Analyse potential jobs Careers research
This activity helps you analyse and evaluate possible jobs, firm up your career ideas and make decisions.
Identify a job that interests you and then answer the questions below. You may not be able to answer all the questions immediately, but use the questions to structure further research. There are three parts to the activity.
You and the job
What is happening in the employment market?
Read the business columns of the broadsheet newspapers and listen to the news. Are companies recruiting people in the field you’re interested in? If not, why not? If they are recruiting, does the job have a shelf-life? Will it still be there in ten years or so? If so, could you see a short period in this job leading on to something else, or should you think again? Look at the employment market to find out more.
What is it about the job that interests you?
Have you identified your own interests and how they fit in with this job? If not, take some time to do this.
Does the work fit in with your values?
Have you identified your values and will the job clash with these? Consider words such as autonomy, variety, intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, excitement.
What is your time scale?
How long are you prepared to take to develop your career and obtain the job you want? Have you set yourself short, medium and long-term goals? Do you have a time limit for entry to the job of your choice? Have you got time to study for any necessary qualifications? What would happen if you’re unable to obtain that job? Do you have any other options? Action planning and decision making can help you to set goals and develop your career.
Making a match
What qualifications are required?
Have you checked whether specific qualifications are essential? Are your qualifications appropriate? You may need to consider gaining additional qualifications through further study. Have a look at job profiles at Prospects to consider the types of qualification needed for particular career areas or jobs.
Are there other ways into the job?
Make sure that employers value the qualification you choose to study. If you don't have the essential qualifications, how do you propose to obtain them? Would you be able to study full time or part time?
What work experience do you have that will help you?
You may have experience that is directly relevant: perhaps paid or voluntary work, for example, having worked with children would be useful experience for a teaching post. You might have experience which is indirectly relevant: working on tasks that have been similar, such as supervision of staff, or using databases.
What are the main tasks involved in the job?
If you're not sure, look for job specifications, recruitment advertisements, or talk to people who do the job. Try breaking the job down into task 'chunks', such as contact with customers and suppliers, supervision, report writing, liaison with senior management, and so on. Map your own skills onto those 'chunks'.
Which parts of the job would you like or dislike?
Consider the individual parts of a job. How much of the job involves things you like doing? What will you dislike? Also, look for the hidden tasks – not all will be listed in a recruitment advertisement. Think about the more mundane tasks. How important are your dislikes? Would you be able to cope so long as you enjoyed the other aspects of the job, or would the things you dislike ruin the job for you? If so, you may want to think again.
Do you have the skills and qualities required?
You will have developed skills and qualities in a number of areas of your life through study, work and your role in the community. By looking at the activities or tasks involved in the job you should be able to identify the skills and qualities required. You will also find these listed in job descriptions.
You now need to think carefully about whether you have the required skills and qualities. If you don't, start to investigate how you could develop them. How can you show an employer that you have the required skills and qualities?
Back to topPracticalities
Which of your needs and responsibilities might be important?
Take some time to identify these. Have you identified all possible difficulties, or are there still some unacknowledged ones which might be important? How would you deal with these?
Would the hours suit you?
What other parts of your life will be affected by the hours of this job? For example, if you have to change from part-time to full-time work and don't finish until 5.00 pm, will you need to find an after-school club for your children? If you're required to work weekends will this ruin your leisure activities? Will this affect your choice?
Where might the work be located?
Are you prepared to travel a long distance each day, even though this takes a good deal of time? Will you need to stay away from home? Would this add to the stress of the job? Would you be able to work from home?
What career progression or development opportunities are there?
Is career progression important to you? What are the chances of promotion in your current job, either within your organisation or outside it?
What about the salary?
If you change career you may have to accept a drop in salary. However, if you have just graduated you may expect your new status to be reflected in an improved salary. Sometimes taking a short-term drop in salary may lead to greater long-term benefits. The salary you accept partly depends on your previous situation, but think about the implications.
