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Career Decisions

Making career decisions is a bit like weighing up the pros and cons of many other aspects of your life. Choosing a holiday for example is similar to making a career decision; you either have an idea about where you would like to go, or you have no idea at all and just know you need a holiday. A travel agent with their knowledge and experience of destinations, along with information on a wide range of holiday options, is able to help you to put together a wish list, based on your own ideas, your ability to afford the holiday of your choice, when you can or want to go on holiday and so on.

Career decisions, like any other major decision, can be made easier if you have researched in advance a number of career options using some specific criteria to help you (your 'pros' and 'cons') along the lines of what your areas of interest and skills are and what you would like to gain from a job in general terms. Using some measurable criteria, you can start to narrow down your options to a list of careers that should suit you and that you would be interested in. Of course there are a lot of sources of help, support, guidance and information out there to help you with this process. Check our Connect Careers or Connect Advice and Guidance pages for two further sources of help.

Make well-informed choices

Your first stop when thinking about career choices and decisions should be the careers library, so that you can start to do some research for yourself about the ideas that you may have already. For those with no idea at all, you will find your careers library stocked with computer software designed to provide you with some ideas based on your preferences. Speak to your careers teacher or adviser for details on how to access these sources of information. You should also check out the links to our Connect Magazine for a wide range of information about various career areas.

Next you should discuss your ideas with as many people as you can, friends, family, teachers, tutors, head of year, and especially a professional careers adviser. Getting a second, third, fourth or even fifth opinion about your initial ideas is a great way to confirm that you are on the right track or help ease you toward a different career path.

A bit like holidays, there are thousands of different career areas that could possibly suit you. Make your journey as easy as possible by using as many sources of help and information as you can!