Career Planning Tools

Career planning tools Sometimes, planning a career can all seem a bit much, especially without any guidance. And, whilst articles on choosing a career path may be really helpful, they don’t quite cover how to plan or how to start assessing what you want from a career. It’s one thing to choose an initial job, but what about deciding where to go from there? And just how can you know whether or not you’re suited to the area you think you want to work in, short of by starting to work there?

Well, in this article we’re going to talk about some of the available career planning tools, and why you should be using them.

To begin with, you’ll want to take a look at your university's careers service. They’ll have a bunch of tools available and will be able to point you in the right direction to start. They’ll also be able to help you narrow down what you’re looking at so that you don’t end up taking hundreds of tests or signing up to dozens of websites, only to find little of use. But, while we’re talking about websites...

Useful career planning tools online

These days, most of the most useful career planning tools can be found online. This is useful, because it means you can go back and update your information whenever you change your mind about something, which could mean getting new results that are better suited for you. Many tools also integrate with your online profile, so you can save results and discuss them with a careers advisor.

Let’s take a look through some of the best, and just what they offer.

National Career Service

The National Careers Service has a whole bunch of tools available, including job profiles, which give an overview of what to expect from certain roles. With information such as what to expect from a typical working day in that position, the qualifications you need and typical salary ranges, it should help you work out whether you’re really interested in that role. In addition, it talks about how to get into those roles too.

There’s also a skills assessment, which allows you to compare your current skill set to the requirements of your ideal job and suggests roles that might suit you. This will help you figure out how suited you are to a role, and also work out which skills you need to work on. And, once you’ve narrowed down your options, they have planning and advice tools, including access to careers advisers by phone or online chat. This will help you break your major goals down into lots of smaller steps, and you can even get an advisor to help; great to help you get working on that new job and ensure you stay motivated.

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UCAS

The UCAS Careers Quiz offers a quick way to generate personalised career ideas based on your interests and preferences, and then links these to subject areas and further study routes. Although originally designed for people considering undergraduate study, it can still be a useful starting point if you are thinking about changing direction through postgraduate study, giving you a broad sense of career families to research further before using more advanced tools or speaking to a careers advisor.

Universities

Many universities also provide their own online career planning resources or license additional tools (for example, self-guided postgraduate career pathways platforms) that you can access through your student login, so it is worth checking what is available at your institution. For example LSE, the London School of Economics and Political Science’s self-assessment and career-matching tools includes a curated list of skills audits, strengths tools and career matching tests with guidance on how to interpret the results. UWE Bristol’s Career Toolkit combine self-assessments, a career planner, CV and interview tools, and specific postgraduate planning workbooks.

Postgrad.com Careers Zone

If you are looking for a rewarding job with an employer that values your potential and offers meaningful and interesting career opportunities, our Careers Zone is here to help. We have job application advice, careers guidance, graduate recruitment guidance and essential information on finding fulfilling work beyond your degree or masters program, with information and opportunities from businesses and organisations across the UK and beyond, including companies offering graduate job schemes, internships, trainee roles and direct-entry positions.

CareerPilot

CareerPilot is a free online platform that helps you explore job sectors, career routes and further study options, with a particular focus on pathways in England. You can use its quizzes and ‘job sector’ explorer to map out how your current skills, undergraduate degree and interests could lead into postgraduate study and then on into specific roles, which makes it useful if you are weighing up whether a masters degree or professional qualification would genuinely move you towards your longer-term career goals.

TargetJobs

TargetJobs has details on a variety of different job and career opportunities in the UK including start-up roles and established grad schemes. A useful part of this website is the CV, Applications and Tests section, which provides sample CVs and cover letter templates to help you get started.

Consult a careers advisor

Of course, none of these tools should be used in isolation – they are used to their best effect when in conjunction with a careers advisor.

Having an advisor can allow you to talk through your results, and they can point you in the best direction towards getting a job in your chosen field and lead you along the right Career Path.