Thinking about your next step

The following questions are designed to help you think about what you want from your next career move:

A good starting point for this reflection is: "If someone was calling me about the perfect employment opportunity, what would they be telling me about/what would I hear them saying about it?"

Where is your ideal work location?

• Are you willing to move to another city, or would you prefer to stay where you are?
• Are you willing to use public transport, or would you prefer to drive to work?
• If you decide to catch public transport, what are the bus or train routes like from where you live?
• Are you willing to work within, say 10km, 20km or 30km from home?
• Would you prefer to work in the city centre or in the suburbs?

What type of work do you want to do?

• Have you ever had a dream job that you'd like to pursue? This may be the time to change direction.
• Do you want to work part time or full time?
• Do you want a permanent or contract role?
• Think of the type of work that you would be happy to do or have at least thought about doing before.
• Don't forget about a hobby or something else that you love to do that could be turned into a business!

What type of job?

Don't be put off by the title of the role. Organisations often have very different titles for similar roles. For example, in one company a role may be called a FInancial Controller, and in another company it may be called FInance Manager. Or Sales Director vs General Sales Manager. Look closer at the content, and what your day-to-day responsibilities will be. This will give you a good understanding of what the work will entail.

What type of business?

• Decide what type of business you want to work in.
• Small, medium, large?
• Public/private ownership?
• Start-up or established?
• One branch or multibranch?
• Company culture?
• Industry (or any industries you would/wouldn't work in)?

Put all this together and you've got your target market - a list of companies you want to talk to, places to visit and types of work you really want to do!

The next step is to tailor your CV - click here for tips!