Deciding on a Career Path
You’ve still got some time, but it's a good idea to start thinking about the type of career you want in the future. You don't need to have a decision yet, but it's good to have an idea of what you think you’ll enjoy the most and be best suited to.
Before having a look at what careers you could go into, have a look at yourself. Ask yourself the following questions:
What type of work have you enjoyed the most so far?
Do you like working in a team and with other people or more alone?
What type of work do you like doing? Physical, reading or creative?
What subjects are you good at and what careers do they relate to?
What is the most important thing to you about getting a job?
If you’ve done any work experience, which placements do you like, what did you like about them and what did you not like about any of your placements?
It’s important you know the answers to these before just looking at what careers there are as these will help you to guide yourself towards an area in the job world that you would enjoy and thrive in.
Now you can begin to look at different types of jobs. The best way to know what each one will be like is to get some work experience in each type of career. Unfortunately, this is not possible currently in real life, but there are a lot more virtual work experience opportunities. These are great as you get to know what happens day-to-day in this job without leaving the comfort of your house! The only disadvantage is you cannot get a feel of what it is like working in an office, so I would still recommend doing as much work experience as you can in the near future when workplaces reopen.You can also research the day-to-day activities of someone who has this job - maybe find some YouTube videos on these careers, and talk to career advisors and people who work in the fields you’re interested in. This will help give you an insight in what you could be getting yourself into, and if it’s right for you.
It’s important to not only think about money when choosing which career you want to have. Yes it's important and it would be nice if we were all earning the same as Jeff Bezos, but we’ve also got to consider what we'll enjoy. It’s important for our mental health in the future that we’re doing something we enjoy and have a passion for, or else life will just become boring and unenjoyable.
You’re not expected to have your whole life planned out right now (I still don’t know what I want to do later in life), and there will always be room to change up your career but having some sort of idea right now will help you guide your studies in a direction that will help you get to where you want to end up in the future. We’ve created some guides on post GCSE and A-Level options including a guide to applying through UCAS.
