Final year? No job? Don’t worry ( 2 / 5 )
OK. So you’ve taken the advice of the first of these blogs which was
- Don’t panic
- Ignore your career for the exam period (but ONLY this period!)
- Get to know yourself
So now let’s move to the next stage – where should you apply?
Having got to know yourself, you hopefully will be starting to get an idea of the sort of career that might be the one for you. If you have already reached this stage – great! But many of us really struggle to know even where to start. You might have some general idea about something creative or maybe in TV or possibly in finance. Or perhaps drawing a blank having decided that the jobs you have looked at really don’t look right for you.
But no matter where you are in your thinking the best place to go now might sound really obvious but it is genuinely the right thing to do.
Make an appointment with a careers advisor. They will be able to help you narrow your choices or open your mind to possibilities you hadn’t thought of. For example, for many years I designed assessment centres for graduate entry into a firm of forensic accountants. Now I had never even heard of this line of work at all and so although it probably wasn’t a job for me, I couldn’t possibly have known whether it was or not before I had even heard that it was a job. And there are many many careers out there that you won’t have heard of. Yet!
It is important to ask around and find out what people’s jobs are and really question your friends about their choices. Of course be aware that not everyone is suited to every type of job so be careful that you don’t go for a career just because a friend of yours did. Your friends will be different to you so use them as sources of ideas but don’t just follow them.
So, the main thing to take from this blog is to get yourself along to meet the careers professionals. They will be pleased to see you and I guarantee they will open your eyes to new ideas. You will almost certainly have to book in advance though as few of them will have space for you to drop in for a one to one session. But it is good to think ahead.
And then you can move on to the next step…