Finding the right career can be hugely rewarding, so it’s worth putting some effort into career planning. Start by thinking about what motivates you as a person, then identify careers that match your skills and interests.
Finding a career to suit you
While it can be tempting to skip straight to looking at specific careers, it’s often a good idea to first spend some time thinking about what motivates you as a person.
What are your interests, inside and outside work – and what are you looking for from a career? Once you’ve worked this out, you can start building up a picture of your ideal job – then find out which careers match it most closely.
Career planning: where to start
Unless you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to do, it can be difficult to know where to start. And if you do have a career in mind, how do you know whether you’ve considered all your options?
As a starting point, you could try sitting down with a piece of paper and listing:
- courses you’ve taken in the past, or are taking now
- any jobs you’ve had, including voluntary work
- interests outside work
- any other significant experiences, like travelling
Then ask yourself:
- why you chose to do them
- which parts you really enjoyed
- which parts you found frustrating or boring
- which parts you were best at
- which parts you found a challenge
- what other people have said about your contribution
- what other people have told you you’re good at
You should start to see some patterns emerging: the types of skills you enjoy using, the sort of environment you perform best in and the types of people you like working with.
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