On Track - Careers Planning
In the first in what will be a regular series of careers articles, members of the UNE team responsible for the Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice* - postgraduate courses that can be tailored to suit your individual career ambitions - share some welcome advice on careers planning. After the horror year of 2020, is it time to switch, ditch or hang on to your career plans?
Regular career checks are always a good idea, although, like most health checks, we usually need a reminder. COVID-19 and its ongoing financial and employment impacts has provided just such a disruption, prompting many of us to reassess our career plans.
So, what questions do we need to ask ourselves at times like this?
Let’s start with the big one: Do I want to change my career?
Next, consider the plans you made 10 years ago, or even five years ago. Do they still reflect your priorities and desires? Has the situation changed? Have you changed?
Generally speaking, there are three basic answers:
- I'm happy with my current career and I'm looking for education offerings that will assist me to advance along my chosen career path. Strategic professional development will build the skills that you need to move forward. This may require you to update your knowledge of the field or to enhance your transferable skills (sometimes called ‘soft’ skills).
- You are likely to need additional professional development to bridge the gap. In this instance, you will be looking to add that "something extra" to your repertoire of skills and knowledge.
- I want to change careers and will need to gain specific knowledge and skills to equip me for a new occupation. Big as this may sound, it's relatively straightforward, since a change of career will obviously require a specific set of clearly identified new knowledge and skills. The important thing to remember is that you probably already have quite a few useful transferable skills, so you may only need to enrol in courses to provide the required new technical skills and knowledge.
If you want to acquire specific knowledge or technical skills, the relevant study options are easily identified. However, when you are thinking about professional development options to enhance your transferable skills, be open to considering possibilities beyond the obvious.
The transferable or ‘soft’ skills that organisations are increasingly looking for include complex problem-solving, critical and analytical thinking, innovation, creativity, originality, leadership and social influence, emotional intelligence, systems analysis and evaluation, and technology design. You can learn and develop these skills in all types of contexts – the arts, humanities, creative arts, sciences or business. Think about combining the business of skills development with the fun of learning for pleasure.
* Airlie Bell, Kate Pardy and Anna Dellow are qualified careers practitioners with extensive experience in delivering career education and student support. Team leader Airlie Bell was recognised by the national body for careers professionals (CDAA) as Careers Practitioner of the Year in 2017.
