planning your future career calum leckie careers adviser careers group, university of london
TRANSCRIPT
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
S O
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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:
[email protected]– Monday to Thursday 09:30 - 17:00
Friday 11:00 - 17:00 Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00 (Information Resources only)