Are you unsure about which career you'd like to pursue once you leave education? It's a big decision and often a decision that is made for many once they have already started their working life. However, if you do have some particular interests, enjoy a certain subject and know what your skills are, then this can help you to start your career planning journey.

Here are some useful tips to help:

• First of all, don’t panic. It is natural to not know what you want to do as a career
• Speak to your Careers Adviser in school who will be able to give you some support and help you to think about future career goals. You can watch our what to expect from your careers appointment video to find out what it will involve. 
  
  
  

• Take online quizzes such as those below to give you an idea about the type of career that suits your personality, interests and skills:

                SACU Spartan test

16 Personalities quiz         Prospects careers quiz

• Try different work experience opportunities. Speak to friends and family about jobs and careers that they are now in or have been in the past. You may be able to work shadow them to get some experience. There are also a number of virtual work experience opportunities which we advertise through our see your future...be your future section
• Think about the hobbies you have, could any of these hobbies make money for you and bring in an income? This way you could consider self-employment as an option
• Look for a job you can do at weekends to try out things you may not have thought of before. This will also help you to develop some good experience and work-related skills
• Explore the internet for ideas. You are not the first person and you certainly won’t be the last person who doesn’t know what they want to do as a career. Looking on the internet, reading magazines or speaking to people who may have connections, can be beneficial to you - this is called networking.

Some useful research websites include: 
eClips career resource 
Career Pilot 
Careers Gateway 
icould 
Prospects 
National Careers Service

• Ask other people what they think you might be good at. Often other people see skills and qualities in us that we are unable to see ourselves. This may lead you in a direction you haven’t thought of before
• Take a year out to go travelling or look for work (a Post-18 option)

 

 

Transferable strengths are really important in helping us to understand the types of careers we may suit and what we have to offer the world of work. To learn more about them and how they can be developed, visit our transferable skills page.

 

You can also complete our careers and employability workbook, Choose Your Future, to help you consider your strengths; what's important to you when planning your career; and the different types of industries that are out there.

Click on our booklet to view, print and to start planning your future!

 

 

 

 

 

After completing some of these tips, why not arrange that appointment with your Careers Adviser in school or talk to us through our webchat.

Learn about yourself; create your future!