What next
Looking forward to embarking on the career of your dreams? If the answer is yes - then congratulations and good luck!
If on the other hand, you feel bewildered by the choices available to you, and have no clear idea whatsoever about what you want to do next, DO NOT PANIC - you're not alone. Every year many students leave college with no definite career plans.
Click on careersportal.ie if you need help deciding on your career.
This section will help you with:
Self -awareness: discovering careers which might suit you and make the most of your skills, personality, values and motivations.
Occupational research: finding out about various career options worth considering.
If you're not sure what to do after finishing your course, your first step may be to get to know yourself - be more self-aware. Self-awareness means thinking about your skills, strengths, abilities, personality, values, motivations, external influences and how they impact on your career decisions. Knowing as much as possible about yourself can help you to identify career areas which will make the most of the kind of person you are. Making choices based on an appreciation of what you can do and what you want to achieve makes sense.
Try sitting down with someone who knows you well and see where they think your strengths lie. When considering career options there are three main areas to consider:
Can I do the job? - Skills
- Qualifications, abilities, experience.
Will I do the job? - Values
- Motivations, interests, and ambitions.
Will I fit into the team/organisation? - Personality
- Personal traits, attitudes and preferences.
Talking to your careers adviser may help get you started. When you meet, expect questions such as:
Have you ever thought about how you got to where you are today?
Why did you choose...(name of course)?
Are there areas of the course that you liked/disliked? - why?
Are there particular skills that you like using?
Have you considered the type of work environment you want to work in?
Where do you see work fitting into your lifestyle?
What jobs have you done - what did you like/dislike about them?
What do you do in your spare time?
What would motivate you in a job? - autonomy, stability, expertise, reward, influence, authority
Would you like a particular role? Do you want to entertain, advise, inform, promote, manage, communicate, educate?
Anyone doing a job that really interests you?
We recommend you try some on-line self awareness tools to help build your self- profile.
Career Management Skills Online - (DIT registered students)
(career matching database)
(what jobs would suit me)
Skills
It's all very well being qualified to do a job, but if you want to succeed you are going to need a range of skills as well as your technical knowledge. These skills are often referred to as transferable skills because they can be used in a wide range of activities, both in and out of employment.They are not specific to any subject you studied. Examples of key skills include:
teamwork, communication, leadership, initiative, problem solving etc.
Knowing what you're good at helps you to choose between jobs, and it helps you to complete application forms and to answer indepth questions at interviews.
Once you have an idea what your key skills are you can play to your strengths and you can find ways of developing those that you have not yet acquired. By highlighting your skills, you can make yourself stand out from other applicants who have the same qualifications as you.
Skills Video ; What are you you looking for in a Graduate.
Try this skills audit to learn more.
Values
Values are what you really care about, not only in your personal life, but also in a work situation. Our values are influenced by a number of things such as upbringing, family, home life, culture and education. Examples of values are: love, honesty, independence, success.
Work values are those which relate specifically to the amount of satisfaction we get from our career. We need to consider our values as part of the career decisionmaking process so that we can get a clearer picture of what type of career will bring us satisfaction and fulfilment. Examples of work values include: ambition, leadership, helping others, intellectual stimulation etc.
Your values will determine whether you will actually do a job (as opposed to whether you are capable of doing the job). Values might have a bearing on whether you would want to work in genetic engineering, nuclear power generation, animal testing and other controversial areas.
Think about your values using the Windmills Programme and see what motivates you in a job.
Personality
Personality is based on the characteristics we possess in differing amounts which make us the individuals we are. Examples of personality traits are: artistic, confident, generous, sincere, reliable, patient... These are the characteristics which determine whether you'll be suited to a job.
Everyone has personality strengths (and weaknesses). When job hunting we need to look for a match between our personality strengths and the work we are considering. Everyone is not equally good at everything. Something that you may see as a deficiency in yourself, for example, lack of empathy may seem to some as heard-heartedness, but this quality could be an advantage to a person who repossesses property. Knowing your personality weaknesses will help you to steer away from certain activities or fields or may suggest areas which you may wish to improve with education, experience or some kind of re-styling of yourself.
Find out more about your personality using the following recommended questionnaires:
Kiersey Temperament Sorter - (Personality)
Dr John Holland's Occupational Themes - (Personality and interests)
Not sure what occupations are out there?
If you're not sure what you can do after finishing your programme you may choose to:
- Browse First Destination Return Statistics (FDR'S) available from your Careers Service details career entry point of previous graduates from your course.
- Check out Gradireland Sector Career Guides and FAS Career Directions Database
- Speak to your tutors and ask about the careers that former students have entered.
- Talk to your careers adviser and get a copy of My Qualification What Next which details options with your subject.
- Explore Types of Jobs section on Prospects which covers a series of occupational areas.
- Access Options With Your Subject on Prospects which covers 40% of graduate jobs open to all graduates regardless of degree discipline (e.g. management training programmes, IT, teaching, accountancy, business etc.).
After you have researched the types of career areas which interest you using paper and web based resources it's a good idea to focus your ideas by getting some work experience. Talk to people to find out more about their jobs, try to do some work shadowing, carry out network or information interviews with people in the sorts of jobs which interest you - in order to find out what the job is really like. Try the Occupational Research folder in the careers resource area of WebCT (DIT registered students only).
If you really can't decide what you'd like to do next, consider taking some time out to investigate your options further and/or make an appointment to see your careers adviser.
Don't rush into making the wrong decision!!
