January
career
goals
Get practical tips to help you get where you want to be in your career.
January can be a time when people reflect on the past year and look ahead to the new year.
When thinking about your career plans, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start.
Find out what small actions you can take to make the next step in your career.
Think about your skills
When thinking about skills, we can break them down into hard and soft skills.
Soft skills, like communication and teamwork, are used in most jobs.
Hard skills are more specific to a job like carpentry or graphic design.
You can complete a skills assessment to help you identify your:
- interests
- motivations
- preferences
You can use this information to explore careers that interest you in more detail.
You can develop your skills by:
Find out more about understanding and developing your skills.
Look at your options
Once you have an idea of what skills you have and what sort of things interest you, it can be helpful to research different careers. Make a note of the ones that interest you and look for related careers.
Doing a job search will let you understand what is available in your local area.
If you want to do some training, you can find a course in your local area or online.
Get ready
It's important to get prepared for any change in your career. This could be updating your CV, starting to work on an application or even starting some volunteering. By taking this next step, you can feel a sense of achievement that you’re moving towards your goal.
Find out what to put in your CV. By keeping your CV up to date, you’ll be ready to apply for a role if an opportunity comes up.
You can demonstrate your skills on a CV or in an application form by using the STAR method. This helps whoever is reading it to know what skills you have and how you have used them.
You might also want to start volunteering. This is a great way to get experience which you can include in your CV. It looks good on your CV and it’s a great opportunity for you to try out a career you might be thinking about to see if it’s right for you.
Take action
By following the steps above, you’ll have taken some steps towards your January career goal. You can now take action and look at what you need to do next.
This could be:
- applying for a job
- signing up for some volunteering
- registering for some learning
If you're not sure of what next step to take you might find it useful to speak to a careers adviser.
Related content
Identifying and improving your skills
Chat to an adviser
If you're not sure what to do next, you can chat to a qualified careers adviser.