It’s a surprising fact but at the last count there were at least 37,000 different job titles in the UK. Not surprising then that students and young people often don’t know what they want to do when they leave school, college or university. It can be overwhelming and very confusing.
So where does one start?
I start with identifying someone’s passions. What motivates them? What do they want to do? Given the time and space most people will have a good idea of the type of work they want to do, the environment they would like to work in, they may just have trouble expressing it in exact job titles.
My role as a Career Coach is to provide the space where passions and career ideas can be unpackaged and worked through, identifying what are career dreams, what are career desires, and do the two merge? Often they do, sometimes they don’t. But that is not necessarily the answer or the problem. Our dream jobs can lie further down the line, few of us find our dream job immediately, and if we do, it’s not going to be a dream job forever. The reality is we spend time gaining experience, meeting people, developing new skills and developing a new understanding of our career opportunities as they expand with experience and knowledge gained. Understanding this can help individuals develop their mid to long-term goals and from that point, identify the short-term goals such as what are the possible roles that could lead to the mid or long-term goals?
This leads to research. With thousands of potential job titles to choose from, research is key. What roles exist, what job titles cover what they are looking for. Here I advise clients to ignore where a job is located and research jobs across the UK. If the job exists in one town or city, in the vast majority of cases it will exist elsewhere and then it is a case of timing. Companies give their roles all sorts of job titles, they are not necessarily consistent but this research alerts the job seeker to similar types of roles with different job titles so research is vital.
I then help my clients unpackage the roles they have found. Which roles interest them and why. What skills and strengths do they have to meet that role? It then becomes more practical, can they bring these skills into their CV, can they demonstrate transferable skills. Do they have any connections in LinkedIn that would help them in this field, if not they need to start building them.
Looking for a job is a job in itself and when there is huge choice, the results can be overwhelming. My role is to reduce this overwhelm and help my clients become and remain focused on their aims and objectives.
If you or someone you know needs help identifying a career path and career goals in order to maximise their career opportunities and find career fulfillment, get in touch and I’ll explain how I can help.