Planning your future career

Calum LeckieCareers Adviser

Careers Group, University of London

Some Facts About the UK Job Market

• Increasing number of students with post graduate qualifications• 60% of all graduate jobs are open to any degree discipline• Employers seeking mix of educational & work experience• 67% of graduates move employer at least once within their first

4 years of work • Move towards employees managing their own career• 93% UK companies are SMEs

Career management cycle Self-exploration

Option generation

Research

Taking decisions

Implementation

Transition management

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www.careers.lon.ac.uk/sortit

Self-knowledge - VIPSWhat are your…

• Values?• Interests?• Priorities?

• Skills?

Generating ideas• Purpose – what do you want to contribute to?

– Who is already achieving it?• Passion – what inspires you?

– Who shares your passion?• Prowess – what are you good at?

– Who produces what you could produce?• People – who do you want to serve?

– Who interacts with the people you want to serve?

Generating Ideas

• Career Destinations of Previous Graduates

•Computer aided guidance eg. Prospects planneron www.prospects.ac.uk

•Look at job adverts in relevant employment areas-Do you have the skills / experience required?

•Talk to people in employment about their jobs (networking)

•Occupational directories (prospects, careers library) - www.careerstagged.co.uk

Skills Sought by Employers(% finding short supply of each skill, source AGR)

8 Computer Literacy (6%)7 Numeracy (19%)6 Knowledge & competence in discipline (19%)5 Problem Solving (32%)4 Teamworking Skills (33%)3 Leadership (33%)2 Communication Skills (64%)1 Business Awareness (67%)

Effective Research: Knowing what you want

• WHY are you doing it? Purpose, rewards, outcomes, satisfaction, meaning, worth, value

• WHAT are you doing? Topics, activities, skills

• WHO are you doing it with/for? Colleagues, clients, managers, background, intelligence, outlook, variety, frequency, intensity

• HOW are you doing it? Approach, personality, being yourself, congruence

• WHERE are you doing it? Working environment, geography, travel, relocation

• WHEN are you doing it? Work–life balance, career progression and development

Where to Research• Use www.prospects.ac.uk for profiles of 100s of grad jobs• www.careerstagged.co.uk • Browse careers library for books and take away material on

Careers areas (some specific to research staff) – job & person profiles

• Come to careers presentations, courses & fairs – listed at www.careers.lon.ac.uk, Read industry press

• Talk to people doing the job - NETWORKING• Do short work experience or work shadowing• Use specialist recruitment agencies to get temp work

How do people get jobs?25%

11%

13%12%

30%

9%

Advertisments

Agencies

Job Centre

Speculative

Networking

Other

Office of National Statistics

Networking• Contacts can tell you about:

– nature of occupations– current developments– industry scandal– skills needed– ways into an organisation– impending vacancies– the selection procedure

Ways of generating contacts• Ex-colleagues, friends, family• Industry professional bodies• Authors of trade journals• Vacancy pages• Careers directories e.g. prospects.ac.uk• Newspaper articles• Employer websites• Networking events & activities• Online Networking sites:

Career management cycle Self-exploration

Option generation

Research

Taking decisions

Implementation

Transition management

S O

R

TI

T

Set Goals• Break down the path to the career of your choice into

a series of achievable stages• When will you know when you have reached each stage?• What information do you need?• Set realistic time scales • Remember SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable,

Resourced, Timed

It may be useful to produce an action plan

DON’T PANIC!!!Because:• This is a decision about your next step, not the rest of your life• Most people change jobs in the course of their working life• From a ‘wrong’ choice, you’ll learn a lot about yourself and what

you do wantBut:• Do start thinking about careers now• Don’t just grab at jobs without considering what you want and

researching

Careers services – further info.

– 4th Floor, ULU Building, Malet Street– www.careers.lon.ac.uk/sics– Tel: 020 7866 3600, Email:

sics@careers.lon.ac.uk– Monday to Thursday 09:30 - 17:00

Friday 11:00 - 17:00 Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00 (Information Resources only)