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Suddenly you find yourself
in your final year and the urge to start thinking seriously about
your future has crept up on you all too quickly.
It is daunting if you
don't know what you want to do and it can feel very intimidating
as friends and relations begin questioning you about your plans.
Even for those who do
think they have a good idea of what they want to do, there can be
a nagging feeling of 'have I overlooked something?', 'is there something
else I would prefer?'
Such uncertainty or indecision
must eventually be resolved, because a feeling of ambivalence can
be the biggest block of all.
However, thorough preparation
will increase your confidence and therefore improve and enhance
the possibilities of receiving an offer that really suits you.
Without a positive attitude
and evidence that you have prepared yourself, you may come across
in an interview as disinterested.
Comments such as "needs
to understand about the work and where he is going" or "didn't
appear to know what she really wanted to do" are often heard
from employers. In other words, the objectives were unclear and
the hesitancy communicated itself to the interviewer.
In today's employment
market, more than ever, it is essential to be prepared and to apply
for jobs in areas in which you know you could perform well.
If you are on the point
of leaving higher education, there are a number of choices facing
you. Do you want to find employment, a place on a course, or to
do something else - a gap year perhaps?
There are several ways
in which you can make a choice. For example you can act upon a hunch,
you can throw a dice, or you can take the easy choice and make no
choice.
You will also get lots
of advice, nearly all of it well meant and helpful. But sometimes,
when people offer you advice, they are saying what they would do
in your position.
Listen to advice, but
make sure that whatever you choose to do feels right for you. It
is your future.
If you are to succeed,
you must take an active self managing approach to career development
in which you take responsibility and control rather than allowing
other people to plan for you.
Whether you are likely
to be undertaking postgraduate study or seeking employment, you
first need to understand yourself - what you can offer, your strengths
and weaknesses, what you enjoy doing, etc.
Step one
is self assessment.
Self
Assessment
You cannot hope to convince
recruiters that you have the necessary strengths, including experience
and personality, if you are not both aware and convinced of them
yourself.
To help you with self
assessment, most Careers Services have a booklet
available called "Your Degree...What Next?". There
is often also a video called "Starting Points" which may
be of help.
The key to making a good
choice is being aware that assessing yourself and identifying the
work you want involve the same processes, relating past experiences
to future opportunities.
In assessing yourself
you need to consider not only which subjects you are studying, but
what led you to choose them, what part you played in college life
and why, what was the significance of your weekend job, of your
running a youth club in the evenings, of your summer travels in
Europe.
It is making the connection
between the two that counts and which shows a way of arriving at
some degree of contentment whatever you choose to do.
Self Assessment involves
clarifying what you have to offer an employer in terms of your qualifications,
interests and abilities, and it will also help you assess your career
needs what you want from work. You will define your skills, your
abilities, your work values and your interests, and sort out basic
facts about you that will help you define the kind of work you would
like to do.
At a very basic level,
jobs can be divided into those concerning data, those concerning
people, and those involving things.
Many jobs will have elements
of all three but self assessment will help you decide which means
most to you and build up a list of your qualities, your needs and
the kind of things you would like to find in your work.
In your first job you
will probably want to use some of the skills you have developed
over the last few years. Examining your values, finding out what
you consider useful activities, in your work or out of it, assessing
which areas hold your interest and commitment will help you choose
a suitable career.
Do you have an unquenchable
curiosity, an interest in how things work, do you most like discussions
and arguments, giving presentations, analysing problems, or working
with groups of other students?
If you know your dislikes
you can avoid jobs in which those activities predominate. If you
know what you enjoy doing (and are or could be good at), you can
head in the direction of occupations which include some of them.
Take a long look at your
personality when considering your career. If you are not the sociable
type, don't push yourself into sales or customer liaison where you
will probably be uncomfortable meeting new people on a daily basis.
If you detest being stuck in an office or lab, look for work which,
although it may be office based, is not office bound.
Be honest with yourself
about factors which may limit your career choice, e.g. physical
fitness, colour blindness, allergies, location restrictions, etc.
Remember, for success
in the job hunt you need clear objectives.
Generating
Ideas
The matching of your
personal needs and interests to a career can be done in one or more
of the following ways:
The Shotgun Approach
You do nothing until
the milk round literature appears in early November, and then apply
for whatever catches your eye. Undeniably you will come across graduates
now in employment who did just this, but as any clay pigeon shooter
will tell you, most of the pellets miss the target.
The Alphabetical
search
You can look at the whole
range of occupational areas, starting at A and working through to
Z. The files in your University Careers Service contain a great
deal of detailed occupational information, starting with accountancy,
running through to the water industry.
Both the Prospects and
Hobsons graduate career directories contain excellent brief summaries
of what is involved, for example, in being a Factory Inspector,
or an Industrial Relations Officer.
You should also find
your University Careers Service stocks a set of AGCAS
booklets ranging from Accountancy to Welfare work.
Both of these methods
have been used by the finalist who likes working alone, to find
an appropriate career, but you may run out of patience before they
generate a solution!
Leave it to the
computer
Most University Careers
Services offer computer-based careers tests like 'Prospects
Planner'.
If you want to try this,
ask in your Service - you may have to make an appointment to use
one of the PCs with the software specially installed.
Basically you register
a user ID and password and then work through the various sections
at your leisure. The tests can take several hours to do properly,
but you can usually save your work at any stage and return to complete
the remaining sections at a later date.
The tests work through
your strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and then take into
account your degree subject and expected result to give you a list
of suggested careers which should suit you.
These can be a godsend,
but remember rubbish in means rubbish out - so don't rush and answer
all the questions as honestly and accurately as possible to get
the best result.
The list of suggested
jobs can be a great starting point to explore suitable careers in
more depth - and some of the software packages allow you to do this
as well.
Careers Advisers
Having completed self
analysis, you are advised to discuss the results of the exercise
with a Careers Adviser who will be able to suggest occupations which
relate to your personal specification.
Careers Advisers are
usually available when required, they are responsive and they can
occasionally be inspiring. They also have the advantage of experience
(your problem is rarely unique).
In the main, the task
of Careers Advisers is to help you to come to a decision of your
own making about which course to take, what job to do and so on.
They may present you with possible options, but the final choice
must be yours.
Researching
Occupations
The next step is to see
how generating ideas might he used to help you to identify a career
suitable to your special abilities.
You will need to change
focus and consider the demands made by work, and taking into account
all your experience, try to analyse what aspects of work activities
are of major importance to you.
Many people feel that
working with people will be an important feature of the job they
choose. In fact the vast majority of jobs will involve working with
other people in some respect. The question is in what way you see
yourself being involved with others.
Do you see yourself:
- Advising or acting
for people from your own specialist knowledge?
- Negotiating with other
people exchanging ideas/opinions?
- Teaching or instructing
including training others?
- Helping the disadvantaged
- those who are sick, disabled or deprived in some way?
- Managing people to
maintain good relations and promote efficiency?
- Investigating or assessing
the behaviour of other in relations to standards, laws or rules?
- Persuading or influencing
others in favour of a service, point of view or product?
Working with information
is also an important feature of work, working with materials can
be - especially for engineers and scientists. The question is HOW
do you want to work with information or materials?
Many jobs require certain
skills, such as the ability to communicate clearly and effectively
in speech and writing, the ability to debate and think on your feet,
to use entrepreneurial skills, to deal with financial matters, to
be numerical, logical and methodical, to be original, and make decisions.
There are a number of
sources which can help you investigate occupations in more detail:
- Vacation Courses/Employers
Open Days, particularly at Christmas.
- Job
Descriptions from PROSPECTS. These give brief job descriptions
and highlight the main skills/qualities required for the job.
- AGCAS
Occupation Profiles.
- Occupation files in
the University Careers Service.
- Talk to the professionals/practitioners
- an informal interview gives you the opportunity to ask questions
of the experts. Remember you are seeking information which will
help you to decide whether or not the occupation is for you, so
questions covering a typical day, the skills required, the drawbacks
of the job are all relevant. Make notes.
- Discuss with your
Careers Adviser who can help you draw up a plan of action to realise
your own potential so that your abilities and interests may relate
to job opportunities, further training or research.
- Video
Tape: "Can I have a few minutes of your time?"
As a result of these
investigations it should be possible to narrow your choices down
to a manageable few.
Spend time researching
these ideas further. Read the information in the University Careers
Service on occupations, look at press articles, find out where jobs
are advertised, talk to the professionals. Keep your options open.
The graduate recruitment
market in the UK is uniquely flexible. Arts graduates go into computing,
engineers become accountants.
Don't be guided by stereotypes
bankers are not all boring, computer programmers are not all boffins.
Carrying outdated stereotypes
around in your head may prevent you from considering all the alternatives
open to you. There are probably many jobs you would do equally well,
equally happily. Around 40% of all jobs open to graduates don't
specify a particular degree background.
Finally you could try
something else. Many people talk of doing something 'different',
of taking time off before settling down to something serious, but
only a fraction of those who talk about it actually do it.
Why? Because it needs
careful planning for one thing. And for another, it takes courage
to persevere with your possibly unique plan when all your friends
are beavering away making applications and attending interviews.
Before you go ahead and
do it, whatever 'it' is, consider your reasons for doing it, that
it is your decision and you can start by justifying it to incredulous
relatives and friends.
Deciding
on which choices to pursue
Remember:
- You are not seeking
the perfect match (even if there is such a thing), but rather
choices which are, as far as you can tell, going to meet your
broad objectives.
- This decision is probably
not for life. Though some decisions can have long term consequences,
others may enable you to keep options open until you feel more
certain.
- You will learn by
doing, and your understanding of yourself and the options you
face will develop as you tackle the process. Putting it off is
likely to teach you nothing and get you nowhere.
If you find this stage
difficult, talk with a careers adviser.
Implementing
your choice
You have made some decisions,
so now is the time to act!
The next step is to find
out more about potential employers, choose who you'd like to work
for and then start making applications.
It will be at this stage
that you will begin to appreciate the value of your earlier ground
work. Application forms and interviews will often be very exacting
in the questions they ask about your personal strengths and motivations.
Your clarity of understanding about yourself will stand you in good
stead to compete effectively - good luck!
This content
is © The University of Hull.
Edited and reproduced with kind permission from John Franks - Head
of Hull University Careers
Service. All Rights Reserved.
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