Step 4
If you haven’t yet read 6 steps to your ideal career Part 1 (steps 1-3) you’ll want do this first.
Now we move on to the next stage, Priorities. What matters to you right now? Is money important to you in the sense that you need to earn a certain salary. Do you need to work locally, part time, etc. Priorities are the factors that need to be taken account of before considering career opportunities.
If your priorities drive your career choice because your circumstances outside of work are the priority, it may be your ideal career is your family and work is a means to an end. If this is the case then finding a career that works for you and your priorities is important and you might start by limiting research to career options that fit those priorities, ie local industries.
If instead, however, your circumstances prevent you from exploring your options for whatever reasons bear in mind that circumstances change and the process of exploring your ideal career is a worthwhile one if it means you have something to aim for and focus on for the future.
Make a list of your priorities in order of importance.
Step 5
Once you have an idea of your priorities, your skills and qualities and what motivates you, you can begin your research in to career options.
How do I do that?
This will require the information gathered from steps 1 – 4. I would suggest you start by placing the list of your priorities alongside your list of motivational drivers or driver if there is only one.
If there is a specific field you would be interested in such as a science or creative writing, etc. you should make a note of this too.
You could then start research based on your motivational driver, priorities or subject/industry area, starting with whichever is most important and relevant to you at the time.
For example, if you are interested in languages, with emotional and cerebral motivations where emotional motivation is the strongest and your priorities are short commute, earn sufficient to comfortably cover your needs and flexible working hours, in that order.
- You might start your research by listing companies within an acceptable radius of where you live.
- Emotionally motivated people tend to like work where they can be interactive with things or people. As languages are the preferred subject in this example I would assume interaction with people is important. Perhaps a sense of making a difference to people’s lives, etc.
- Once you have listed companies within an acceptable commuting distance, assuming you are looking for a career using languages, you would then cross off the list those employers that do not offer any relevent roles. You need to consider both motivational drivers when looking at the types of job opportunities each employer might offer. A cerebrally motivated person needs to be mentally stimulated, so a role where you are following instructions with limited opportunity to work autonomously you might find restrictive and frustrating.
- Your list should now be reduced to only those employers that meet the criteria of location and job role. The next stage is to consider each employer and role in terms of how well each meets your list of priorities. Consider each priority at this stage in order of importance. This should leave you with an even shorter list of potential employers.
- Remember, that while reduced, your list at this stage may still be broad.
When you identify a list of careers of interest you need to consider each in terms of what you know about yourself, the activities you enjoy, the activities you don’t and your skills and qualities.
Don’t worry about qualifications at the moment. Here are some links to databases with career descriptions for you to explore.
Research! Research! Research!
https://www.myplan.com/careers/database.html
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/
Step 6
Everyone who has some experience of work, whether in an educational setting, part time or through years of experience, will have some idea of what type of employer would suit them best. To help you understand what your ideal employer would look like you need to consider your work preferences.
For instance, you may thrive in busy environments or prefer a smaller work environment where everyone knows everyone else.
Promotional opportunities may be important to you or perhaps you might want to focus on the role itself with the opportunity to gain more skills through training. These choices are what I refer to as your work preferences.
We all shine in different settings with different opportunities. In this we are all unique and that’s why choosing the right employer who can offer the right set of opportunities and work environment is so important.
The experience of an accountant working for a large multinational company may be very different to the experience of someone working for a small local business in that same role.
Your current priorities may prevent you from considering work preferences when looking for your ideal career but it is so important that you might want to reassess your options if your priorities change.
Make a note of all your work preferences and keep them in mind when deciding which employer to target for opportunities or whether or not an advertised vacancy is a good fit.
And that leads us to the next blog in this series Creating a Killer CV/Resume.