What is Career Decision Making?

Career decision making is a process that involves a number of stages which should be followed to make sure the right decision is made for you.

Johnny Nolan, careers manager for Newry in the Department for Employment and Learning’s Careers Service, explains what it’s all about.

What is a ‘Career?’

Before the process even begins it is important to recognise that a decision needs to be made and to understand what a ‘career’ means to you. For some people a ‘career’ simply means a job.

If we look at it in another way, a career can be a person’s progress through life. This can include education, training, volunteering and other roles you do outside of your paid employment. Understanding what it means to you can help you through the process.

Who am I?

Building your self-awareness should always be the first step when looking at career choices. You should look at your hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes, skills, strengths, weakness, qualities and so on. It is a time to reflect on you as a person and what you would like from a career.

There are tools available that can help with building self-awareness. Log onto www.nidirect.gov.uk/careers and try out the careers matching tools.

What’s out there?

Finding out what opportunities are available involves a lot of research. Exploring job titles and occupational areas, looking at what the job involves and the entry criteria are all part of learning about different career areas.

You can do this online, through speaking to family, friends, teachers, employers, your local careers adviser and through work experience or volunteering.

Researching what the growth areas may be in the future and which career areas are in decline, as well as what the local job market looks like, are also helpful at this stage. The Careers Service website has more information on all of this including an A-Z Careers. You can see this and more at www.nidirect.gov.uk/careers

Making Choices:

Deciding on your career comes next. You should have gathered all the information about yourself and the career areas that interest you. You can then make a decision on which you feel suits you best and fits with what is important to you. You should also consider alternatives to your chosen career.

Making it happen:

At this point you should look at what you have to do to make it happen. This can include working hard to achieve grades needed, gaining work experience, or preparing for interviews.

It is important to manage your expectations and to make sure you have looked at a Plan B, whether it is another route or a related career area. Your careers adviser can help you with this.

For further information, contact your local Careers office by telephoning 0300 200 7820 or go to www.nidirect.gov.uk/careers.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Apr 10 2015. Filed under Community, Jobs & Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry