How to Find the Right Job For You Employment
Making the decision to go back to work can be extremely difficult, especially if you haven’t been an active member of the workforce in a very long time. But it doesn’t have to be, especially if you’re doing something that you enjoy and find fulfilling. Lucily, whether you’re returning to work after raising a family or finding something to pass the time during your retirement, it’s never been easier to find out exactly what you want to do.
In order to help you decide on what you want to do, Building Better Opportunities have taken the time to prepare this article.
Review Your Work History
The first thing you should do is to review your own work history. Figure out what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you might be interested in doing again. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What did I like about my previous works?
- What was my best work experience? Why was it great?
- Among my previous supervisors, what did I like most about them?
- What was the biggest challenge I faced?
- What were my favourite parts of my previous organizations?
- What were my least favourite parts of my previous organizations?
- Of the people I’ve worked with, which of their qualities did I value most?
By doing this, you’ll gain some important information about your personal working preferences.
Find Your Work Preferences
Next, you should take some time and find your work preferences. The best way to do this is through a combination of working through assessments and tests and reflecting on your experiences and emotional needs.
Make a List of Your Hard and Soft Skills
To start with, you’ll want to make a list of your soft and hard skills. If you’ve never heard the term before, your soft skills are your innate abilities — for example, if you’re a very empathic person. Your hard skills, on the other hand, will be technical knowledge that you possess and any accreditations you have. For example, you might be empathic and am a fully-accredited fire marshal. Knowing these things will really help you narrow down your choices when it comes to your next job.
Take a Skills Assessment
There are a number of resources available online designed to help you find the things you’re good at — for example, the National Careers Service has a great one, originally designed as part of the national recovery from Coronavirus. Regardless of which assessment you take, afterwards you should be closer to understanding your key skillset.
Think About Your Interests
Take some time to think about your interests and passions. Ask yourself what gets you up in the morning? What do you think about in the quiet hours? Knowing these thing can help you work out what career is ideal. For example, if you find yourself thinking about your family, you might want to think about a career as a carer or maybe you want to consider a part-time job that allows you to spend some time with your family
Take a Personality Assessment
This is another type of test that you can take to give you more insight into what roles you’d be suited for. Unlike a skill set assessment — which judges your ability to complete certain tasks — a personality assessment tests your personality type and uses that to work out your preferences. Truity has a fantastic personality test for just this purpose.
Take a Values Test
Again, this is another type of test you can take. This one tests your values and uses those parameters to give you an indication of what kind of job you’d be ideally suited for. Psychology Today has a great quick test.
Do Some Research
Now that you’ve done some tests and had a think about your personality and skill sets, you should have an idea of some jobs you’re suited for. To further help you narrow down your choices, it’s time to do some research. There are a number of ways you can do this, but to make it easier for you we’ve assembled some avenues of enquiry for you.
Ask friends
Asking friends about their jobs can give you some indication about what it’s really like to work in a certain job. Not only will this help you if your friend works at one of the jobs you’ve previously considered, it will also give you further careers to think about.
Ask a career professional
Not only will career professionals help you to work out what jobs you’re suited for, they’ll also help put you in those jobs.
Attend Professional Events
Not only will attending professional events help you to learn about what it’s like to work at certain jobs, it will also help you to network with professionals already in that industry — which may help you gain jobs later. This is a great way of getting your foot in the door.
Use social media
Social media outlets, such as Linkedin, are another way to network with recruiters and professionals in your chosen field. Furthermore, many of these websites have job boards, which are a great way of finding jobs at some great companies. And, if you’re inclined, many of these sites have professional accreditation programmes, where you can gain some key skills for your ideal job.
Next Steps
By following these steps, you should gain an idea of what kind of jobs you’re suited for and an idea of how to get them. Not only that, along the way you’ll be able to gain some key skills and do some important networking.
Contact Building Better Opportunities Today
For more information about getting back into work, contact Building Better Opportunities today. Our dedicated and experienced staff will be able to help you with your enquiries.