Know your career preferences
To successfully market yourself to potential employers and to find a career that best suits you, you need to be aware of your interests, your abilities, your skills and what type of roles will suit your personality.
Identify key factors
You should be able to identify your values, interests, abilities, knowledge and personality traits. Be sure to prioritise these according to level of importance, this can help boost your confidence and allow you to make strong decisions regarding your future career.
If you can sell yourself to a potential employer, it will give you an edge over your peers. In addition being able to clearly define what makes you the ideal candidate will help you better identify your career options.
Our Career Development Services Team hold weekly workshops running in room G.02 on Wednesdays during common hour. This would be an excellent opportunity for you to apply what you have learned from the below list. Get yourself to room G.02 and take part!
Make some lists
To help you foresee any gaps between you and your potential first job, make a list based on the categories below. It is important to be honest with yourself.
- Who/how you are rather than who/how you would like to be. Be honest with yourself
- Past experiences in areas of study, work and extra-curricular activities
- Primary wants and needs
- Your dreams, goals and aspirations
- Employment environment preferences and lifestyle considerations
- Feedback from others: friends, parents, teachers, employers, peer groups
- Why you think the way you do – this may help to reveal underlying influences
Category 1: Skills and abilities
- What can you do and what can you do well?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What unique talents do you have?
- What would you like to improve and what should you improve?
Category 2: Interests
- What do you enjoy?
- What do you not enjoy?
- What motivates you?
- What do you feel comfortable doing?
Category 3: Work Attitudes and Values
- What is important to you in life?
- What do you want and need to get out of your work?
- What task or job-related things are important to you?
- What people related things are important to you?
- What environment-related things are important to you?
Category 4: Personality
- How do you typically behave?
- How do you interact with people?
- How do you approach tasks?
- How do you perceive new information?
