PLANNING FOR YOUR FUTURE

Planning for your future; A career a profession or a job, I’m confused! 

For much of a person’s young life this will go through their minds. What will they do when they leave formal education where will the work how can they effectively set themselves up to have the best start in life? 

There are push and pull pressures from liking certain subjects and being motivated by people who you see earning lots of money, having status or doing a job which you might thinks is caring or compassionate. There are drivers which help us formulate what we all want to do whether we are 16 and leaving school we’re 18/19 leaving college, in our 20’s and leaving university or we are older and just  want a career change 

I carried out desktop research and found the four biggest influencers for choosing a career are the location, your parents profession views or sometimes thier contacts, the earning potential and the fourth is the economic environment, where you live and what the opportunities present themselves. The order can vary to the individual the time the persons skills and also the opportunities. Although I wouldn’t disagree with this I would add there are three other very important considerations 

1. Is it vocational or academic? 

1. Is it easy to enter, do I have an opportunity? 

1. Do I have pressures to just go out and get a job? 

Lets be clear that not everyone will have the luxury of choosing to take up their dream profession. many other people will change their minds multiple times and yet others will get into a career and find out they don’t like what they were doing or that the dream job wasn’t all it was cut out to be. 

This is because we are not always told that one of the most important factors is “to love what you do”. Be happy in your work, go into work to make others happy and create a happy environment. If this is your thinking the most important factor would be transferable skills.  

High on your consideration factors will be to start where you are as an individual. Are you creative, do you like working with figures or working with animals. Do you prefer to be indoors or outdoors? So rather than the job type such as accountant or plumber think of what you are actually doing, who you will work with and what attributes you will be applying. 

Some of us are creative; we like to explore others like concentrating. Some like walking and yet others like to be in a vehicle. One way to explore what fits you best is to “try before you buy”. Test out different jobs. If you have the opportunity to take up an apprenticeship or to work for an organisations on a voluntary basis this could often allow you to explore roles you didn’t know existed and to make mistakes in a relatively safe environment where they are usually more accepting that a person is learning.  

More recently there has been a rise in promoting the skills of tomorrow, those skills people can do on their own and make a living from. These include the arts such as design, panting, drawing etc, dance, pottery, building computers, cooking or catering, photography, and animating as some examples. Many of these form Britain’s creative industry which is worth billions and comes under the UK’s Dept of Media Culture and Sports. 

So In summary what is the advice to someone confused by what they should do with their lives and their futures? Adeel Bashir says “After working in many different sectors and industries in my life I can speak from experience and say it’s very easy to choose a career and find yourself completely somewhere else a few years later.  Realising you are being given an opportunity is not always easy to grasp or accept, but with the tools and information available to us including, the internet, mentors, groups such as Att10tive Social Enterprise and more education on transferable or  life skills you can achieve the goal you want and find your most suited career or job – It doesn’t have to be a career. Don’t let what other people put you off, we are all unique and have individual strengths and abilities that make us fit perfectly somewhere in the working world. A major influence on our job satisfaction will be the people we work with as well as what we do.  
 
Lastly, remember sometimes you find opportunities that allow you to achieve a career. Other times, opportunities find you and push you in your dream path, that you wouldn’t have otherwise even considered. Life is unexpected, and things happen for a reason. Embrace the opportunities you are offered.”