Develop a career plan
The career planning process enables you to take control of your future and plot your journey ahead. You can start right now and keep updating your plan as you move through working life.
You may have a specific goal in mind, or have no idea what you want to do, or perhaps you are somewhere in between. Whatever stage you are at, career planning gives you the opportunity to set actions and targets that will allow you to move you forward.
Planning helps you consider and address important questions
- How do I see my career developing?
- What role/career am I interested in?
- What skills, qualifications and experience do I need to secure that job?
- Where do I want to work?
- How do I get there?
- What resources can I use?
- When should I aim to achieve my goals?
Creating a career plan
- Reflect on your current situation, and your strengths and weaknesses, and consider the options available to you.
- Research and decide on your career goals. Ask yourself where you want to be in the coming years. You may want to explore new ideas or take time to examine possibilities that have heard about.
- Identify and plan what steps you need to take to achieve your objectives and when you need to do them. Set SMART actions (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound). We recommend that you use a career action plan document to help.
- Take action – complete the steps you have outlined.
- Review and reflect on what you have achieved – what went well and what didn’t go as expected. Update your career action plan and consider how this affects your future goals and next steps.
Ideas and inspiration
Prospects – view a comprehensive degree subject list to find out which career paths are directly related to what you studied.
Prospects – career planner quiz.
Try our own career action planning template (.docx).
Jobs.ac.uk – 5-minute career action plan guide.
CareerHub+ – exploring career options.
Chart My Path and the Big Essex Award – discover the broad range of extra-curricular and voluntary opportunities available to you at Essex.
Support
Meet with our friendly Careers Consultants in a guidance appointment. Maybe you know what you want to do and need to talk about how to get there? Perhaps you don’t have a clue what might suit you? We can help!
For more information, advice, and support with career planning, email careersinfo@essex.ac.uk
Self-awareness
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses
Being conscious of your strengths and weaknesses, your preferences, values and talents will really help you plan a career.
You can use the following external resources to help you:
- My Prospects Career Planner - identifies jobs based on your skills and motivations
- Bright Network Career Path Test - discover careers that match your skills and personality
- 123test - personality test measuring traits such as Conscientiousness, Openness and Agreeableness
- mydiscprofile - free online DISC personality test
Opportunity awareness
You also need to know what’s out there - the different industries and sectors you could work in, the latest labour market trends, or roles you think might interest you.
Prospects is a graduate careers website. It can help you explore:
Decision making
Create an action plan
Once you know who you are and what you want, you have some decisions to make. You can develop an action plan by answering questions such as:
- Have you got all the skills and experience you need for your chosen career?
- Do you have any gaps to fill?
- Do you need to look into further study or training?
- When should you be applying for opportunities?
You can prepare an action plan in any format that works for you. The main thing is to identify short and long term goals, and what you need to do to achieve them. Set yourself deadlines to keep yourself on track, and make your goals SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timetabled.
Transition learning
Match yourself to opportunities
Transition learning is all about applying everything you’ve done to come up with a plan. A successful plan will allow you to stand out from the crowd and present well during the selection process.
Get ideas and inspiration
- AllAboutCareers - career exploration, jobs and advice
- Prospects - view a comprehensive degree subject list to find out which career paths are directly related to what you studied.
Meet a Careers Advisor
Our professional and friendly Careers Advisors are here to help you figure out a plan for your career. Maybe you know what you want to do and need to talk about how to get there? Perhaps you simply don’t have a clue what might suit you? We're here to help.
