Work is work unless you enjoy it!

Making effective and considered career choices, relies on evaluating all of career options. Afterall, work becomes far easier if it is interesting and enjoyable!  A well-defined career path will result in a more successful career and even greater rewards (tangible and intangible).

Researching and understanding the rationale behind career choices helps people become more assured and convincing when selling credentials to prospective employers.  Please consider following career decision-making stages:

Stage 1:  Understanding what is important to individuals
Considering what ultimate goals / motivations / achievements in life / career.

Stage 2:  Discover what people find interesting and enjoy.
It is far easier to succeed if you are enthusiastic about your career or things you do.

Stage 3:  Assessing what people are good at.
Considering how best any skills and qualities can be deployed effectively. 

Stage 4:  Narrowing down career choices
Using effective career research to focus on a small number of options.

Stage 5:  Working towards making a career decision 
Using work experience & talking to the right people to reinforce choice & career research findings.

Stage 6:  Career gap analysis
Evaluating any career decisions against areas of weakness in your skills & experience.

Stage 7:  Decision-making frameworks / processes
Decision-making frameworks to reinforce possible career alternatives & gap analysis.

Stage 8:  Making a positive career choice. 
Motivations, career options and research should facilitate a positive career choice.  Carefully making a career choice will help overall in the long term.

                      

Weighing up career choices! - It is important to consider career options & plan for the future! 

Understanding your motivations & what you want to achieve

Understanding inner motivations and overall goals with help govern ultimate career choices. Making the wrong career choice will come across at interview.  A realistic career choice will always inspire people further and help maintain focus.

Understanding what is important to you requires a deep thought process and should avoid any choice of career path at this stage. This avoids any pre-determined ideas about possible career choices. Career research will help reinforce any possible career options at a later stage.

Examples of possible motivations & values

Pick 3 or 4 main motivations and values.  Think about why they are important.
Please keep these in mind, especially when considering career options later on.

Autonomy / entrepreneurship - Importance of making own decisions (self-employment?).

Working for a prestigious employer - Working for a well-respected employer, leading brand, etc.

Ethical considerations - Environment, a responsible company, corporate & social responsibility, etc. 

Motivated by financial reward - motivated by high earning potential, company benefits, etc.

Providing a service - helping others, dealing with people, exceeding customer expectations, etc.

Working for a people orientated organisation - - investors in people, working with talented people, etc.

Creativity, ideas & innovation - using talents and developing ideas to their full potential, originality, etc.

Company culture - Challenging, high risk (high rewards), creative, ever-changing environment, etc.

Leadership, management & authority - managing, influencing & developing others, etc.

Company size - consider working in a small company versus a large corporate organisation.

Nature of job role - variety, choice, changing taks, involvement in projects, responsibilities, etc.

Global / international focus - dealing with different companies, foreign languages, travel, etc.

Career advancement - opportunities for career progression & long term career development, etc.

Qualifications - the importance of getting qualifications & working in an intellectual environment, etc.

                                                                                                                                                              

Understanding motivations & what people ultimately want to achieve

Career paths overlapping with personal activities or interests outside of work will give a greater insight and help to define career options.  Consider what interesting or enjoyable activities which can be translated into a work role.  Here are some useful examples.

Dealing with people (customer service, hospitality industry, sales, etc).
Helping others (teaching, social work, medical, training, charity work, child care, police, fire, etc).
Creative writing (writer, marketing, press relations, journalist, magazine editor, etc).
DIY & home improvements (consider a trade - building, plumbing, electrician, etc).
Internet & technology (computing, IT, programming, web design, gaming, etc).
Travel (hospitality, tourism, airline industry, air steward, tour guide, etc).
Numbers (finance, accountancy, teaching, banking, investments, stock exchange, etc).
Shopping (retail, fashion, merchandising, buying, selling, etc).
Cars (motor mechanic, car sales, driving jobs, car design, maintenance, etc)
Local environment (local planning, land management, parks, recycling schemes, etc).
Law & order (criminology, legal practice, police, crime investigations, forensics, etc).
The outdoors (forestry, landscaping, conservation, park ranger, gardening, etc).
Creative (painter, fashion designer, art & design, photography, architect, etc).
Problem-solving (project managment, quality assurance, analyst, etc).
Giving advice (citizens advice, debt counscelling, trading standards, careers services, etc).
Other - Reading (librarian), Public service (government), Animals (farms, charities, RSPCA), etc.

                                                                                                                                                               

Assessing how best skills and qualities can be deployed effectively

Building a skills and qualities profile helps to identify key elements employers require for being successful in any given job role. Simply devise a table listing, outlining and rating each individual skill out of 10.

Rating each skill will also help to identify your overall strengths and weaknesses. 
People have many individual skills.  Some typical skills and qualities include:

Being a confident communicator.
Working effectively as part of a team.
Problem-solving skills.
Technical ability - IT, programming skills, etc.
Effective sales & negotiation skills.
Analytical & numerical ability.
Time management & prioritisation skills.
Planning and project management skills.
Organisational skills.
Ability to learn and develop.
Language skills.
Attention to detail.
Professional Approach.
Adaptability / flexibility.
Ability to manage change.
Creative skills.
People management / leadership skills.
Coaching & feedback skills.
Dealing at all levels.
Presentation skills.
Customer service skills.
Decision-making skills.
Multi-tasking.
Relationship building.
Working under pressure.
Strategic awareness / thinking.
Administration skills.
Influencing / persuasion skills.
Report-writing skills.

                                                                                                                                                              

Effective career research and career planning

Successful career planning is dependent on effective career research.  Career research will help to identify various career options available (some options may not have been considered previously!).

By now, there should be an understanding of key motivations (Stage 1), identified what is interesting / enjoyable (Stage 2) and related these to a skills & qualities profile (Stage 3).

This gives a broad framework to continue any career research.  Effective career research will involve three main areas.

1) Listing / brainstorming ideas
Identify all the jobs and careers of interest and possibly others previously not thought of. 

2) Defining job titles / career headings
Finding out more information & eliminating those careers or job titles hold no further interest.
Simplifying career options by identifying top three career choices.

3) Undertake more specific research
Read up on main career options & job descriptions.  Be thorough using online, library and career advisory resources. Identify how best any skills, qualities & experience will fit within these roles.

                                                                                                                                                              

Help making a career decision - going deeper with research

Only deeper career research will serve to reinforce career choice(s).

This could involve talking to someone doing the job, reading up on career blogs, going to careers fairs, and even attending company open / recruitment days, etc.

Enquire about the possibilities of job shadowing, short term / voluntary work experience or even do some temporary work for any desired organisation.

                                                                                                                                                               

Evaluating career decisions against areas of weakness in skills & experience

It is important to assess what is required (and where people are) relative to any career decision or aspiration.  For instance, certain weaknesses in skills and experience preventing people from pursuing their ideal job role.

Identifying weaknesses can be used positively to focus on the wider career goal.  Determination to overcome any weaknesses can show employers effective problem-solving skills and a strong desire to make a successful career.

Improving on weaknesses

Part of the battle is identifying your main weaknesses.  Once aware, naturally people will work harder to overcome them.  Weaknesses may ultimately become a strength if enough time and attention is given - it is usually down to building confidence.

It is important to list the weakness, identify why it is a weakness and how it affects individuals in a work or even a social environment.  The idea is to turn this around and be positive by identifying areas for improvement.  Action plans can involve reading a book on the subject, research on the internet, attending classes or speaking to a mentor, etc.

For instance, a weakness may involve presentation techniques.  An action plan may involve reading a book on improving techniques and awareness.  Practising presentations in front of friends and family can build confidence.  Extra confidence and experience can be gained from doing more presentations.  With further practice, people often forget that it was ever a weakness and are then able to draw on previous exeperiences!

Dealing with other obstacles

There maybe other obstacles inhibiting any career path.  These could relate to a lack of experience, qualifications, location and even personal factors.

It is important to list all obstacles, identify why they are obstacles and how it could affect work or even in a social environment.  For instance, an obstacle could involve a lack of qualifications.  This can be approached by selling any additional experience and wider knowledge of business / subject area.

                                                                                                                                                              

Two main decision-making frameworks

Winning CV recommends using decision-making models to help reinforce any career decisions made.  1) Rating each career alternative by evaluating the pros and cons of each career option.   
2) Assessing personal strengths & weaknesses against career opportunities available (also identifying possible threats inhibiting career decision). 

1) Simple criteria rating

It is up to the individual to identify what criteria they wish to give a rating on. More subjectively individuals can write down the pros and cons for each attribute. It is probably best to present this in a table or under certain headings so it will make it easier to identify patterns or trends.

2) SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O) and Threats (T).
It is best to present this in a simple table.

Strengths and weaknesses are most relevant to the individual (internal factors).

Opportunities and threats are external factors, which cannot be influenced by any one individual.

The more strengths and opportunities you have the better (i.e. can help narrow down career choices).

Weaknesses and threats will serve to highlight areas to focus on and improve.
Alternatively, it will highlight areas to stay away from.

                                                                                                                                                              

Making A Positive Career Choice

Having been through the each stage and considered all career options, it is time to make a positive career choice.

1) The world of work!

This is where most people will end up.  There is no guarantee of a 'job for life' or a good job.

Employers expectations have risen, competition for jobs has increased and the process of
getting the right candidate (recruitment) is becoming ever more sophisticated. 

Therefore, it is important to adopt other career strategies, make a sound career choice,
get the required skills & experience in order to differentiate (stand out) from the crowd.  

Winning CV recommends another useful article:  10 Ways To Win A Job Interview

2) Self-employment

Self-employment will be a massive area of employment growth for the future.
There are many sources of advice and help with getting started.

3) Further study

There are many academic and vocational courses out there to help improve qualifications, skills and training.  This will always improve the 'employability' of job candidates.  Remember, it is important that your choice of study reflects your choice of career path!

4) Taking time-out!

Taking time-out to travel the world or just having a career break. 
Ensure at least some of this time is productive or adds to experiences in some way!

                                               

               

Career choices - it is important to make an effective career choice & plan ahead.