Three Tools to Plan a Career

Deciding on a career can be difficult and takes research, goal setting and knowledge of what you want to do. Guiding someone through their career plan can be even more difficult. There are many different resources we can use to help with this process. Today I'd like to use this article to highlight three that the team at Skills Strategies International have found the most useful

1: SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is generally a business tool used for evaluating business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. However, we can use this tool for career development.

Strengths: In the strength stage you analyse your internal strengths. This lets us analyse our internal strengths and assess potential careers that would best suit what we (or whoever we are helping do a career plan) would be good at.

Weaknesses: Similar to strengths in the weaknesses area we assess what we aren't so good at and what we don't enjoy to see what careers we would not be suited for.

Opportunities: In the opportunities area we look at what environments we work the hardest and how we are motivated to see industries that are best for us to look into.

Threats: In the threats stage we look at why a company might not want to hire us to judge what we can improve upon. 

2: Career Testing

Many companies provide career tests that help to determine which jobs best suit our personalities and qualifications. While we may not necessarily want employment at these companies some companies make their career testing readily available for free to the public. These are excellent tools to use once you already have some idea of the industry or company you'd like to work for. 

3: Research

Research is an excellent tool to use when you are beginning your career journey. Think about the dream companies you would like to work for and have a look at the job listings they are making or have made in the past. By doing this we can see what these dream companies are looking for. This is a great way to make a foundational plan for the future. 

Skills Strategies International is new to the Career Development space but we have been working in education for 25 years. This means we have shaped the careers of thousands of Australians. Our new career education qualifications are an excellent place to start if you are looking to work as an adult mentor or a career development specialist in a high school.

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