Career Change
During your assessment of where you are now, it may have become obvious to you that your current role or profession isn't making good use of your skills or isn't giving you the opportunities that you value and or that motivate you.
There are lots of online resources (see below) which profile a multitude of different careers including key aspects of the job, what skills are required; personal attributes that employers in that profession are looking for; what qualifications are needed. You can use these resources to match the requirements for the professions that interest you against the information you have recorded in the Tools section of this website.
Another helpful way to learn a bit more about different professions is to talk to people who are already working in the profession you are interested in. Ask them what its like to do the job and what is expected of them. You can also find out what route they took to get to where they are now and what skills, knowledge and experience they think are important to help them do their job effectively. You may know someone like this already but if not ask your friends, family and colleagues to see if they can put you in touch with someone they know - use your networks.
You may find that you identify some gaps between your current skills, knowledge and experience and the requirements of the new profession you are interested in. If this is the case then the section on Personal Development Planning and Development Opportunities offers some useful suggestions for different ways you can bridge these gaps.
Further information on Career Planning:
- What Color is Your Parachute is a popular career guidance manual
- Careers a-z.co.uk for links to vacancy information, courses and books about a wide variety of career sectors plus related links to professional organisations, publications etc.
- You can also access the University Careers Service website which provides a Career Planning Health check, an excellent facility to help you make key decisions. Although much of the information is aimed towards graduate-level employment there are a lot of useful tips that will help you whatever stage you are at in your career.
- Prospects.co.uk, albeit targeted at new graduates, is a useful online resource which enables you to identify your particular areas of interest and uses this information to identify which careers would most suit you.