• Question: any tips on how to choose the right career when you don't really know what to choose?

    Asked by anon-202030 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      My advice would be to do what you enjoy. Whenever there’s a decision to make about your future, prioritise choosing what you’ll enjoy. If you take decisions one step at a time, other things such as money should fall into place.

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I would say apply to lots of things when you get the chance, even if you’re not convinced you’ll get them because you don’t know what doors will open for you. Also you don’t have to stick with one career path. I was certain I would work in a medical setting and had 3 years working in the NHS before I decided to go back and study physics. I would strongly recommend taking time between doing your A-levels and going to university to explore some possible entry level jobs in areas you might be interested in. Experience in the fields is valuable for future applications and it might show you what you really do or don’t like. I’d also write down the areas you’re interested in and see if there’s any common themes to it and possibly niche areas to work in that combine both or ways to have a bit of everything. Most importantly, don’t panic! You don’t need to choose one specific career before you’ve left school

    • Photo: Andy Buckley

      Andy Buckley answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I always had something that seemed obvious at the time, so not directly. Are you not sure what to choose because many things seem interesting, because nothing sounds interesting, or because you’re torn between interesting and a “proper job”… or something else? If you have a choice between several interesting things, then you’re lucky: maybe you can do all of them at different points in life, given the right training.

    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      There’s been really good advice from the others. I think stick to what you enjoy and you can figure out later where to go with your career. That’s what I am doing anyway as I have no idea what I’ll do after my PhD yet. Sarah’s advice on applying to lots of things is good too, doing some work experience is a good way to get an idea what a certain job might be like.

    • Photo: Emily Lewis

      Emily Lewis answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      It’s very hard! So first thing is don’t worry if you don’t know. It took me a while to find a job I enjoyed and was good at.
      My advice is to try and get some experience anywhere that might interest you, then you can see first hand if you would like it, you can also talk to people in that job and they can tell you about it directly.
      So try loads of different things and see what fits 🙂

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