Start with yourself

Self-assessment can help you plan the type of career and environment that might suit you. Consider these questions.

• What is important to you and your personal life?
• What is important to you in a job?
• What do you like and dislike?
• What interests you?
• What motivates you, what makes you want to do your best and why?
• What work or study have you liked or been good at in the past?
• What are your goals?
• What do you want to be doing in ten years?
• What do you want your workplace to be like?
• Do you have an ideal workplace in your mind?
• What knowledge and skills do you currently have?

The next step is to find out more about those occupations. You can use the myfuture website occupations list to do this. Be sure to also click on the specific information for each occupation to see the education/training required.

Talk to people

Other people can provide valuable, objective advice, ideas or a much needed reality check as you progress your plans. Try the following:  

• Ask friends and family for advice—they sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
• Find people who do the job you are interested in. Ask them what a day on the job is really like. They may even let you shadow them for a day.
• Develop your professional networks by volunteering or joining relevant associations related to your areas of interest, and attending professional development opportunities.
• Both current and future students can book a careers guidance appointment on Student Hub.

Do your research

Deciding on a career is an important decision. Make sure you do your homework.

• Research occupations:
  • Which employers work or recruit in your area of interest?
  • What are the job titles that those in relevant occupations hold?
  • What experience and education is required?
  • What are salaries at entry-level and with more experience?
  • What are the skills needed?
  • What is the potential growth in the career field or industry?
  • What are the common application procedures?
  • Is it what you want to do?
• Research industries
  • Look beyond the duties, skills or company to the industry behind it. This will give you a broader view of diverse occupations across the sector.
  • Look for jobs that might fit under several industry banners, some of which you may be better suited to than others. For example, a marketing graduate may seek work within a marketing company (marketing services industry) or may seek employment in a marketing role but within the sports industry, manufacturing industry or tourism industry.

Once you have carried out the career assessments and checked the details of careers and occupations you may be interested in, you can then access our UniSC Career guide to discover which UniSC degree you need to study in order to achieve that career.