The Decision Stage

Many people find that they end up in a job without really knowing how they got there. They just drifted into it. To avoid this happening it is worth taking the time to stop and really look at who you are and what you want from your life.

There are a number of questions it is worth asking yourself, we have listed some of them here to help you start the process:

Do I Want a Job or a Career?

In other words is this a job you are looking for that may not progress to anything or are you looking for something more long term that may give you the chance to gain more skills, seniority and salary prospects?

What are My Key Skills?

This is crucial to help you discover what roles your skills best fit. An aversion for example to dealing with conflict situations may not best fit you for a career in customer services! We would suggest that if you can afford it you enlist the help of a careers counsellor, someone who can objectively help you assess your skills, interests and values.

Many counsellors use personality assessments here to help. You may have heard of some of the most common including people like MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator). You can find these tests online if you can’t meet with a counsellor.

What Do I Enjoy Doing?

Sometimes this gets merged in people minds with their skill sets but it is different. Being good at something doesn’t mean you want to do it all day long.

What Type of Job Do I Want?

By this we mean are you looking for permanent employment or temporary? Do you want to be employed either in a small company or part of a large set up? Or are you looking to be self-employed?

What are My Salary Needs?

Again a pretty important question. You may dream of being self-employed but you may not have the financial means to set yourself up. Do be honest about your financial commitments and obligations.

Once you are clearer as to your skills, interests, values and what you need form a job you can start to see where this takes you. But before you start firing off those CV’s there is something else you may want to consider. Sometimes what looks good on paper is far from the reality. So once you have an idea of the role you are interested in see if you can work shadow someone and ask them some really searching questions.

Let’s take personal training. See if you can speak to a trainer and discover the pros and cons and watch them in action. Not only will this help your decision making it could also impress a future employer as it will show that you are active and keen.