Planning Your Career

Planning a career path is more than just deciding you want a job.

You’re nearing graduation and you either have many potential career paths in mind or none at all. You may have no concrete ideas about your career yet, but you perhaps have an idea of what you want or don’t want from internship experience, and have only just begun looking around.

Or maybe you already have a career in mind – you know what you want to do but don’t have a clue on how to get there. Perhaps the pandemic has caused you to rethink your career choice in terms of its longevity in the future.

Alternatively, you may be considering further studies, have been offered a position upon graduation, or have other plans.

It’s not unusual to be slightly confused when the topic of your career comes up. But we hope to address it here and help you plan your career.

GET AN IDEA

Inklings of fear or intimidation when the talk of your future career comes up is not uncommon, and no one is going to judge you if you have not developed an idea of what career you want, or even when you are not ready to start thinking about it yet.

You’re simply at the stage where you’re still deciding what career is the best for you as an individual. Remember that there is no one way to determine which path you should follow.

Take the time to challenge yourself, get to know yourself better and develop your self-awareness. Audit your skills and continue developing them through internships or extracurricular activities, and, after that, assess them and find out what careers suit your skillset the best and which employers keep a look out for the skills you have honed. From there, make a decision and begin planning your career.

PLAN

If you have a career in mind but are not sure how to get there, you have already begun planning for your future career. You may want to consider speaking to your campus career consultant to talk over your ideas and flesh out a customised plan to keep you on track, or attending specific career programmes that offer training for a sector.

Alternatively, if you already have a career in mind but want to spend some time gaining work experience, relevant or not, first, you may wish to turn your attention to building your network instead as you gain more experience.

But planning does not only encompass a career path – if you are planning to apply for further studies, don’t be afraid to reach out for help to ensure you have settled on the best path, and make sure you have a plan as well.

JUMP INTO ACTION

At this stage, you may either be ready to apply for graduate studies or professional opportunities. Look out for opportunities in graduate schemes or vacancies in the market, and don’t be shy to ask if you need support in drawing up your résumé or writing a cover letter.

The market is competitive, and if you have been applying without success, it is vital that you don’t allow yourself to be disheartened. Your campus career counsellors would be able to help you master the key skills you would need to impress employers, and there may even be times when your résumé or cover letter just needs to be refreshed, tweaked or updated. There is a job waiting out there for you – you just have to find it. But if you have landed a graduate job or a chance to further your studies on the postgraduate level, or decided to set up your own business, congratulations are in order! Start looking out for your future career progression instead, and keep self-promoting on the relevant social media sites, such as LinkedIn.