Starting your career can feel like you are supposed to already know where you are going.
But careers rarely follow one perfectly planned route. Jobs change, industries evolve and what matters to you at 22 may look very different a few years later.
In our recent Graduate Mentor webinar, career development professional and author Dave Cordle shared some of the practical skills that can help graduates take more control of their career journey.
His key message was that your first career decision does not have to define the rest of your working life.
It is simply the next step.
Think about your career as a journey
Dave compared managing your career to a mountain expedition.
You may have a destination in mind, but you also need to prepare, understand what you are carrying with you and be ready to adapt when conditions change.
The same applies to your career.
Companies restructure. Roles change. Opportunities appear that you had never considered. Your own priorities can change too.
Rather than expecting an employer to manage your career for you, Dave encouraged graduates to take responsibility for understanding what they want, what they can offer and where they might want to go next.
That does not mean having your entire career mapped out.
It means developing the skills to make better decisions as you go.
Understand what you already bring
When thinking about your experience, it can be easy to focus only on your biggest achievements. But Dave suggested thinking instead about your contributions.
These include the major projects you have completed, but also the things you do routinely and may not think are particularly impressive. A part-time job, university project, society position, volunteering experience or hobby can all provide evidence of useful skills.
To uncover them, Dave uses a simple approach:
What did you do?
How did you do it?
What was the outcome?
The most useful part can often be the second question.
Breaking down how you completed something can reveal skills such as communication, organisation, problem-solving, attention to detail, resilience or teamwork that you may otherwise overlook. Once you do this across several experiences, you can start to notice patterns.
The skills that keep appearing are often your transferable strengths.
Working out what matters to you
Knowing your strengths is only part of choosing a career. You also need to understand what you want from your work.
That could be progression, flexibility, security, independence, variety or simply having enough time outside work.
Dave described these values as a compass. They can help you judge opportunities, decide what you are willing to compromise on and recognise when a role is no longer right for you.
Build relationships, not just a LinkedIn network
Networking does not have to mean approaching strangers and asking for jobs.
Think of it as building relationships with people you can learn from. That might include lecturers, previous colleagues, friends, relatives or people you connect with through LinkedIn.
If someone works in an area you are interested in, ask about their experience, what the job is really like or how they got into it.
Those conversations can give you useful insight while gradually growing your professional network.
Set goals around the life you want
Rather than thinking only about job titles or salaries, consider what you want your wider life to look like and what your career needs to provide to support it.
Once you have a goal, keep asking yourself:
What can I do today that moves me towards it?
That could be submitting an application, contacting someone in your network or simply spending 20 minutes researching an industry.
Small actions add up.
Remember that you can change direction
Your first graduate job does not have to determine the rest of your career.
Your interests may change. A role may stop giving you what you need. You may discover strengths you want to use in a different way.
When something is not working, Dave suggests asking:
What would I rather have?
What would I rather feel?
Then focus on what you can do to move towards that instead.
Changing direction does not mean your previous decision was wrong. It can simply mean you are ready for your next step.
Final thoughts
You do not need to know exactly what you will be doing for the rest of your working life.
Understand what you bring, work out what matters to you, build useful relationships and keep taking small steps towards the career and life you want. Your route may change along the way.
What matters is having the confidence to decide where you want to go next.
