The following guidelines, in this regard, may prove useful:

• Ideally, the choice of a career should be an individual’s own decision because it is the individual who will face the consequences. Any kind of pressure, be it parental or from the peer side, can prove detrimental to his or her interests.
• An ideal career for you would be one which ensures a perfect match between your interests, aptitudes, abilities and the requirements of the profession, besides giving you job satisfaction both in terms of work and returns. In no case, choice of career should be based on misleading aspirations.
• The right choice of a career begins with a dream. A dream is where you want to see yourself one day. It could be flying an aeroplane, performing a complex surgery, leading an biotechnologist, film actor, mode, singer, musician, ad man and so on. A chinese proverb says, “People who don’t have dreams, don’t have much.”
• Dreams help us to have a goal. If we go through the success stories of the people who reached the pinnacles of success and analyse the secrets behind their exemplary achievements in life, one common thing they all share is to have a goal. In this sense, your dream, turning into a goal, will define the direction for action.
• To realise your dream and achieve your goal you have to plan your career as early as possible. Postponing this essential activity could cause delay in fulfilling your career aspirations.
• The biggest advantage of career planning is that you get on to the job of choosing your career in the right earnest - one of the essential conditions for making a meticulous decision. You get focused.
• Secondly, in the process of career planning you may come across several viable options that you may not have even dreamt of. For this purpose, you have to go through relevant information in the form of career literature i.e newpapers, magazines, internet, TV,etc., consulting your parents, teachers, seniors, career counsellors or knowledgable and experienced persons.
• Next essential step is to know yourself, discover your talent and determine your interest i.e what you love to do. Interest is one of the driving forces that can enable you to turn your career dream into a reality by fulfilling all the requisite conditions attached to it. You have to be honest with yourself while assessing your interest, aptitude and abilities.
• Similarly, there is an equal need to identify your skills, upgrade or learn new ones in accordance with the requirements of the profession.
• Career Planning, being a life process, there is need to review if from time to time with reference to the changes taking place in the dynamic world of work.
• Personality and one’s outlook towards life, in general, and career, in particular, makes a significant difference with regard to the fulfillment of one’s career goal. Thus, you need to match your personality with your career.
• While academic merit is generally the basic requirement, an individuals level of understanding, his application of knowledge and professional training should also be taken into account.