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.

You can use this knowledge to help pinpoint areas of work you might enjoy.

Online tools, like the Career Values Tool, can also help you work out what’s important to you in a job.

Career Values Tool

What is your CV?

Your CV should:

• be neat, typed if possible and to the best standard you can achieve in content and layout
• be short, two sides of a sheet of A4 paper is normally enough
• be positive, it should emphasise your achievements, strengths, successes and how you have contributed to your employers making a profit (add figures to support facts whenever you can and use positive action words, for example: ‘consulting’, ‘negotiating’, ‘managing’ and so on)
• make a good impression, this means presenting the facts about yourself in a clear and positive way

What to include

There is no set format. How you present your CV is up to you. However, you should include at least the following:

• your name
• your address
• your phone number
• your email address (if you have one)
• your career history

Put your most recent job first and include dates. Employers will be more interested in what you have done recently. Don’t leave gaps between dates, because employers will want to know what you did during those periods.

If you don’t have much work experience, you could include temporary, holiday, parttime or voluntary jobs too. If you’ve had many different jobs, emphasise the skills and experience you have gained across those jobs (for example, skills in dealing with customers or communication skills).

You don’t need to include your date of birth

New laws on age discrimination mean that you do not need to put your date of birth, or your age, on your CV.

Here are some examples you may want to include:

A personal profile

This is a short statement at the beginning of your CV to sell yourself, to show your skills, experience and personal qualities. You could include positive words such as ‘competent’, ‘adaptable’, and ‘conscientious’. Tailor the statement to the requirements of each job that you apply for, so that you make it clear to the employer that you’re the right person for the job.

Achievements

Mention things you did well in your past jobs which could be relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Qualifications and training

Include any qualifications and training from previous jobs (for example, training in health and safety or a certificate in food hygiene), put the most recent first, include qualifications you got from school or college.

Interests

These can support your application if your hobbies and leisure activities highlight responsibilities and skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for, perhaps you belong to a club or society which you organise activities for, or you use leadership skills or teamwork as part of the activity.

Other information

It is up to you whether to include this, but it can be helpful if there are gaps in your CV. If you had a career break because you were caring for children or elderly relatives, make this a positive thing and think about the skills you used doing this. If the job you are applying for is different from what you have done in the past, explain why you are interested in the new type of work.

References

You may not want to include these details on your CV but it’s good to have two or more people who can provide a work or personal reference. Ideally, one should be your most recent employer but if you haven’t worked for a while it could be someone who has known you for a long time who can comment on your qualities in relation to the job. You should ask the person to agree to this beforehand.

Ask a friend or relative to read through your CV to make sure it is accurate and that it shows your skills in a positive way.

Start by asking yourself honestly what skills and experience you have. Think about the skills you have developed in the jobs you have had before, and in your life outside of work.

Employment skills and experience

Ask yourself the following questions to think about skills you have developed, including those built up in jobs you have had before:

• did you develop any skills that will be useful in the job you’re looking for?
• have you worked as part of a team?
• did you need to share information with others?
• did you follow or give instructions well?
• are you a good timekeeper?
• do you have IT skills?
• did you get any qualifications?
• were you praised for any part of your role?

Personal and social skills

Ask yourself the following questions about life outside work:

• do you get on well with people?
• are you on a local committee or a member of a community organisation?
• are you part of a team, (for example, a sports or quiz team)?
• do you have skills from caring for your family, (for example, organisational skills)?
• have you done any voluntary work?
• have you been to any evening classes or training?

Where to look for jobs

There are a number of ways you can search for jobs:

• through Jobcentre Plus
• through newspapers
• on the internet
• by registering with recruitment agencies
• in trade journals
• through friends and other people you know