Careers blog written by Irena Zientek, Information Resources Manager, Careers

Whatever stage you’re at in thinking about future careers, you’ll need to do a little research to help you make decisions about your next steps. Here are key resources we’ve chosen for each stage of the process – career planning; labour market information; employer information. 

Stage 1: Starting the ball rolling – self-assessment and career planning

There are lots of exercises and tools to help you reflect on your interests, strengths and preferences and this self-reflection can help you generate possible career ideas. The information sheet, Career planning, lists and describes many of them, but here are three in particular which will be helpful.

• Who am I? card sort exercise (available for reference use in Careers). This consists of a ‘packtypes discovery’ card exercise, in which you discover your personality / style and how it relates to work relationships
• Reference books available in Careers, including a range of books considering different individual skills, as well as help with career planning and self-assessment. Call into Careers to see the collection or search the University Library catalogue for individual titles
• Profiling for Success tests (you will need to log on with your University username/password to access these exercises):
  • Types Dynamics Indicator – consider your preferences through aspects of your personality
  • Career Interests Inventory – understand your interests and possible suitable types of work.

Stage 2: Next steps – careers and labour market information (LMI)

Careers information includes background information about types of jobs, including typical duties and entry routes into sectors, and career progression. This information will help you decide whether the career is of interest to you and whether you’re suited to it.

Labour market information can help you identify current and future growth in sectors and geographical locations. It also includes starting salaries and supply and demand for particular occupations.

• The information sheet, Researching careers and labour market information, gives tips and advice on where to find relevant information and how to evaluate and use it effectively
• 10 Minutes With is an online resources (free to York students), which ‘interviews’ managers and human resource staff. They give background information and advice on getting into a range of sectors
• The labour market information web page gives links to other useful resources, including, Where in the UK are you most likely to get a graduate job?
• For international LMI, visit Goinglobal for country profiles and employer and vacancy information. Find the link on our international work page and log in with your University username and password.

Stage 3: Who’s who? – employer information

• Obviously, company websites are the best starting point to find information about individual employers and many directories (and their online versions), as well as vacancy sites, will link through to company websites too (eg Times Top 100 Employers, TargetJobs and Prospects)
• However, if you’d like to find out more and perhaps get some more neutral information, try: Job Crowd – which ‘rates’ companies on a variety of categories, as voted by their own employees
• Following a company on social media can also give you a slightly different view of it and help you to get a sense of its culture and scope. Try Twitter and LinkedIn particularly, as well as the usual alternative sites, like Facebook.

Finally…

Whatever stage you’re at, if you can’t find the information you’re looking for – ask! You can book a Careers Information appointment or ask at the Information Desk in Careers.