CHOOSING A CAREER THAT SUITS YOU

Choosing a career involves 4 main stages: 

• Self Awareness
• Opportunity Awareness
• Decision Making
• Taking Action

Sometimes these stages will overlap and sometimes you have to return to a previous stage Be aware the cycle is not always as linear and consistent as it is presented here.

Self Awareness

The first stage of Career Choice is Self Awareness. This involves looking at your SKILLS, VALUES, INTERESTS and PERSONALITY and analysing where your strengths and weaknesses lie. This is important both in choosing the right career and also for success in applications and interviews where you will find many questions which test whether you have been through this process. You can start with looking at your SKILLS here. You can now also look at your INTERESTS , VALUES and PERSONAL STYLES

Opportunity Awareness

Once you have done some preliminary self analysis, the next stage is to gather information on the opportunities open to you. There is a range of resources to help you here:

There is a range of general careers talks each term which are listed here

There may also be specific careers education programmes for your degree subject, usually during your second year of study.
 
Early in your course you should look at the Work Experience open to you. As well as allowing you to earn money, they may allow you to gain relevant skills and perhaps an insight into the types of job you are interested in, putting you at the head of the queue when you eventually apply for jobs. 

Making Decisions

The computer programs below allow you to put in a number of factors on what you want in a career (such as helping others, promotion prospects) and will give suggestions of possible careers which might match these. Regard these as useful suggestions rather than gospel truth, but they should bring up some possibilities that you haven't considered before.

Prospects Planner www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner is a powerful program to help you choose a graduate career. It allows you to answer questions about your values and interests and then to relate these to a database of hundreds of occupations to get suggestions on appropriate careers.

Talk to graduates already working in your chosen career area. You can use the Kent Alumni Careers Network to contact a graduate directly. Work shadowing (spending a day with) a person in the career you are considering is the next best thing to actually doing a job, to find out what it is like. If you have done this, you will come across as much better prepared at interviews.
Of course, the other important part in making decisions is discussing it with other people. Friends, family and tutors can all play an important part here

Taking Action

This is the final process of career planning. It involves:

• Finding out about the EMPLOYERS that offer the types of jobs you are interested in.
• Search our VACANCY DATABASE
• Preparing APPLICATIONS and attending INTERVIEWS
• Perhaps taking APTITUDE TESTS and attending SELECTION CENTRES

 Subsequently, we will be explaining the 4 stages in detail...