Choosing a career

Job or Career?

There is a difference! Are you looking for a stop-gap job to pay off bills or have you got a detailed career plan? Do you want a similar kind of job to your existing one but just in a different environment? Have you done all you can in your current job and need a fresh, new challenge? Do you want to get promoted and take on more responsibility?

What do you enjoy doing?

You can browse through our job profiles to find a job to suit you. At this early stage you might like to focus on the sections that describe the main tasks in the jobs and the skills and interests you need. If you're not sure where your skills and interests lie you can carry out our skills and interests assessment.

When you've found the types of jobs you're interested in, you can start to narrow down your options by looking at the other sections on the job profiles. You can then check out which qualifications and experience you need.

What pay and conditions are you looking for?

You'll need to find jobs that suit your lifestyle and give you the hours you want. And how far do you want to travel and what kind of salary are you looking for? You can find this info in the hours and working conditions and salary and benefits sections of our job profiles.

Who do you want to work for?

Deciding which type of organisation you want to work for can also help you narrow down your job search. You could approach this by thinking about what you want from an employer and what you don't want. Examples of what might be important to you are:

• working for a large company where you can move roles
• working for a small company where you get experience of all aspects of the business
• working for a well-known and reputable company
• having training opportunities
• the right company culture.

Once you've narrowed down what you're looking for you can start to identify suitable organisations.

Temporary or permanent?

It's important to decide if you're looking for temporary or permanent work because you can find them in different places.

You might want temporary work if you're returning to work or if you're trying to get a wide range of experiences. If this is the case you might want to consider using recruitment agencies.

Our Career Values Tool can help you establish your broad career goal. If you want your next job to tie in with your strong beliefs and ideals, get advice from our guide to jobs with more meaning.