Explore your career options: if you have no ideas

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It’s ok if you don't have a clear idea about your career. The key to moving forward is finding ways which help you make confident, informed decisions about what to do next, whether it is your first job after university or you are changing careers.

Before you even start thinking about jobs it's helpful to take some time to really think about yourself.

Understanding your interests

An important part of understanding your career options is knowing the kind of activities that suit you. The free online tests below will provide you with some insights.

Values and motivations

What is important to you in a job? Examples of some motivations would be:

money
achieving a work/life balance
working independently
working with others

Identify your values and motivations with this online work values test

Skills

Think about all your experiences from university, work/volunteering, extra-curricular activities and personal life and consider what transferable skills you have developed. How would you rate your competence in these skills? Performing a skills audit by reflecting on your experiences is a great way to identify your strengths as well as areas for development.

Not only are these key for employers when recruiting, but they are important in assessing whether you are suitable for jobs.

If you think you don't have the necessary skills then that’s fine, you can set yourself goals to develop these.

Personality

Understanding your personality type and the associated traits and characteristics can help you determine whether a job is a good fit for you.

Try a personality questionnaire on 16personalities.com

What to do with your degree

With all this information you can now review different jobs and see what would be a good fit for you.

Prospects Planner matches your interests, skills, and motivations to a wide range of graduate job profiles. It's not a definitive list of what you can do but it could be a great starting point
Prospects: What can I do with my degree and our subject-specific pages give you a insight into graduate careers

Graduate jobs

Understanding different types of graduate opportunities and researching specific jobs will help you generate ideas for moving forward. What jobs match the factors you have identified above?

Not knowing is OK. Be curious and open to opportunities, the majority of graduate jobs (around 82%) are open to any degree subject (Institute of Student Employers, 2018) so now could be a great time to get exploring!