Source: Saulo Mohana (2016)
We spend a large chunk of our lives at work, so it's a good idea to really think about your future and what career you can see yourself in. Click through the tabs below to find resources on choosing a career, finding jobs and acing applications and interviews.
Deciding what you want to do in the future can be a daunting task and you may be of unsure of where to start. It's a good idea to look at things you already have to see what job might suit you. Start by looking at your personality traits and what skills you may already have as a great starting off point to see what careers might suit you. Use the tables below as a guide to think about what you already have.
Choose ten personality traits:
Choose five skills:
Still a bit confused? Try some of these resources below to help you figure out your strengths and values, and how you can use them to find a career for you.
Career decision-making is a lifelong process. However, there are many things you need to think about when making career decisions, and you can get stuck. To avoid this, it can be helpful to use a step-based career decision-making process. This website walks you through these steps and how to use them to make good career decisions.
From an early age, we learn to develop the knowledge and skills needed to secure a job. In many cases, we pay vast amounts of money gaining a qualification so that we can enter the workforce. However, it can be challenging to find work that suits you. You need to consider your needs, values and things that are important to you in the way you live and work. This website walks you through some of the things you need to consider when choosing a job or career path.
If your interests and values are well-matched to your job, you’re likely to be happy and successful. But for many people, change is common. Their interests change over time. Passions are discovered and rediscovered. If you're feeling unsure about your career path, a good starting point is to set aside some time to describe the person you are now and your dreams for the future. This website gives you some prompts and questions to examine your values and your skills to figure out what jobs would suit you in the future.
For many people, work is a big part of life. It’s pretty likely that you’re going to spend a bunch of time doing it for the next 40 or so years. So having a think about your values and interests can go a long way in ending up somewhere you want to be - and enjoying the journey too. Take this 8 question quiz to find out what kind of workplace might suit you!
Setting goals gets you to the places you want to go. It's a process that turns dreams into reality. Learning how to set goals will help you to plan your future, and to clarify what's important to you. Whether your goals are big or small, the first step in achieving them is deciding what they are! The resources below will help you set goals and figure out the steps you need to take to achieve them.
This interactive quiz from Headspace can give you an idea about how to set goals and help you create your own manageable and achievable goals through the use of templates and prompts. It's a great starting point if you have no idea about how to create goals that will help you with your future.
This website from the Youth Disability Advocacy Service focuses on goal setting for teenagers with disabilities, but has a lot of useful tips for able-bodied and neurotypical students as well. It provides a great template for deciding on goals, figuring out how to achieve them and what resources will help you achieve your goals. There are also great examples of how to break down a larger goal into smaller steps.
When you’ve got a million things on your To-Do list, it can be hard to know where to start. Learning how to prioritise will help you to stay focussed, motivated and productive. A ‘priority matrix’ is one tool that can help you to figure out your priorities and start kicking goals. Give it a shot with the help of this article from Reach Out.
Now that you've figure out what motivates you, what skills you have, and what your goals are, now it's time to find a career. But how do you go about finding one that fits you? This is where career research comes in. Career research gives you better insight into what the day-to-day of a specific career looks like, how to get into a specific career, and what the future of a career might look like. These resources below will help you with your career research.
Norwood's very own centre for everything job and study post-school. Use the site to locate university, TAFE and other courses across Australia, search job vacancies, and get advice on your future career progression.
Career directions may change over time. Discovering what you want out of a career and what your interests are requires continual reflection. Career research can help you learn more about an industry or occupation you may be considering. It provides an insight into possible career opportunities and current industry trends. This website walks you through the basics of career research.
My Big Tomorrow is a resource designed to help young Australians realise bigger life choices. Here you can discover your dream career, experience a day in the life of someone doing that job and find out how they got there. And if you have absolutely no idea what you want to do you can click on the 'random career' button to explore a randomly picked career path.
The world of work influences how you think about, choose, develop and change your career. You need to understand the world of work before you choose a career path. To help you understand it, look at it in the following ways: sectors, industries and career fields. This article breaks down the three terms.
This playlist brought to you from Student Edge contains a collection of videos looking at what a diverse range of careers, such as actor, jockey, surgeon or electrician look like. This is a great starting point if you want to know more about a particular career.
Ever wondered what it was like to be an auctioneer? A jeweller? A physiotherapist? How about a viticulturist? Find out about different careers straight from the mouths of those who've 'been there, done that'. Click on a letter of the alphabet to view a list of profiles, or just scroll through for a bit of a browse.
Seek is one of the most popular job sites on the internet today, but it does mroe than just list jobs. Seek also gives you the opportunity to explore and research different career paths, help you match your skills to a potential career, and gives you an idea on how to get into a particular career path.
If there's a job or career you're interested in, it helps to find out as much as you can about it. A bit of research can give you an idea about whether it's really what you want to do for a living. This article lists five ways you can find out more about a job or career you're interested in.
A career plan can help you work out what jobs suit your interests and abilities. Following the plan can then help you find a job that suits you. This website lists five steps to create a simple career plan. If you want to go into more detail, there are resources to help you at the bottom of the page.
Information interviews are career-related interviews that help you understand an industry or occupation. They differ from job interviews, as they don’t help you gain employment directly. Information interviews help you to:
You can arrange an information interview with anyone you believe will help you. You may have met the interviewee at an event, been referred to them by someone else, or found them through a search. This article lists four key steps to help you get the most out of information interviews.
There are many places to look for a job. New services are always being set up to compete with established players. You can search online, in newspapers, through specialist agencies, at job seeker centres or through networks. Don't limit your search to one source. This article lists 11 places you can start your research.
The world of work is changing and new technologies are emerging all the time. To remain in steady employment we have to change too. We need to try and stay ahead of the game and look for occupations with the best job prospects. So, how do you find out whether the occupation you are interested in is growing? Although with luck you may enter an occupation with long-term prospects, it is worth taking the four factors listed in this article into account.
An accurate reading and understanding of an online job advertisement is essential for preparing your job application and for conducting career research. An online jobs site may have a short advertisement to attract your attention, with a link to a longer advertisement. The longer advertisement may still not provide all the information you need, particularly for public sector jobs. This article lists ten critical details to note when reading an online job advertisement.
Job Outlook makes it easy to find and understand career information. Use the career profiles on Job Outlook to learn about the future outlook, pay, main tasks, and physical and other demands of careers that interest you. Find out about the skills, knowledge and abilities you may need to get and keep a job. When you are ready to take action, follow links to job vacancies and related courses. If you are not sure what sort or work you want to do or are considering a career change, the Career Quiz can help you to think about your work preferences and to get ideas for careers you can aim for. Job Outlook provides a simple snapshot of the industries and careers that are likely to be in demand in 5 years. This can be useful information when you are thinking about future study and career options.
Now that you've done your research and figured out what job or career you'd like to try, now you're up to the exciting part: applying for jobs! The first step in applying for jobs is putting together a good resume. A resume (also sometimes called a CV) is a document you put together to show potential employers your skills, qualifications and work history in order to prove to them that you are a good fit for their organisation. The resources below will help you put together your resume and start you job application journey.
This article from Youth Central gives a detailed overview of what resumes are, why they're important, and best of all, lots of tips and tricks on how to write one. It also includes some templates to get you started.
It can be hard to get a job if you have no work experience. There are some things you can do to get work experience, even if you haven’t worked in a paying job yet. This article lists some things that you can put on your resume if you haven't had a job yet.
A cover letter is a single-page letter written to the person or organisation offering the job you're applying for. A well-written cover letter should introduce you and encourage the person reading it to read your resume. Writing a cover letter should be part of every job application you make, unless there are clear instructions not to send one. These resources below will help you with writing your own cover letter.
This link will give you access to two cover letter templates to help you in the process of writing your own.
This website from Youth Central gives a great overview of what cover letter is, what the purpose of one is, and some tips and tricks on how to write a successful one.
Key selection criteria describe the personal qualities, skills, abilities, knowledge and qualifications a person needs to perform a role effectively. Many employers use key selection criteria to determine which applicants are a good fit for a role. Examining a job's key selection criteria can also be a good way for you to find out whether the role is a good fit for you too. This website takes you through step by step on how to respond to key selection criteria in your cover letter.
Have you wondered whether writing a cover letter to send with your resume is a waste of time? You're not alone if you said yes. But recruitment companies and employers will tell you that it’s an essential part of your job application. In fact, a short, well-written cover letter could boost your chances of getting an interview. This article walks you through the step by step process to writing a cover letter and includes a number of cover letter templates.
So you nailed the resume and cover letter and now you've scored yourself an interview; congrats! Now it's time to work on what a lot of people find the most confronting part of the job search: the interview. These resources below will walk you through what a job interview will look like and give you tips on how to ace them.
Are you trying to get a job, but have no idea how to handle an interview? Job interviews can be pretty nerve-racking, especially if you haven’t had much experience. Get better prepared with the tips provided in this article.
These tips from Huffington Post give a great guide on all aspects of a job interview, from what to wear to how early you should be and how to stand out from the crowd.
This website gives you a list of some of the most common job interview questions and a few ideas on how to respond to them if you get stumped.
With the rise of working from home and travel restrictions due to Covid, more and more employers are conducting job interviews online. This article lists a few ways you can prepare yourself for a digital interview.
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DaylioDaylio is a diary app that allows for goal setting, mood tracking and routine notifications. The app uses this data to create personalised statistics and find what are the causes of individual moods. |
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TideTide lets you get things done by breaking up individual event among discrete intervals, separated by short breaks. It helps you stay focused in work and study. With one tap, you can easily start a focus and peaceful time accompanied by sounds of natural environment. Combining the most popular time management method with nature sounds. |
GlassdoorFind your next job, prepare for interviews and get hired faster with Glassdoor. Compare salaries, reviews and the latest job listings on the go. |
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CliftonStrengthsUse StrengthsFinder to discover your CliftonStrengths and understand how to use them to achieve career success. |