Research and reflect
Ask yourself: Do your characteristics (skills, interests, motivations, temperament etc) fit with the requirements / characteristics of certain jobs?
Are there some jobs you should avoid?
The more you learn about jobs from reading, talking to people or hands-on work experience, the more discerning you become in identifying positive connections and negative mis-matches.
Here is an idea that will help you to focus on job areas which are most likely to interest you. Don't expect to find a perfect match. For most there isn't just one type of work which is suitable - there may well be several, but it takes time and work to figure it out.
Themes
· Rather than trying to pinpoint the perfect job, look for themes. What interests you? What do you do in your spare time that could lead to a job?
· For a few weeks, browse through job advertisements, note those which appeal to you and those which don't.
· Review this regularly to see if any broad patterns emerge. For example, do you automatically favour jobs which involve problem-solving or dealing with people and instantly discard those which require persuasive skills or working in the money markets?
Discuss
· Talk over your ideas with people who are both objective and supportive….family, friends, your career adviser. This "sounding board" approach may help clarify your career ideas. Talk to some people who work in the industry you are interested in (Informational Interview) to find out more.
Once you have clarified your ideas and looked at your options, it’s time to starting putting some plans in place. Whatever you’ve chosen to do, making it happen takes time.
Having a clear plan keeps you on track, allows you to see how much progress you’ve made and avoids wasting unnecessary time. You will need to create a personal action plan that will help you achieve your goals.
Once you have identified your career goals, you need to consider how to achieve them. Often there are a number of routes to your desired goal e.g. via further study, training programmes or "working your way up". If direct entry is not possible you may need to adopt a "stepping stones" approach.
For example, sales experience could lead to marketing, voluntary work may increase chances of getting onto a post graduate course in social work, secretarial jobs might get you into the publishing field.
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To your job search success
Fran Watson
