Chapter 3: Finding the right job

1. Assess what you want from a job

What does your ideal job look like?

Take a piece of paper and make a list of all the things that your ideal job would have. These might be tangible things (e.g. ‘a good salary’) or intangible things (e.g. ‘a progressive corporate culture’).

Identify your ‘must-haves’, ‘nice-to-haves’ and ‘could-put-up-withs’

Find your ideal job. Find your ideal job.Once you’ve completed your list, look at what you’ve written and highlight all of ‘the things that you absolutely must have in your new job’. These are things that you will not compromise on (i.e. what your new job must offer if you’re going to consider applying for it). You’ll probably identify between three and twelve points that fall into this category.

Refer back to your original list and highlight all of ‘the things that would be nice to have in your new job, but are not vital’. These things will be important to you but their absence wouldn’t stop you from considering a job that you might be interested in.

Look at your original list again and highlight all of the things that you ‘don’t like but could put up with if you had to’. These will be things that you don’t enjoy doing, but could put up with if everything else about the job met your requirements.

Fill in the details

Look at each of the points and statements that you’ve written down in more detail; what do they all mean?

For example, if one of your ‘must have’ points is “working with old people” then the detail behind this statement would probably include: (i) the age range of the ‘old people’ that you want to work with, (ii) their location and (iii) their well-being.

Expanding on each of your statements will help you to create a more informed picture of what your ‘ideal job’ looks like.

Make a note of all your values, ethics and beliefs

Make a list of all your values, ethics and beliefs. These are the principles that are important to you in your life and will, therefore, be equally important to you in your work life.

Write your own job description

Once you’ve captured all the traits and elements of your ‘ideal job’, you need to identify what job you’d actually like to do.

The best way to do this is by writing a ‘job description’ for your ideal job. This would include:

• what the job actually is

• where the job should be located

• what the role involves.

If you’re struggling to write your job description, or if you’re not sure what you want to do, then most libraries and high street bookshops stock ‘career guides’ that provide information about a variety of different jobs and careers.

2. Assess what skills you need to secure the job that you’d like to do

Once you’ve decided what job you’d like to do, take a piece of paper and make a list of all the skills and personal traits that you need in order to secure the job that you’ve identified.

3. Assess your development needs

When you’ve identified all of the skills that you need for the job that you want to do, you need to assess your existing abilities to see if you’ve got any obvious development needs (i.e. gaps in your skills, experiences and/or qualifications).

What can you do to fill the gaps in your skills? Record your thoughts.

4. Assess which organisations offer the job that you’d like to do

Once you’ve finished drafting your job description, you need to make a list of organisations (i.e. potential employers) that offer the job that you’d like to do.

Some, or all, of the following sources might help to inform your research:

the internet
business and careers libraries
career guidance companies
the recruitment sections of the national press
career guides in bookshops and libraries
recruitment consultants.

Be honest with yourself

Whenever you identify a potential employer and/or a job that you’d like to do, you should ask yourself if you’ve actually got all of the skills, competencies and experience that you need for the role that you’ve identified.

Be honest with yourself. If you don’t have them all then you’ll need to decide if you should pursue your interest in the job or not.

(It might be worth applying for a job even if you don’t have all of the required skills or experience, because you could still be the best applicant What have to you got to lose?)

You’re ready to start the application process!

Once you’ve got a shortlist of potential employers, you can start to focus on taking your next ‘Steps to Success’.

These tips and practical steps have been sourced by Creative Choices° and written by the team at 1st Steps to Success Limited. You can visit their website for more information and to download a more comprehensive guide (or ‘Knowledge Insight Pack’) which includes plenty of examples, tips, practical advice and easy-to-use templates that will help you to find and then secure full-time employment..