As jobs are becoming scarcer and people are increasingly being made redundant we are seeing an increase in people coming to visit us who want to find a new job in a new sector.

No matter what stage in your career you are at it can be difficult to think of new options. So here are a few ways in which you can generate ideas.

Examine your previous experience

Analyse your career path and concentrate on what you have enjoyed, and then think why you enjoyed it. Make a list.

 Preparing to have ideas 

With this in mind start to do some research. Try to expand your background knowledge of different careers. There are so many jobs out there and the more you know about the more likely it is that you will find one that interests you. We have many books on the topic in our information resources library.

Consider your skills

Think about the transferable skills that you have developed in your previous work experience and any qualifications that you may have.

Play the skills card game on this website to help you with this:

http://www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive/section_1/subsection_2/page1.html

Consider what subject matter interests you and consider the list of things you enjoy and compare them with your skills that you have identified.

Examine Vacancies

Consider what kinds of jobs are available and find ones that interest you. If you see a job that you think would be good, but requires more experience or qualifications than you have then make a note of it. This will help you to plan a career path and help you to see what your next steps should be to reach your goal.

If you want to find out more about different qualifications and what is required for different careers then submit a request for information on the take it higher website: http://www.takeithigher.co.uk/ This service is free for anybody to use and will give you an individual response from a fully qualified careers adviser.

Keep an open mind

Try not to give up on ideas too quickly because of practical implications such as cost and the time it takes to retrain. This will seriously limit your ideas. Changing career is not easy it may mean taking a paycut, retraining or both. You need to decide whether it is worth it in the long run.

What to do with your ideas

Record them. Even if you are not sure what you want to do with them yet you should make a record.

Investigate your options. Research different careers. Read related publications. Talk to people already in the field. As mentioned previously, changing career is not easy so you need to make sure that you are definitely changing to a career that will suit you better.

Keep doing it

Even after you have found a new career idea you should keep generating ideas and options. The labour market is constantly changing as our personal situations so it is always a good idea to have a few ideas up your sleeve.

Career Coaching

Finally, you may find it useful to visit a career coach. The can help you to generate ideas and possible come up with options that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself. They can also provide you with further information about each of the steps above. email c2@careers.lon.ac.uk for more information or to book a session.