re organized, rather than the content, to inspire your own career goals essay:

Career goals essay example 1 – Discuss your career goals

When I was six years old, I was riding bikes with my older sister around our neighborhood. She had just taught me how to ride, and I was excited to have to freedom to explore with her. When she was rounding a particularly difficult bend to see around, a car happened to be coming along at the same time. It struck her. That bike ride changed our lives forever. Over the next year, I went with my sister every Tuesday and Thursday to her physical therapist ’s appointments to help her regain walking strength. Watching her physical therapist patiently assist my sister back to becoming herself awoken something in me. A passion for helping others in the same way eventually turned into a career goal of becoming a physical therapist myself. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in exercise science. After graduating in 2019, I knew that the next step for me was to attend a graduate program in physical therapy. I was accepted to Lassell University Master of Science in Rehabilitation Services. This presented me with my latest goal along my career path, and I’m eagerly waiting to start. This scholarship would help me afford the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Lassell University class of 2023, allowing me to continue working towards my ultimate career goal of becoming a physical therapist and helping others to become themselves again.

Career goals essay example 2 – Where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years, I will have been successfully running my own construction business for about five years. I’m currently a second-year student at the University of Texas, pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. I decided to get my MBA because I knew it would be a positive asset toward my long-term career goal of owning a construction business. In my high school years, I worked as a construction apprentice for a local business. I loved many aspects of the business, such as building something from nothing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this work into my long-term career, but I didn’t want to work as an apprentice . This led me to pursue business. In ten years and with the help of this scholarship, I will have graduated with my MBA almost a decade prior . After graduation, I plan to take a business administration internship with a carpentry business to help myself get a footing in the field. After about two years of this, I will have started my own construction business.

Career goals essay example 3 – What matters most to you and why?

The people I surround myself with matter most to me. Whether it be my relatives, friends, or professional acquaintances, I always care the most about the happiness of the people around me. Making the people around me happy matters the most to me because I truly because we find our happiness through others. I believe that this drive to make a positive impression on the people around me is what drove me towards a career as a nurse . I always thought of hospitals as places where people need someone to support them and make their day a little happier. I wanted to be one of those who spend their careers positively impacting people in need. This scholarship will enable me to finally afford nursing school and go after my dream job full force.

Career goals essay example 4 – What are your short- and long-term career goals, and how will earning this degree contribute to achieving those goals? Please provide a minimum of 200 words.

My short-term career goals involve working directly with underprivileged young people to increase the literacy rate in my community. As a student of an underfunded and understaffed school, I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact early literacy education makes on long-term achievement. It broke my heart to see my peers embarrassed at their struggle with reading at an advanced age, and this shame added another dimension to their lack of opportunity. Being a literacy educator for young people would allow me to serve this community directly to show them not only the necessity of strong written communication skills, but the joy of reading for pleasure. This program focuses specifically on early literacy, and would provide me a direct route to a career in serving the community I hope to serve. As for long-term career goals, I hope to one day create a program where socioeconomically parents can bring their children for literacy education, not only to increase their ability to navigate the world of language, but also to instill confidence and joy in the written word. What drew me to this program was that it also has administrative, legal, and business dimensions that would set me on the path toward achieving this goal.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for writing a career goals scholarship essay:

Write about goals relevant to the scholarship. Although you may have many different kinds of goals for your personal and professional future, a scholarship essay only discusses objectives that are relevant to the program you’re applying for.

Be honest. Applying for a scholarship is stressful because the applicant’s education is usually reliant on receiving these funds in one way or another. Even though it’s tempting to exaggerate your skills or pretend you’re more passionate about something than you are to make yourself a more competitive applicant, it’s a bad move.

Use your own, unique voice. The essay portion of a scholarship application is your chance to stand out by using your voice. Nobody else, regardless of their academic or professional achievements, is you. Make this clear in your career goals scholarship essay by keeping your unique written voice engrained in the words you produce.

Be specific. A big reason that scholarship committees ask applicants to write a career goals essay is to determine how prepared they are in planning their long-term professional goals. They aren’t interested in providing a scholarship to students who aren’t going to follow through with their career plans.

Explain long and short-term goals . Even if the essay prompt asks you to describe where you see yourself in ten years, you still need to tell them the steps leading towards this picture of success.

Include the short-term goals that add up to your larger career objectives in your essay response. Explain how accomplishing the smaller goals gives you an advantage when tackling long-term ones.

Explain how the program and scholarship will help you. Before writing your career goals essay, consider how this program and scholarship will help you in your career. The answer to this question is essential.

Follow the essay formatting guidelines. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget this step when your essay is finally flowing and when you’re scrambling to get it submitted on time.

Check, double-check , and triple-check the essay guidelines for content, word count, and formatting requirements. If you miss any of these steps, your essay may be immediately disqualified no matter how good it or the rest of your application is.

Many times career goals essays are written by students who have already completed at least some college or are applying to a post-graduate program and need more money to continue.

There’s a good chance that your career goals have changed since you started or graduated college. For example, say you wanted to be an engineer , so you got your undergraduate degree in engineering but realized you didn’t like it after working in the industry for a few years.

You decided that nursing would be more up your alley, and now you’re applying for a scholarship for a nursing program. While this isn’t unusual, it can make it more difficult to write a career goals essay since your past work doesn’t necessarily match your future goals.

In this case, you’ll simply need to explain why you changed your career path and why this next one is the best choice for you. Share your decision-making process to show that you haven’t taken the switch lightly, and talk about what you’ve already done to try to pursue this path.

How do you write a career goal for a scholarship essay?

You write a career goal for a scholarship essay by sharing your passion, explaining both your long- and short-term goals, and relating your goals to the scholarship.

Explain why you want to pursue the career you’re pursuing, where you hope to be in the future and how you plan to get there, and how the scholarship will help you do this.

How do you describe your career goals in an essay?

You describe your career goals in an essay by explaining what you want to do in your career, why you decided on this career path, and what you’ve done so far to make that a reality.

You can usually work these factors into any prompt you receive, so think through them before you start writing so that you can use them as an outline of sorts.

What are career goals examples?

Examples of career goals include:

Working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization.

Becoming a department manager and eventually an executive in your field.

Owning your own plumbing company.

Caring for underserved communities as a nurse practitioner .

What are some goals for success?

Some goals for success include growing in your role, building your network, and finding joy in the job. Most careers don’t just happen overnight and require you to set the right milestones that work best for you. Not everyone will have the same goals for success.

How do you start a career goals essay for a scholarship?

You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it’s essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer will show a clarity of mind that helps enhance the quality of your answer.

BLS – Career planning for high schoolers

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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Application Essays

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write and revise the personal statement required by many graduate programs, internships, and special academic programs.

Before you start writing

Because the application essay can have a critical effect upon your progress toward a career, you should spend significantly more time, thought, and effort on it than its typically brief length would suggest. It should reflect how you arrived at your professional goals, why the program is ideal for you, and what you bring to the program. Don’t make this a deadline task—now’s the time to write, read, rewrite, give to a reader, revise again, and on until the essay is clear, concise, and compelling. At the same time, don’t be afraid. You know most of the things you need to say already.

Read the instructions carefully. One of the basic tasks of the application essay is to follow the directions. If you don’t do what they ask, the reader may wonder if you will be able to follow directions in their program. Make sure you follow page and word limits exactly—err on the side of shortness, not length. The essay may take two forms:

• A one-page essay answering a general question
• Several short answers to more specific questions

Do some research before you start writing. Think about…

• The field. Why do you want to be a _____? No, really. Think about why you and you particularly want to enter that field. What are the benefits and what are the shortcomings? When did you become interested in the field and why? What path in that career interests you right now? Brainstorm and write these ideas out.
• The program. Why is this the program you want to be admitted to? What is special about the faculty, the courses offered, the placement record, the facilities you might be using? If you can’t think of anything particular, read the brochures they offer, go to events, or meet with a faculty member or student in the program. A word about honesty here—you may have a reason for choosing a program that wouldn’t necessarily sway your reader; for example, you want to live near the beach, or the program is the most prestigious and would look better on your resume. You don’t want to be completely straightforward in these cases and appear superficial, but skirting around them or lying can look even worse. Turn these aspects into positives. For example, you may want to go to a program in a particular location because it is a place that you know very well and have ties to, or because there is a need in your field there. Again, doing research on the program may reveal ways to legitimate even your most superficial and selfish reasons for applying.
• Yourself. What details or anecdotes would help your reader understand you? What makes you special? Is there something about your family, your education, your work/life experience, or your values that has shaped you and brought you to this career field? What motivates or interests you? Do you have special skills, like leadership, management, research, or communication? Why would the members of the program want to choose you over other applicants? Be honest with yourself and write down your ideas. If you are having trouble, ask a friend or relative to make a list of your strengths or unique qualities that you plan to read on your own (and not argue about immediately). Ask them to give you examples to back up their impressions (For example, if they say you are “caring,” ask them to describe an incident they remember in which they perceived you as caring).

Now, write a draft

This is a hard essay to write. It’s probably much more personal than any of the papers you have written for class because it’s about you, not World War II or planaria. You may want to start by just getting something—anything—on paper. Try freewriting. Think about the questions we asked above and the prompt for the essay, and then write for 15 or 30 minutes without stopping. What do you want your audience to know after reading your essay? What do you want them to feel? Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, organization, or anything else. Just get out the ideas you have. For help getting started, see our handout on brainstorming .

Now, look at what you’ve written. Find the most relevant, memorable, concrete statements and focus in on them. Eliminate any generalizations or platitudes (“I’m a people person”, “Doctors save lives”, or “Mr. Calleson’s classes changed my life”), or anything that could be cut and pasted into anyone else’s application. Find what is specific to you about the ideas that generated those platitudes and express them more directly. Eliminate irrelevant issues (“I was a track star in high school, so I think I’ll make a good veterinarian.”) or issues that might be controversial for your reader (“My faith is the one true faith, and only nurses with that faith are worthwhile,” or “Lawyers who only care about money are evil.”).

Often, writers start out with generalizations as a way to get to the really meaningful statements, and that’s OK. Just make sure that you replace the generalizations with examples as you revise. A hint: you may find yourself writing a good, specific sentence right after a general, meaningless one. If you spot that, try to use the second sentence and delete the first.

Applications that have several short-answer essays require even more detail. Get straight to the point in every case, and address what they’ve asked you to address.

Now that you’ve generated some ideas, get a little bit pickier. It’s time to remember one of the most significant aspects of the application essay: your audience. Your readers may have thousands of essays to read, many or most of which will come from qualified applicants. This essay may be your best opportunity to communicate with the decision makers in the application process, and you don’t want to bore them, offend them, or make them feel you are wasting their time.

With this in mind:

• Do assure your audience that you understand and look forward to the challenges of the program and the field, not just the benefits.
• Do assure your audience that you understand exactly the nature of the work in the field and that you are prepared for it, psychologically and morally as well as educationally.
• Do assure your audience that you care about them and their time by writing a clear, organized, and concise essay.
• Do address any information about yourself and your application that needs to be explained (for example, weak grades or unusual coursework for your program). Include that information in your essay, and be straightforward about it. Your audience will be more impressed with your having learned from setbacks or having a unique approach than your failure to address those issues.
• Don’t waste space with information you have provided in the rest of the application. Every sentence should be effective and directly related to the rest of the essay. Don’t ramble or use fifteen words to express something you could say in eight.
• Don’t overstate your case for what you want to do, being so specific about your future goals that you come off as presumptuous or naïve (“I want to become a dentist so that I can train in wisdom tooth extraction, because I intend to focus my life’s work on taking 13 rather than 15 minutes per tooth.”). Your goals may change–show that such a change won’t devastate you.
• And, one more time, don’t write in cliches and platitudes. Every doctor wants to help save lives, every lawyer wants to work for justice—your reader has read these general cliches a million times.

Imagine the worst-case scenario (which may never come true—we’re talking hypothetically): the person who reads your essay has been in the field for decades. She is on the application committee because she has to be, and she’s read 48 essays so far that morning. You are number 49, and your reader is tired, bored, and thinking about lunch. How are you going to catch and keep her attention?

Assure your audience that you are capable academically, willing to stick to the program’s demands, and interesting to have around. For more tips, see our handout on audience .

Voice and style

The voice you use and the style in which you write can intrigue your audience. The voice you use in your essay should be yours. Remember when your high school English teacher said “never say ‘I’”? Here’s your chance to use all those “I”s you’ve been saving up. The narrative should reflect your perspective, experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Focusing on events or ideas may give your audience an indirect idea of how these things became important in forming your outlook, but many others have had equally compelling experiences. By simply talking about those events in your own voice, you put the emphasis on you rather than the event or idea. Look at this anecdote:

During the night shift at Wirth Memorial Hospital, a man walked into the Emergency Room wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. He seemed confused and was moaning in pain. One of the nurses ascertained that he had been swinging from tree branches in a local park and had hit his head when he fell out of a tree. This tragic tale signified the moment at which I realized psychiatry was the only career path I could take.

An interesting tale, yes, but what does it tell you about the narrator? The following example takes the same anecdote and recasts it to make the narrator more of a presence in the story:

I was working in the Emergency Room at Wirth Memorial Hospital one night when a man walked in wearing a monkey costume and holding his head. I could tell he was confused and in pain. After a nurse asked him a few questions, I listened in surprise as he explained that he had been a monkey all of his life and knew that it was time to live with his brothers in the trees. Like many other patients I would see that year, this man suffered from an illness that only a combination of psychological and medical care would effectively treat. I realized then that I wanted to be able to help people by using that particular combination of skills only a psychiatrist develops.

The voice you use should be approachable as well as intelligent. This essay is not the place to stun your reader with ten prepositional phrases (“the goal of my study of the field of law in the winter of my discontent can best be understood by the gathering of more information about my youth”) and thirty nouns (“the research and study of the motivation behind my insights into the field of dentistry contains many pitfalls and disappointments but even more joy and enlightenment”) per sentence. (Note: If you are having trouble forming clear sentences without all the prepositions and nouns, take a look at our handout on style .)

You may want to create an impression of expertise in the field by using specialized or technical language. But beware of this unless you really know what you are doing—a mistake will look twice as ignorant as not knowing the terms in the first place. Your audience may be smart, but you don’t want to make them turn to a dictionary or fall asleep between the first word and the period of your first sentence. Keep in mind that this is a personal statement. Would you think you were learning a lot about a person whose personal statement sounded like a journal article? Would you want to spend hours in a lab or on a committee with someone who shuns plain language?

Of course, you don’t want to be chatty to the point of making them think you only speak slang, either. Your audience may not know what “I kicked that lame-o to the curb for dissing my research project” means. Keep it casual enough to be easy to follow, but formal enough to be respectful of the audience’s intelligence.

Just use an honest voice and represent yourself as naturally as possible. It may help to think of the essay as a sort of face-to-face interview, only the interviewer isn’t actually present.

Too much style

A well-written, dramatic essay is much more memorable than one that fails to make an emotional impact on the reader. Good anecdotes and personal insights can really attract an audience’s attention. BUT be careful not to let your drama turn into melodrama. You want your reader to see your choices motivated by passion and drive, not hyperbole and a lack of reality. Don’t invent drama where there isn’t any, and don’t let the drama take over. Getting someone else to read your drafts can help you figure out when you’ve gone too far.

Taking risks

Many guides to writing application essays encourage you to take a risk, either by saying something off-beat or daring or by using a unique writing style. When done well, this strategy can work—your goal is to stand out from the rest of the applicants and taking a risk with your essay will help you do that. An essay that impresses your reader with your ability to think and express yourself in original ways and shows you really care about what you are saying is better than one that shows hesitancy, lack of imagination, or lack of interest.

But be warned: this strategy is a risk. If you don’t carefully consider what you are saying and how you are saying it, you may offend your readers or leave them with a bad impression of you as flaky, immature, or careless. Do not alienate your readers.

Some writers take risks by using irony (your suffering at the hands of a barbaric dentist led you to want to become a gentle one), beginning with a personal failure (that eventually leads to the writer’s overcoming it), or showing great imagination (one famous successful example involved a student who answered a prompt about past formative experiences by beginning with a basic answer—”I have volunteered at homeless shelters”—that evolved into a ridiculous one—”I have sealed the hole in the ozone layer with plastic wrap”). One student applying to an art program described the person he did not want to be, contrasting it with the person he thought he was and would develop into if accepted. Another person wrote an essay about her grandmother without directly linking her narrative to the fact that she was applying for medical school. Her essay was risky because it called on the reader to infer things about the student’s character and abilities from the story.

Assess your credentials and your likelihood of getting into the program before you choose to take a risk. If you have little chance of getting in, try something daring. If you are almost certainly guaranteed a spot, you have more flexibility. In any case, make sure that you answer the essay question in some identifiable way.

After you’ve written a draft

Get several people to read it and write their comments down. It is worthwhile to seek out someone in the field, perhaps a professor who has read such essays before. Give it to a friend, your mom, or a neighbor. The key is to get more than one point of view, and then compare these with your own. Remember, you are the one best equipped to judge how accurately you are representing yourself. For tips on putting this advice to good use, see our handout on getting feedback .

After you’ve received feedback, revise the essay. Put it away. Get it out and revise it again (you can see why we said to start right away—this process may take time). Get someone to read it again. Revise it again.

When you think it is totally finished, you are ready to proofread and format the essay. Check every sentence and punctuation mark. You cannot afford a careless error in this essay. (If you are not comfortable with your proofreading skills, check out our handout on editing and proofreading ).

If you find that your essay is too long, do not reformat it extensively to make it fit. Making readers deal with a nine-point font and quarter-inch margins will only irritate them. Figure out what material you can cut and cut it. For strategies for meeting word limits, see our handout on writing concisely .

Finally, proofread it again. We’re not kidding.

Other resources

Don’t be afraid to talk to professors or professionals in the field. Many of them would be flattered that you asked their advice, and they will have useful suggestions that others might not have. Also keep in mind that many colleges and professional programs offer websites addressing the personal statement. You can find them either through the website of the school to which you are applying or by searching under “personal statement” or “application essays” using a search engine.

If your schedule and ours permit, we invite you to come to the Writing Center. Be aware that during busy times in the semester, we limit students to a total of two visits to discuss application essays and personal statements (two visits per student, not per essay); we do this so that students working on papers for courses will have a better chance of being seen. Make an appointment or submit your essay to our online writing center (note that we cannot guarantee that an online tutor will help you in time).

For information on other aspects of the application process, you can consult the resources at University Career Services .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Asher, Donald. 2012. Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the Graduate School of Your Choice , 4th ed. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Curry, Boykin, Emily Angel Baer, and Brian Kasbar. 2003. Essays That Worked for College Applications: 50 Essays That Helped Students Get Into the Nation’s Top Colleges . New York: Ballantine Books.

Stelzer, Richard. 2002. How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School , 3rd ed. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thomson Peterson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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We’ll Help You Write Career Goals Essays

• Essay Writing Guides

Career goals essays are important for expressing personal ambitions and objectives in the professional realm. They can greatly impact college applications, job interviews, scholarship submissions, and career advancement initiatives. These essays about career goals have the power to showcase an individual’s determination, visions, and unique brand, opening doors to academic programs, job opportunities, and funding.

The purpose of this article is to provide essential instructions for crafting an exceptional career goals essay . It aims to address the challenges, offer guidance and support, and empower individuals with the necessary tools to create a compelling and impactful essay.

Analyse Career Goals Essays Prompts

The prompt is a crucial aspect of essays on career goals , requiring a thorough examination of the specific requirements and objectives. It is essential to identify keywords such as “career goals,” “aspirations,” “objectives,” or any specific instructions provided. Clarity in comprehension is crucial to structure your response effectively. 

Key components include short-term goals, long-term goals, and career aspirations. Short-term goals are immediate objectives or milestones; long-term goals are ambitious aspirations and achievements, and career aspirations are desires related to professional growth and fulfillment. Additional components of career goal essays may include academic goals, personal development objectives, or industry-related targets.

To effectively interpret and address the prompt, break down complex prompts into manageable segments, align responses with requirements, stay focused, provide relevant examples, avoid straying off-topic, and review and refine your response before finalizing it. This ensures that your essay about career goals addresses all components and adheres to any specific guidelines provided. By following these simple tricks, you can effectively address the prompt and meet the expectations of your evaluators.

Essay on Career Goal

Engaging in self-reflection plays a vital role in writing one’s paper on career goals , as it imparts clarity, guidance, and coherence with individual values. Furthermore, it facilitates well-informed choices by evaluating aptitudes, deficiencies, passions, and principles. Identifying personal strengths encompasses recognizing realms of proficiency, abilities, and gifts to optimize the execution of career ambitions. 

Identifying areas in need of enhancement or growth and actively working to overcome obstacles are considered weaknesses. Pursuing passions and exploring areas of curiosity play a key role in guiding career exploration and decision-making, thus known as interests. Personal beliefs, principles, and priorities are carefully examined when making career choices and pursuing aspirations; these are what shape our values.

In order to establish challenging yet attainable objectives in essays on career, it is essential to employ the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal-setting strategy. This requires defining career goals with precision and establishing measurable benchmarks for tracking progress. 

Also, it is crucial to set realistic goals that align with one’s abilities, available resources, and constraints. By incorporating personal values and long-term aspirations into this process and implementing specific deadlines for achieving these goals, individuals can ensure a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction in their overall pursuit.

Essay About Career Goals

To craft a compelling narrative in a career goals essay, follow these steps:

• Develop a clear thesis statement: This statement serves as the central argument, summarising your aspirations and objectives. Ensure it is clear, focused, specific, and tailored to the prompt.
• Structuring your career goals essay effectively: Introduce the topic, provide context, and present the statement.
• Structure the body: The body of your career goals essay should be organised around key themes related to your career goals, such as education, skills development, and professional experiences. Provide relevant examples, achievements, and experiences to substantiate your career goals and demonstrate your qualifications and readiness.
• Maintain logical flow and coherence: Maintain logical flow throughout the body paragraphs, using transitional phrases to connect ideas and maintain reader engagement.
• Conclusion: Summarize the points discussed in your career goals paper, offer reflective insights into your journey and growth, and end with a compelling call to action.
• Incorporating personal anecdotes and experiences: Select personal anecdotes and experiences that directly relate to your career goals and provide insight into your motivations, passions, and aspirations. 
• Share genuine and authentic stories that reflect your unique experiences and perspectives, avoiding embellishment or exaggeration.

It also highlights the impact of your experiences on shaping your career goals and aspirations, illustrating how they have influenced your values, skills, and aspirations. Strike a balance between personal anecdotes and concrete evidence, ensuring your essay on career goals remains grounded in tangible achievements and experiences while conveying your narrative and identity.

Showing Passion and Commitment

To learn how to write a career goals essay , it is essential to demonstrate authenticity, personal connection, research and knowledge, and a positive attitude. Share personal anecdotes or experiences that highlight your deep-rooted interest and enthusiasm for the field. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the field’s challenges and opportunities.

Illustrate your dedication and commitment to achieving your goals by sharing stories of persistence and resilience. Articulate a clear and ambitious vision for your future career path, demonstrating your commitment to long-term success and impact. 

Show tangible results and achievements that reflect your dedication and commitment to your goals. Avoid generic statements and clichés by tailoring your language and examples to reflect your unique experiences, providing concrete details and examples to support your claims, presenting fresh insights and perspectives, and being honest and transparent in your communication. This will help maintain credibility and authenticity in your chosen field.

Topic Examples of Career Goals Essays

To help you with this process, we’ve compiled a list of diverse examples of career goals essays to inspire and guide you.

• “My Journey to Becoming a Software Engineer: A Story of Passion and Persistence:” Write about your passion for coding and determination to pursue a career in software engineering.
• “From Dream to Reality: How I Plan to Build my Own Sustainable Fashion Brand:” Discuss your plans for launching a sustainable fashion brand, your motivations, eco-friendly production plans, and your commitment to ethical fashion practices.
• “Bridging the Gap: My Aspirations to Revolutionize Healthcare Access in Underserved Communities:” Outline career goals in healthcare administration, public health, or medical outreach.
• “Breaking Barriers: A Personal Narrative of Pursuing a Career in STEM as a Woman of Color:” Write about your experiences as a minority in STEM fields and your determination to overcome systemic barriers.
• “Beyond Borders: My Ambitions to Work in International Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution:” Explore your interest in global affairs and their aspirations to contribute to peacebuilding efforts, international relations, or humanitarian diplomacy.
• “Healing Through Art: My Journey to Becoming a Music Therapist:” Discuss your passion for music therapy, career goals in clinical practice, and your desire to use music as a tool for emotional healing.
• “Navigating the Business World: My Aspirations to Become a Social Entrepreneur:” Discuss your entrepreneurial spirit and your goals to launch a social enterprise.

Armed with these inspiring topics and brief descriptions, you’re now equipped to embark on the journey of crafting your own career goals essay. Remember, your career goal essay is an opportunity to showcase your passions, aspirations, and commitment to making a good impact in your chosen field. 

Final Words

As we wrap off our guide to writing a great career goals essay, it’s important to reflect on our trip together. Writing down one’s career goals is more than just a writing exercise; it’s a deep process of introspection and goal-setting. We’ve covered a lot of ground in this book, including how to understand prompts, reflect on yourself, and write a story that truly conveys your goals and passions.

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Essay on Career

A career is the future of our job or education that later determines our success.

Who doesn’t want to have a luxurious life, who doesn’t want to be rich? Who doesn’t love to be famous or to be liked and respected by society? Everyone loves this stuff and wants themselves as well as their family to be happy and prosper all time. In order to achieve all these things, everyone works hard to make a better career. Life wouldn’t be complete without a career. Since childhood, every child thinks of what he wants to become in the future. Today we will focus on the career in detail.

Short and Long Career Essay in English

Here I’m presenting long and short essays on Career for students. This topic is useful for students who are at the stage of choosing their careers.

Career Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) A career is a journey that a person makes through learning, work, and other aspects of life.

2) Career will help to turn all dreams into reality.

3) Choosing a career is the most critical task of our life.

4) Career should be chosen according to our interests.

5) Students can make their careers in many fields like medical, engineering, teaching, art, etc.

6) Hard work, confidence, and determination are important to achieve good career goals.

7) One should choose a career that gives joy and pleasure.

8) Students can make their careers according to their skills.

9) A good network and guidance will lead you toward a good career.

10) Students should take help from their parents, elders, teachers, and well-wishers while choosing a career.

Short Essay on Career (200 – 250 Words)

Everyone has a dream to have a luxurious lifestyle full of comfort. To enjoy this lifestyle we have to make a good career. Developing a career plan is an integral part of managing personal development and learning. Anyone can set themselves up for a fruitful, fulfilling career if they put in some hard work, do some planning, and conduct some serious self-reflection. Choosing a career involves a number of factors like future scope, skills required, etc. These factors have an impact on a person’s final decision. Before selecting a career, it is important to identify the areas of interest.

It is well known that academic studies lead to a wide range of careers. One needs to study hard for better career prospects. A hobby or thing that anyone loves to do can easily be turned into a career. A number of hobbies correlate well with actual career positions.

Like, if anyone enjoys drawing or arts, a career as a graphic designer is ideal, or if he likes sports, he can choose his career as an athlete or a sports trainer/coach. However, one should also think of the future aspect of that field. A career is an important factor that enhances your societal importance and relationship. Do not give up on your dreams, choose your career wisely.

Long Essay on Career (500 – 600 Words)

Introduction

When we take admission to school we don’t have much idea about our future. We generally concentrate on our studies. We enjoy this stage very much. Later when we are promoted to a higher standard, we understand the importance of studies. After a few years when we are at the ending stage of our school days, we realize the importance and meaning of a career. At this time we really have the pressure of choosing a good career. A career is a future path that leads us toward the path of success.

Importance of a good career

A career plays a crucial role in everyone’s life. From childhood, we are instructed to study hard and score good grades. We are told to work hard to make a better career. A good career leads to a good life. A career is important to attain success in life. From personal to professional life everything is affected by a career. A good career develops your personality and quality of living.

Society also respects people who have a good career. Your lifestyle and future also depend on your career. A career affects your entire life and hence it is considered important to choose your career wisely. Many students aim to become a doctor, engineers, teachers, etc in the future. To attain this profession first we need to study hard.

Choosing your career

Choosing your career is a very critical decision. There are many factors that affect the decision of choosing a career. The first thing that we should consider is our area of interest. Students should make their careers in the field they are interested. Our interest makes us more perfect in our job. Another thing is the future prospect, students should also take care of future opportunities. The field you are opting for must have a good future scope so that later it gives you fruitful results. Everything in the world is continuously changing. So keeping this in mind is very important when choosing your career.

Other things like working environment, salary, extra benefits, etc should also be concerned. One must feel satisfied with their career. You rarely get a chance to correct the mistake you have taken while choosing a career. Therefore, students should think twice before proceeding toward the future.

What helps in making a good career?

A career cannot be built overnight, you have to focus on it beforehand. The below given factors will help you to achieve good career goals.

Hard work: Nothing can be achieved without hard work. Continuous hard work and studies will help you to achieve your career goal.

Confidence: Today, confidence is important in both personal as well as professional life. Confidence will give you the power to show your skills and also help you to do well in your career.

Determination: Determination toward your work will always give you a profitable result. One should never lose hope and always remain determined.

We have to take many decisions in life but the most critical decision is to choose a perfect career. The option to choose a career comes only once in life. Therefore, we should start thinking about our career way before so that we do not make any mistake. We can also take help from parents, elders, teachers, and relatives. Today, we have the internet, the solution to all the problems. Students should collect proper knowledge and choose a career that suits their interests and future.

I hope the above provided essay on Career will be helpful for every student in making their career decisions.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions on Career

Ans. A career is a long-term goal while a job can be done for earning money.

Ans. Frank Parsons is considered as the “Father of Guidance”.

Ans. Career planning is a process that helps in choosing the best career that matches your interest, skills, and talent.

Ans. A career counselor helps you in choosing a career. Doesn’t matter whether you are new or working, you can take help from a career counselor to build a good career.

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How to Make Better Decisions About Your Career

• Timothy Yen

No, it doesn’t involve a Magic 8-Ball.

Making decisions is hard — especially when you’re trying to make big career decisions. This five-step framework can help you focus on what’s important.

• What are your feelings telling you? Think about the kind of work you’re doing now, or the kind of work you’re planning to do. Brainstorm and jot down ideas of different careers you’re considering. What feelings come up?
• What matters to you? Take a psychological assessment or complete an exercise that will help you identify your values.  Understanding your values will allow you to make choices that align directly with the things you care about.
• What matters to other people? Just as it’s important to get clear on what matters to you, it’s also important to consider how your decision will impact your loved ones. Ask them for their own thoughts, input, and feelings.
• What is the reality of the situation? Be objective and consider the realities surrounding your options, not your assumptions. Otherwise, you might end up having false expectations or feeling disappointed by your choices.
• How do I put the pieces together? Once you’ve answered these four questions, review all the information you’ve just discovered. You should come to your final decision. If you don’t revisit the previous steps.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Picking your college major, choosing the perfect career, trying to decide if you should leave your job and move to a new one — decisions like these can feel daunting. We all spend a huge amount of time at work, and we all want (and deserve) to love what we do. But the path to finding that work isn’t always clear.

• TY Timothy Yen is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate from Azusa Pacific University, practicing in the East Bay area, and leading conferences and retreats around the globe. Between his years in private practice and another eight years as a Mental Health Staff Sergeant in the US Army, he’s empowered hundreds of individuals, families, organizations, and teams to develop authentic relationships and grow into their best selves. He currently resides in Northern California with his wife and son.

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Essay on Career for Children and Students

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Career is an important aspect of any person’s life. It determines the kind of lifestyle one will lead and his/her position in the society. While everyone dreams of a good lifestyle not everyone is able to build a strong career that can ensure the same.

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Career is usually associated with the professional aspect of a person’s life. However, some even relate it to an individual’s life and learning in addition to his work. Here are essays of varying lengths on Career to help you with the topic whenever you required. You can select any career essay as per your need:

Long and Short Essay on Career

Essay on Career 200 words

Choosing a career is a big decision and the irony is that we are not prepared to take such a big decision at the time we require taking it. We are still in our school when we have to choose between the science, commerce and humanities stream that mainly influences the career path we take up later. While earlier, it was parents, teachers and elder siblings who largely influenced our career choice, children these days have become more aware – thanks to the internet. We can explore the various available career options on the internet as well as their prospects before we make the final decision. However, advice from the elders is still recommended as they are more experienced.

We must all be very careful while choosing our career. We must not enter a field just because our friend or sibling has taken it up or our parents want us to go for it. We should listen to our heart, understand what really interests us, see if we are good at it and then look forward to other aspects attached to it. The other aspects may include the cost involved in the course we wish to pursue, the demand of such professionals in the market, the packages being offered in the field we want to enter and the growth prospects in the field.

Essay on Career 300 words

Be it a boy or a girl, these days career is given a lot of importance in a person’s life. From the beginning itself, we are asked to concentrate on our studies and score well in the exams. The ultimate motif of doing this is to build a strong base and fetch good grades that would help you build a lucrative career.

My Career Plan

I am from a well-learned family. Everyone in my family is working at good positions and thus there are high expectations from me too. My father is in the field of Information Technology and is working with a good multi-national company. My mother is a dentist. She has her own clinic which is well-established. My brother is currently studying medicine and aims to become a doctor. So, basically everyone in my family went for the science stream.

I am in 8 th standard and would soon be required to decide as to which stream to go for. I have been performing consistently well in my exams and can easily enter the science stream. All my relatives, friends and family members also think that I will be choosing this field however I have a different plan.

I want to become an interior designer. I am naturally inclined towards this field. It interests me immensely and I feel I can do really well in it. I love home décor items and love surfing through the internet and magazines to take a look at them. I also keep redecorating my room every now and then and am even appreciated for my unique ideas. I know this is my thing and I will flourish in this field. I am sure my family will respect my decision and encourage me to perform well in the field of my choice.

Choosing a career can be a challenging task. You must assess your skills and interest, study the market, and consult an experienced person before making the final decision.

Essay on Career 400 words

The career path you choose has a major impact on various other aspects of your life. It determines your status in the society, your lifestyle, your social circle and even your relations with your relatives. It is thus important to choose your career wisely.

Factors to Consider While Choosing a Career

There are many factors that you must take into consideration while choosing a career. Here is a brief look at these:

• Your Interest and Calibre

The first thing you must do while choosing a career is to assess yourself. Understand where your interest lies. However, merely having interest in a particular field does not help. In addition to it you must also see if you are well suited for that particular profession. This is to say that whether you have the required skills and calibre to perform well in the field of your interest. If yes, then you can look forward to it.

• Look for the Available Opportunities

There may be many different kinds of occupations matching your educational qualification and experience. It is a good idea to make a list of all these occupations.

• Narrow Down Your List

Explore your list to understand all the available opportunities better. Narrow down the list and settle for the one that suits you best. While doing so you must seek advice from your seniors as well as those who are already in the profession you are planning to get into. Internet is a boon when it comes to such tasks. Gather information about the same from the internet before you make the final decision.

• Write a Good Resume

Once you are clear on which career path you want to tread on it is essential to write a good resume to back your plan. Your resume plays an important role in fetching a job of your choice. Thus, you must prepare a good one.

• Acquire the Skills

Many a times, your educational qualification may not be enough to seek the occupation of your choice. You may require some additional skills that may be acquired by undergoing vocational training. Don’t hesitate to go for such short-term trainings and workshops.

You must choose your career cautiously as various aspects of your life are attached to it. Take your time, explore all the options, seek advice from those you are experienced and then take a decision. Once you choose a career, work hard so that you are able to get into the field of your choice.

Essay on Career 500 words

Building a career requires education, skill, determination as well as good opportunity. The key is not to give up and continually thrive towards achieving your goals to build a lucrative career.

Career Opportunities in India

India is known to produce millions of genius minds every year. Though the education system of the country has been criticized time and again we cannot deny the fact that our graduates and post graduates are setting milestones by grabbing jobs in big brands across the world. While the country provides good job opportunities to these qualified and skilled individuals they face quite a few hindrances when it actually comes to acquiring a job.

The first hindrance is that the jobs in the market are not at par with the qualified individuals in the country. The growing population of India is responsible for the same. Secondly, the pay packages offered here are often not at par with what these young achievers get abroad. The reservation or quota system is yet another reason why the deserving candidates do not get good jobs in the country. All this is the reason why many qualified doctors, engineers and other professionals head outside.

Career Opportunities Abroad

The first world countries offer great salary and a far better lifestyle as compared to that provided in India. Countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore and Australia always look out for genius minds to take their businesses and ultimately their country’s economy to newer heights. There are numerous job opportunities available in the field of science, technology, management and various other sectors. Individuals from the third world countries such as India are looking for good job opportunities, better packages and a good lifestyle and thus grab the opportunities offered by these countries.

Each year several professionals relocate to the first world countries causing brain drain in their native lands.

How to Achieve Career Goals?

While many people fly abroad in search of good job opportunities others settle for lesser paying jobs or the ones that are not at par with their qualification. For all those who had big career dreams but had to settle for less there is still hope. Here are a few tips to help you achieve your career goals:

• Maintain Your LinkedIn Profile

It is essential to maintain your LinkedIn Profile to grab attention of the employers. Besides, be active on this platform as well as other job portals to look for any new opportunity that arises. A well-maintained profile on this platform can fetch you good opportunities.

• Build Network

Building PR and networking with professionals in the same field is essential to stay updated with the latest in the industry.

• Attend Industry Seminars and Events

A lot of seminars and industry events are organized these days. It is suggested to attend such seminars to acquire greater insight into the industry and meet influential people.

Apart from this, you must stay determined, review your career goals from time to time and never stop learning.

The government of India must curb the issues that are causing a hindrance in providing good career opportunities to individuals in the country. A country that values the talent and skills of its citizens and channelizes it in the right direction flourishes at a good pace.

Essay on Career 600 words

While on one hand the advancement in technology has taken away jobs from the labour class, on the other hand it has given way to numerous lucrative opportunities for those who are well-educated. There are all the more opportunities for those who are equipped with technical knowledge.

Career Opportunities

Earlier it was believed that those who go for science stream after their 10 th standard have a lucrative career ahead, the ones who go for the commerce stream are not likely to grab very good opportunities and there is very little scope for those who go for humanities. This did hold good until a few decades back but not now. There is immense scope in every stream these days. Here are the various career opportunities available based on the stream you choose.

Science Stream

Here is a look at the courses/ career opportunities available for students who opt for science stream:

You can pursue a degree in engineering post 12 th standard. There are numerous fields to specialize in when it comes to engineering. Electrical engineering, electronics engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, petroleum engineering, aerospace engineering, biotechnology engineering, mining engineering, textile engineering, agricultural engineering, production engineering, power engineering and marine engineering are among some of them. A qualified engineer in any of these fields can work as consultant, assistant engineer, chief engineer or supervisor.

Besides, one can go for a B.Sc. degree such as B. Sc. in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biotechnology, forestry, IT, computer science, aviation and electronics to name a few. You can build a career in teaching or research and development after pursuing any of these courses.

BCA is a good option if you have a technical bent of mind. IT companies seek BCA graduates. Acquiring MCA degree after this boosts your chances of grabbing a good opportunity manifolds. Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Pharmacy and Commercial Pilot Training are among the other fields one can go for.

Commerce Stream

Those who opt for the commerce stream after class 10 th also have a host of opportunities to look forward to. Here are some of these:

Charted Accountancy (CA), Company Secretaryship (CS), Cost and Work Accountant (CWA), Bachelors of Commerce (B.Com), Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Business Management (BBA), Bachelor of Management Studies, Hotel Management, Law (LLB) and Retail Management. A career in any of these fields is respectable as well as lucrative.

There is also a wide scope for students who opt for humanities after class 10 th . Here is a look at the various available options:

One can go for Bachelor’s of Arts to specialise in the field of his/her interest after completing 12 th standard. Bachelors in Arts in English, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Social Work, History, Psychology, Fine Arts, Library Science and Journalism are among some of the options. One can also go for Diploma courses to seek vocational knowledge and training in different fields. Diploma in Travel and Tourism, Diploma in Interior Designing, Diploma in Foreign Language, Diploma in Event Management, Diploma in Hotel Management, Teachers Training (TTC), Diploma in Air Hostess and Flight Steward are among some of these courses. While the duration of the degree courses may be 3 to 5 years, the diploma courses can mostly be completed in 6 months to 2 years time. A host of good opportunities lie ahead for those who opt for any of these courses.

There are good career opportunities for qualified and skilled candidates in India as well as abroad. However, the competition is tough. So merely enrolling to a good course would not help. You must work hard and pass the same with good grades in order to build a strong career.

Essay on Career FAQs

What is an essay about a career.

An essay about a career discusses a particular job or profession, highlighting its details and significance.

What is career short paragraph?

A career is a path of work that people choose, shaping their future employment and life.

What is career and its importance?

Career and its importance refer to the role of a job in providing financial stability and personal fulfillment.

How do you start an essay about your career?

To start an essay about your career, begin with a compelling introduction and your career goals.

How do you write a career choice essay?

To write a career choice essay, explain your career interests, reasons for choosing it, and future plans.

Why is a career choice important?

A career choice is important as it determines your job satisfaction, income, and overall life direction.

What is the choice of career?

How do you start an introduction for a career essay.

The choice of career is selecting the field of work you wish to pursue as your profession.

What is the importance of career counseling?

Start an introduction for a career essay by explaining your passion for the chosen career path.

What is career Counseling in simple words?

Career counseling is essential as it guides individuals in making informed career choices and achieving success.

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A Culture Warrior Takes a Late Swing

The editor and essayist Joseph Epstein looks back on his life and career in two new books.

• Share full article

By Dwight Garner

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life , by Joseph Epstein

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT: New and Selected Essays , by Joseph Epstein

When Tammy Wynette was asked to write a memoir in her mid-30s, she initially declined, she said in an interview, because “I didn’t think my life was over yet.” The publisher responded: Has it occurred to you that in 15 years no one might care? She wrote the book. “Stand by Your Man: An Autobiography” (1979) was a hit.

The essayist and editor Joseph Epstein — whose memoir “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life,” is out now, alongside a greatest-hits collection titled “Familiarity Breeds Content” — has probably never heard Wynette sing except by accident. (In a 1993 essay, he wrote that he wished he didn’t know who Willie Nelson was, because it was a sign of a compromised intellect.) But his memoir illustrates another reason not to wait too long to commit your life to print.

There is no indication that Epstein, who is in his late 80s, has lost a step. His prose is as genial and bland, if comparison to his earlier work is any indication, as it ever was. But there’s a softness to his memories of people, perhaps because it was all so long ago. This is the sort of memoir that insists someone was funny, or erudite, or charismatic, while rarely providing the crucial details.

Epstein aw-shucks his way into “Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life” — pretending to be self-effacing while not being so in the least is one of his salient qualities as a writer — by warning readers, “I may not have had a sufficiently interesting life to merit an autobiography.” This is because he “did little, saw nothing notably historic, and endured not much out of the ordinary of anguish or trouble or exaltation.” Quickly, however, he concludes that his life is indeed worth relating, in part because “over the years I have acquired the literary skill to recount that life well.”

Here he is wrong in both directions. His story is interesting enough to warrant this memoir. His personal life has taken complicated turns. And as the longtime editor of the quarterly magazine The American Scholar, and a notably literate conservative culture warrior, he’s been in the thick of things.

He does lack the skill to tell his own story, though, if by “skill” we mean not well-scrubbed Strunk and White sentences but close and penetrating observation. Epstein favors tasseled loafers and bow ties, and most of his sentences read as if they were written by a sentient tasseled loafer and edited by a sentient bow tie.

He grew up in Chicago, where his father manufactured costume jewelry. The young Epstein was popular and, in high school, lettered in tennis. His title refers to being lucky, and a big part of that luck, in his estimation, was to grow up back when kids could be kids, before “the therapeutic culture” took over.

This complaint sets the tone of the book. His own story is set next to a rolling series of cultural grievances. He’s against casual dress, the prohibition of the word “Negro,” grade inflation, the Beat Generation, most of what occurred during the 1960s, standards slipping everywhere, de-Westernizing college curriculums, D.E.I. programs, you name it. His politics aren’t the problem. We can argue about those. American culture needs more well-read conservatives. The problem is that in his search for teachable moments, his memoir acquires the cardboard tone of a middling opinion column.

His youth was not all tennis lessons and root beer floats. He and his friends regularly visited brothels because, he writes, sex was not as easy to come by in the 1950s. He was kicked out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for his role in the selling of a stolen accounting exam to other students.

He was lucky to find a place at the University of Chicago, a place of high seriousness. The school changed him. He began to reassess his values. He began to read writers like Irving Howe, Sidney Hook, Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz, and felt his politics pull to the right.

After college, he was drafted into the Army and ended up in Little Rock, Ark., where he met his first wife. At the time, she was a waitress at a bar and restaurant called the Gar Hole. Here Epstein’s memoir briefly threatens to acquire genuine weight.

She had lost custody of her two sons after a divorce. Together they got them back, and she and Epstein had two sons of their own. After their divorce, Epstein took all four of the boys. This is grist for an entire memoir, but Epstein passes over it quickly. One never gets much of a sense of what his boys were like, or what it was like to raise them. He later tells us that he has all but lost touch with his stepsons and has not seen them for decades.

He worked for the magazine The New Leader and the Encyclopaedia Britannica before becoming the editor of The American Scholar in 1975. It was a position he would hold for 22 years. He also taught at Northwestern University for nearly three decades.

At The American Scholar he began to write a long personal essay in each issue, under the pseudonym Aristides. He wrote 92 of these, on topics such as smoking and envy and reading and height. Most ran to 6,500 words, or about 4,000 words longer than they should have been.

Many magazine editors like to write every so often, to keep a hand in. But there is something unseemly about an editor chewing up acres of space in his own publication on a regular basis. Editorially, it’s a droit du seigneur imposition.

A selection of these essays, as well as some new ones, can now be found in “Familiarity Breeds Content.” In his introduction to this book, Christopher Buckley overpraises Epstein, leaving the reader no choice but to start mentally pushing back.

Buckley calls Epstein “the most entertaining living essayist in the English language.” (Not while Michael Kinsley, Lorrie Moore, Calvin Trillin, Sloane Crosley and Geoff Dyer, among many others, walk the earth.) He repurposes Martin Amis’s comment about Saul Bellow: “One doesn’t read Saul Bellow. One can only reread him.” To this he adds, “Ditto Epstein.” (Epstein is no Saul Bellow.) Buckley says, “Joe Epstein is incapable of writing a boring sentence.”

Well. How about this one, from an essay about cats?

A cat, I realize, cannot be everyone’s cup of fur.

Or this one, from an essay about sports and other obsessions:

I have been told there are people who wig out on pasta.

Or this one, about … guess:

When I was a boy, it occurs to me now, I always had one or another kind of hat.

Juggling today appears to be undergoing a small renaissance.

If one is looking to save on fuel bills, politics is likely to heat up a room quicker than just about anything else.

In tennis I was most notable for flipping and catching my racket in various snappy routines.

The essays are, by and large, as tweedy and self-satisfied as these lines make them sound. There are no wild hairs in them, no sudden deepenings of tone. Nothing is at stake. We are stranded with him on the putt-putt course.

Epstein fills his essays with quotation after quotation, as ballast. I am a fan of well-deployed, free-range quotations. So many of Epstein’s are musty and reek of Bartlett’s. They are from figures like Lord Chesterfield and Lady Mary Montagu and Sir Herbert Grierson and Tocqueville and Walpole and Carlyle. You can feel the moths escaping from the display case in real time.

To be fair, I circled a few sentences in “Familiarity Breeds Content” happily. I’m with him on his distrust of “fun couples.” He writes, “A cowboy without a hat is suitable only for bartending.” I liked his observation, which he borrowed from someone else, that a career has five stages:

(1) Who is Joseph Epstein? (2) Get me Joseph Epstein. (3) We need someone like Joseph Epstein. (4) What we need is a young Joseph Epstein. (5) Who is Joseph Epstein?

It’s no fun to trip up a writer on what might have been a late-career victory lap. Epstein doesn’t need me to like his work. He’s published more than 30 books, and you can’t do that unless you’ve made a lot of readers happy.

NEVER SAY YOU’VE HAD A LUCKY LIFE : Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life | By Joseph Epstein | Free Press | 287 pp. | $29.99

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT : New and Selected Essays | By Joseph Epstein | Simon & Schuster | 441 pp. | Paperback, $20.99

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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Philip Seymour Hoffman's Sister Remembers Late Actor in Touching Essay 10 Years After His Death

"Even now, when I watch Phil playing these parts in films that now capture a distant past, in roles that have become familiar to us, I can see so much of who he was," his sister, Emily Barr, wrote in a moving tribute to the late actor, who died in February 2014.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's younger sister is honoring the late actor 10 years after his tragic passing.

In an essay published by The Paris Review on Monday, Hoffman's sister, Emily Barr, paid tribute to the Oscar winner, who passed away from a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 46. Barr opened up about their relationship growing up, her brother's love of reading and film, and of course, Hoffman's iconic career and legacy.

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"I could swear that Phil based much of his acting technique on watching Gene Wilder scenes like this over and over as a kid," she wrote. "The physical comedy is subtle in that the main character is unaware of his buffoonery -- only the audience is in on the joke. Phil did this a lot: we would know that something was up, but the character himself was often clueless."

"This was true both of Phil’s comedic scenes and more dramatic ones," she continued, before referencing some of her brother's most famous roles. "Sandy Lyle sharting at the party in Along Came Polly , Scotty J. trying to kiss Mark Wahlberg's character in Boogie Nights , and the CIA agent Gust Avrakotos smashing the window in Charlie Wilson's War . All three characters possess the same loud, obnoxious physicality."

"And then you see it in more nuanced ways, like when the brother in The Savages sneaks a cookie before the support group meeting is over, or when Freddie Miles plucks the piano keys in The Talented Mr. Ripley , or when Truman Capote takes tiny bites from the baby-food jars in Capote, " she added. "

"These gestures brought his characters to life, and made us empathize and identify with their excitement, embarrassment, anger, and heartache," Barr said, adding, "Even now, when I watch Phil playing these parts in films that now capture a distant past, in roles that have become familiar to us, I can see so much of who he was."

Barr, a pediatric nurse practitioner, said her brother "was a cuddly person, much more so than me," writing that he "loved to sit close on a couch, walk arm in arm down the street, and hug big."

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She said Hoffman "had a lot of loud parts," including "his laughter and big gestures of annoyance."

"The way he would jump up and dance around when teasing you -- even after you’d pleaded for him to stop, he just couldn’t help poking fun one last time," Barr wrote. "He knew it was wrong, but he was going to do it anyway, and laugh until you were laughing too. And then do it again, until you weren't laughing, because we Hoffmans are not good at knowing how to stop. We know when to stop, we can tell the mood has shifted, but we always take things one step too far."

In her essay, Barr discussed her and her brother's love of reading, and how they would visit their local public library in Rochester, New York, where they grew up. She wrote that she visited the Rochester Public Library in the wake of Hoffman's death, and "scoured the library shelves for every periodical that even mentioned him."

"Here were the final magazine stories detailing his life cut short. At first, I just wanted to be sure I collected all the glowing obituaries reviewing the life and unexpected death of this talented young actor who mesmerized us with his art," Barr explained. "But then I became obsessive. Even the weekly TV Guide put his name in the crossword: 15 down, twenty letters, 'Oscar overdose.' I added it to my pile."

She said the librarian told her that the magazines will get "cut up by little kids" or "recycled." When Barr asked if "someone wanted to keep them when the library was done with them," the library told her, "We can't do that. It’s just too hard to keep track of requests like this."

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Barr said she took matters into her own hands. While she wrote that she didn't want to read the articles about her late brother herself, she "didn't want children cutting them up in class next year."

"More importantly, I didn't want one of my children to be sitting in art class and get handed one of these magazines and open it up to see their uncle Phil," she added.

Barr shared that she checked out all of the magazines, took them home, and "sat on the floor and cut all the articles and photos of Phil out of each magazine." She then "tucked all of the clippings into an old cigar box," and "returned the cut-up magazines to the library, slipping them into the book deposit slot and hoping the cameras wouldn't catch" her.

While walking home from the library, Barr thought about what her brother would think about what she did.

"Phil would think I was ridiculous for doing all this," she wrote. "He'd wrap his big arm around me, and we would walk a little quicker as the temperature dropped and the sun set lower in the sky."

"We would talk, like when we were kids, imagining the story of Encyclopedia Brown trying to solve The Case of the Vanishing Actor , which takes place in a library with a small wooden door," she concluded.

Read Barr's full tribute, here .

Hoffman passed away on February 2, 2014. He was 46. In addition to Barr, he is also survived by his sister, Emily, his partner, Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children: Cooper, Tallulah, and Willa.

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Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav files nomination papers from Kannauj

Kannauj lok sabha seat is considered among the strongholds of sp. akhilesh yadav started his political career from kannauj and represented the seat three times in a row in 2000 (bypoll), 2004 and 2009.

• Updated Apr 25, 2024, 1:02 PM IST

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav filed his nomination papers from Kannauj on April 25. The announcement on fielding Akhilesh as a candidate from Kannauj came on April 24.

SP karyakartas have hailed the party’s decision of fielding Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj. “Akhilesh Bhaiya would win with a historic margin in Kannauj,” some of the party workers said, adding that it is the beginning of the battle to oust Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from UP.

The SP leader’s fling of nomination comes just days after the party declared Tej Pratap Yadav as the candidate from Kannauj. There were also reports of a local party unit urging the former Uttar Pradesh CM to reconsider the decision of fielding his nephew from the Samajwadi Party bastion till 2019.

According to an India Today report, SP workers in Kannauj were not ready to accept Tej Pratap's candidacy, and believed that without Akhilesh Yadav, the BJP would have an edge over them. 

Akhilesh Yadav had then said that he would do what the party decides. 

Tej Paratap Singh Yadav, grand-nephew of late Mulayam Singh Yadav and son-in-law of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, represented the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat from 2014-19. In 2014, Mulayam Singh Yadav contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won both of them but later left the Mainpuri seat where Tej Pratap Singh Yadav was fielded. 

Kannauj will go to the polls in the fourth phase on May 13.

Kannauj Lok Sabha Seat is considered among the strongholds of SP. Akhilesh Yadav started his political career from Kannauj and represented the seat three times in a row in 2000 (bypoll), 2004 and 2009.

In Lok Sabha elections 2014, his wife Dimple Yadav won the seat with 4,88,946 votes against BJP candidate Subrat Pathak. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Subrat Pathak wrested control of the seat with 5,61,286 votes from Dimple Yadav.

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