Career Planning - a model
There are lots of ways to go about planning your career, and
working out what you want to do after University. However,
one popular method is to use what is known as the DOTS
model - an approach defined by Law and Watts, that helps you to
structure your career planning by breaking down the process
into 4 stages:
Self Awareness. Think about yourself. What are
you skills and attributes? What are the values that are important
to you? What do you think you want from a career? What really
interests or excites you? Our pages on what jobs would suit me
might help you with this.
Occupational Awareness, or exploring
opportunities. What options are out there for you? What could you
do with your degree? What have other students from your programme
done? What is it like to work in a particular job? How do you
pursue a certain career route? What skills or experience do you
need? Head to our pages on what you can do with your degree,
find out about types of jobs, or consider other options with your
subject.
Decision making. Once you are armed with the
above information, you are in a better position to start making
some decisions about what you want to do. You can perhaps at least
narrow it down a little, and then perhaps think about getting some
experience through volunteering, work placements or part-time work
to help give you more of an insight into different kinds of
careers. This is a particularly good time to come and speak to a
careers adviser, who can help you think through your options, but
you can also speak to friends and family about it, of course. You
might find it helpful to read some job adverts or job descriptions,
to help get a more focused idea of what a job might be like.
Transition learning, or how are you going to
achieve your goals, and taking action accordingly. Do you need to
get some experience in order to apply for the sorts of jobs you
want to? Do you need help writing your CV, or practice with
interviews? Do you need to undertake further study in order to
pursue the career you want?
Remember, this is only a guide, and it isn't an approach that
works for everyone. But whether you stick to this model strongly,
or just think about what it is encouraging you to do, it is a
useful suggestion of some of the sorts of things you can do help
you with the career planning process. It's also important to
remember that on average, people end up changing career 2-3 times
throughout their working lives, so you are not
necessarily making a decision that will determine the rest of
your life!
Job Exploration and Skills Awareness Programmes
Take a look at our guide to Job
Exploration and Skills Awareness Programmes the
programmes use various methods (questionnaires,
activities and tasks) to explore your skills, knowledge,
experience and career motivation in order to encourage you to
begin to think about what type of job / career would suit you. Some
programmes may even suggest occupations which match your
profile.