Careers advisers

El_Rey

Are there any Careers Advisers on here who would be able to provide some free advice to help me to identify my ideal career? I have contacted the National Careers Service on numerous occasions, but haven't found them to be very useful.

susieq87

might be a good idea to jot down what you like doing, qualifications, skills etc

Aryndeneth

Check out the careers websites of any colleges/unis even if you're not or weren't a student there or don't have a degree. Loads of publicly available info/advice to help you find and explore options. These are some I know to be useful to help get you started.

Start with the I Don't Know What I Want To Do and/or the Which Career? sections on here - http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/

This is also a good one: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/ChoosingCareer.htm

And Prospects Planner http://www.prospects.ac.uk/myprospects_planner_login.htm is useful for helping you think about what skills you have, what you'd like your job to contain and what you might want to get out of your career. It's only a bit of software so it's not perfect but it can be a useful starting point. You have to register with Prospects to see the planner but they don't spam you.

Are there any particular areas you're interested in knowing more about? If so, you can find out more at:http://www.prospects.ac.uk/sectors.htm
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin.htm
http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/whichcareer/

As I said, these are ones I know to be useful but you can find similar sites for most colleges/Universities.

saintjammyswine

Totally agree with the above. While colleges will have student advisors who will be trained in IAG (Information, Advice & Guidance) and are able to advise on training, courses and funding. For specific careers advice, they will likely be able to book an appointment with a specialist careers advisor such as National Careers Service who normally have drop in sessions in the colleges. NCS have always provided an excellent service in my experience, it may be you are just not getting the answers you wanted rather than bad advice.

Aryndeneth

saintjammyswine wrote: »

Totally agree with the above. While colleges will have student advisors who will be trained in IAG (Information, Advice & Guidance) and are able to advise on training, courses and funding. For specific careers advice, they will likely be able to book an appointment with a specialist careers advisor such as National Careers Service who normally have drop in sessions in the colleges. NCS have always provided an excellent service in my experience, it may be you are just not getting the answers you wanted rather than bad advice.

I found NCS helpful when talking about specific career options. Not always so helpful with more nebulous questions such as how to figure out what's out there and what you might be good at/interested in. From what El Rey has said it sounds like they're at that awkward point where they don't know what they need to ask (That old problem of you don't know what you don't know!) I think if El Rey uses some online info/tools to help identify options to explore and can go back to NCS with more concrete questions they may get a more useful response.

saintjammyswine

Agree, they are great with careers advice, not so good at deciding what you want to do.

ostaragirl

I think if your looking to find out what your good at/strengths etc you probably need to do some sort of skills/strengths inventory (there are hundreds online) also labour market information is often a good way of finding out what's out there.
I would have thought that matching your personality/skills/strengths etc to a job you would love doing helps find the right sort of career.
I'd imagine these are the sort of things a careers adviser would do if you went to see them, maybe not.

El_Rey

Aryndeneth wrote: »

I found NCS helpful when talking about specific career options. Not always so helpful with more nebulous questions such as how to figure out what's out there and what you might be good at/interested in. From what El Rey has said it sounds like they're at that awkward point where they don't know what they need to ask (That old problem of you don't know what you don't know!) I think if El Rey uses some online info/tools to help identify options to explore and can go back to NCS with more concrete questions they may get a more useful response.

Aryndeneth, you have hit the nail bang on the head regarding my situation.

pmduk

The National Careers Service website has a useful skills health checker, which, once completed, may give you better results when talking to one of their advisers

El_Rey

pmduk wrote: »

The National Careers Service website has a useful skills health checker, which, once completed, may give you better results when talking to one of their advisers

I have already completed that, but thanks anyway. As others have mentioned, the NCS is good if you have a rough idea of what you want to do as they can point you in the right direction.