From the author: The article talks about how to choose a profession. which would fit “like a key to a lock.” It so happened that in my life I have repeatedly had to deal with determining the professional inclinations of young and not so young people. The task is not easy, but its practical value is extremely great. A suitable profession makes a person happy in his work, allows him to freely develop, grow intellectually and socially. But how do you choose this most suitable profession? How do young people most often choose a profession? The most important factors in this choice are: - the opinion of people from among those close to them; - economic considerations; - the prestige of the profession; - emotional attitude (sometimes fleeting); - external attributes of the profession. That is, when choosing a profession, many young people are guided either by other people’s assessments, or random signs of profession. Having thus chosen an unsuitable specialty, a person may already understand during his studies that the profession is not suitable for him, but under pressure from loved ones, out of a sense of duty, or for other reasons, he graduates from an educational institution and receives a diploma of qualifications that he does not want to use at all. life. How to approach the choice of profession so as not to find yourself in the role of a person wearing a coat from someone else’s shoulder? To do this, it is worth taking into account a number of your own characteristics: - professional motivation; - emotional characteristics; - intellectual characteristics; - personality characteristics. Speaking about professional motivation, I mean that a person must want to work in the specialty that he is going to get, must at least At least enjoy imagining yourself in your future workplace. Emotional characteristics must also correspond to future activities: an emotionally mobile, explosive teacher or salesperson is unlikely to be successful in the profession, just like an emotionally cold artist, however. Intellectual characteristics presuppose the predominance of certain intellectual abilities and inclinations. A person who, by the nature of his work, has to work with people, prove and explain something, must have developed verbal intelligence, while working with numbers and diagrams requires developed abstract logical thinking. Taking into account personal characteristics is also necessary. The degree of sociability, willingness to communicate with many people, leadership qualities - all this plays an important role when choosing a profession. Fortunately, today psychologists have a solid number of techniques that can identify a person’s characteristics and suggest his future field of professional application. If a profession is chosen successfully, if it suits a person like a key to a lock, therefore: - it will bring joy; - it will force a person to develop; - it will ensure social and material growth; - it will protect against professional deformation and emotional burnout; - it will create a sense of meaning in one’s own life. .Unsuitable professions often lead to social and intrapersonal conflicts, neuroticism, the development of psychosomatic diseases, and a sense of the meaninglessness of life. Thus, for every person, even those with overly sharpened character traits or intellectually low development, with competent career guidance psychodiagnostics, it is possible to select a profession that suits to his personality type and intelligence.