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Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver – poet
Nobody can tell you which career path to follow; only you can make that decision. We sometimes are led to believe that there is one, single, magic answer to our career dilemmas but in most cases it is just a matter of getting to know yourself, being aware of your strengths and skills, exploring opportunities and gaining the experience you need to move forward.
If you don’t know what you want to do, the following pages and links offers a some exercises that may help you think more about yourself – your values, strengths, skill, motivations and how to find out more about the careers paths available to you.
Your Course
What aspects of your degree have you particularly enjoyed?
What aspects of your degree have not been enjoyable? Why?
What types of study/assessment have you enjoyed? For example: group work, analyzing data, researching, presentations, leading on a project, field work, creating.
What specific subject areas did you particularly enjoy and why?
Work
What jobs have you done in the past? (think about all jobs: part-time, voluntary, placements etc.)
What skills have you developed? (Click here to see some examples)
What aspects of your employment have you particularly enjoyed and why?
What have you not enjoyed and why?
What different environments have you worked in? What did you like or not like about them?
What industries do you have experience of? Did they interest/motivate you?
Values
Finding a job role and industry that adheres to your own unique set of personal values can be integral to your motivation. Identifying what you values are may help you drive you career in the right direction. Take a look at the following worksheet to help you identify your own work values: Work Values Worksheet
Finding your Passion
For more help with learning more about yourself, see Psychometric Tests
Careers Research
Now you have given some thought to your skills, strengths, motivations and values, you could start to research the kind of career paths that might suit you.
You could:
- Look at the job profiles on Prospects or Target Jobs
- Employer Information can be found on The Job Crowd
- Go to graduate job fairs and talk to employers, click here for more information
- Attend university careers talks and workshops, Look under Careers Workshops on the homepage