Where do I want to go?

Transcription

1 Where do I want to go? Copyright 2016 The Open University

2 2 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

3 Contents Introduction 4 Learning Outcomes 5 1 What do I reay want from work? 5 2 What kind of work woud I ike to do? 7 3 How satisfied am I with my current circumstances? 8 4 How important is work in my ife as a whoe? 9 5 Review 10 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Exporing opportunities Finding out how to refine your ideas Questions to ask Finding your answers Broader options Making choices and keeping going Matching you and the work Networking Socia media networking 23 What you have earned in this bock 25 Bock 2 quiz 26 References 26 Acknowedgements 26 3 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

4 Introduction Introduction The SWOT anaysis that you competed at the end of Bock 1 shoud have heped you to take stock of your current position. However, it is important for you to understand that the SWOT anaysis is a iving document. You shoud revisit it reguary to see what, if anything, has changed. The next step is to focus more on the future, recognise what s important to you and what you want from ife as a whoe. In this bock you ook at your vaues, identify the kind of work that might interest you and earn how to expore your options, refine your ideas and make choices. This doesn t mean that you can achieve everything you wish for, as restrictions of one kind or another wi imit everyone s range of choice. At this stage, however, it is important not to focus too much on restrictions that may narrow the scope of your ambitions. You get some advice on making decisions and setting reaistic goas in Bock 3. Here s a video to introduce this bock: Video content is not avaiabe in this format. Activity 1 Aow about 15 minutes There are a coupe of reasons why you may want to take another ook at your SWOT resuts. It may be some time since you competed the SWOT anaysis at the end of Bock 1, and ots of things may have changed. For exampe, you may have addressed some of your weaknesses, or some of the threats might have disappeared. If anything has changed, amend your SWOT resuts to refect the current position. 4 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

5 Learning Outcomes However, even if you have recenty competed your SWOT anaysis and it s sti fresh in your mind, just take a few minutes to review it before you start Bock 2. Ask yoursef questions such as: Is there anything in the resuts that I d ike to change? What are my priorities in terms of addressing weaknesses and deaing with threats? What are my priorities in terms of buiding on my strengths and seizing opportunities? Once you are happy with the resuts of your SWOT and have noted down any priorities, you have a sound basis on which to move forward. Learning Outcomes By competing this bock and the associated quiz, you wi: understand the impact of change for you and what options are open to you. 1 What do I reay want from work? Activity 2 is designed to get you thinking about your vaues as a basis for heping you to decide what kind of work you woud ike to do. (You shoud compete this activity even if you have aready got an idea of the area you d ike to work, as it may hep you to confirm or discard it.) Thinking about your vaues means deciding what is important to you in ife. For exampe, it might be that you have a particuar reigious faith, which provides you with certain spiritua vaues and guidance on how to ive your ife. You might vaue education as being particuary important, or spending time with your famiy as being something to strive for. Some peope vaue being part of a team that invoves ots of coaborative working, whie others focus more on competition and individua achievement. The probem is that most peope, most of the time, don t reay think through what is important to them and then set their course accordingy. A too often peope just drift aong and end up in situations that confict with their basic vaues. That s why it is important to take a step back from time to time and focus on what your vaues are and whether or not you are iving your ife according to them. If you aren t, this can ead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness with ife and work. To some extent this may be because you simpy haven t spent enough time consciousy identifying what s reay important to you. On the other hand, sometimes peope know that they aren t iving according to their vaues, but end up feeing trapped by circumstances and can t see a way out. 5 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

6 1 What do I reay want from work? Activity 2 Aow about 20 minutes Take the work vaues test to hep you to decide what you reay want from work. Don t forget to save or emai the permanent ink to your resuts, which you find at the bottom of the resuts page. What did you think of the resuts? Did anything come as a surprise or were they much as you expected? Does this exercise make it any cearer to you what s most important to you in terms of work? For exampe, does it suggest the kind of work you ike to do or the type of organisation you fee most comfortabe working for? Ceary, in some kinds of work, vaues such as caring (nursing), being creative (graphic design), taking risks (trading), etc., are of major importance. In the same way, a manufacturing company, a charity, a newspaper office, a oca authority, a financia institution and so on wi each have a different fee as a pace to work. Try to think through which woud suit you best and how different types of work woud fit in with the rest of your ife. What s the best fit for you, given your vaues and circumstances? Remember, though, that it s your own vaues that are important here, so fee free to add to or ignore any of the statements and to change the order of importance. You've now competed Section 1 - we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning and a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. 6 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

7 2 What kind of work woud I ike to do? 2 What kind of work woud I ike to do? Considering your interests, and things that you find appeaing or enjoyabe, is a good way of thinking about the type of work that you d ike to do. The next activity wi hep you to do this. Activity 3 Aow about 30 minutes Take the career test to get an idea of the kind of work that might suit you. Don t forget to save or emai the permanent ink to your resuts, which you find at the bottom of the resuts page. What did you think of the resuts? Did you agree with your personaity type? Were you surprised at some of the occupations that were suggested or about others that weren t? You wi probaby have a bit of experience or knowedge of some of the occupations isted, but try to imagine whether or not you d ike doing the others that you are not so famiiar with. It s not a question of your abiity or quaifications at this stage ony your own preferences so assume that you coud do the job if you reay wanted to. Make a note of any occupations that you found particuary appeaing. You've now competed Section 2 - we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning and a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. 7 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

8 3 How satisfied am I with my current circumstances? 3 How satisfied am I with my current circumstances? Activity 4 focuses on your current circumstances and asks you to gauge how satisfied you are with your work in a number of areas. If you aren t currenty in paid empoyment, think about your ife as a whoe. Activity 4 Aow about 20 minutes Part 1 Go to the tempate for this activity in the resource pack and ook through the ist of factors, circing or highighting the eve that appies to your present circumstances. Part 2 Now write a paragraph based on the seections that you made above, excuding a the items that you thought were About right or Adequate. Of the remaining items, can you say which are the most important to you and why? Hopefuy, Activities 2 4 have: suggested what you vaue most in your ife and work heped you to identify areas of work that match your interests carified sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with your current situation. Your answers may begin to suggest either the kind of work you d ike to do or the kind of organisation you d ike to work for, as we as indicating the amount of work you woud ideay want to do. You get a better idea of where you stand on this ast point in the next activity. You've now competed Section 3 - we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning and a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. 8 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

9 4 How important is work in my ife as a whoe? 4 How important is work in my ife as a whoe? In Activity 4, the fina area you considered was work ife baance. In this activity you ook at this in more depth because, before considering what you want to do, you need to be cear about how important work is to you. This is something that varies from person to person. You might be highy ambitious (even a workahoic ), or you might avoid positions that reguary eat into your eisure time. You may have found yoursef in a job that takes over and eaves itte time for famiy ife, or you may prefer something that can give you a better baance between work and home ife. Activity 5 can hep you to think about this. If you don t have much experience of paid work, think about your approach to other activities or projects you are invoved with. Activity 5 Aow about 15 minutes Go to the tempate for this activity in the resource pack and rate each statement. Try to avoid choosing rating 3 'Neither true nor untrue', if possibe. Then add up your scores in both the odd-numbered and even-numbered questions. Take the even score away from the odd score, even if it produces a minus number. What did you score? If you have a pus (+) score, the higher your score, the stronger your ambition. If you scored +20, for exampe, you woud aways put work first and aim high in your achievements. You might even be seen as a workahoic. 9 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

10 5 Review If you have a minus ( ) score, you don t see work as the most important aspect of your ife. At the ower end of the scae (for exampe, if you scored 20), you woud put your socia ife before work, have itte concern about progressing your career and might be seen as aid-back. If you have a more centra score, you keep a baance between work and eisure. You have some concern about doing we and making progress, but you don t et work rue your ife. Has competing this activity atered the rating you gave to your work ife baance in Activity 4? Is it about right for you, or woud you ike to change this aspect of your ife? You've now competed Section 4 - we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning and a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. 5 Review Looking back over your SWOT resuts and the notes you ve made on the activities competed in this bock, you shoud now have a much cearer picture about your: capabiities vaues interests work preferences current circumstances. Summarise what you have earned using the prompts beow. Activity 6 Aow about 30 minutes What am I good at? Write down the capabiities that you d most ike to use. What are my main vaues? Write down the vaues you d ike to fufi. What woud I ike to do? 10 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

11 5 Review Write down the occupations or job areas you d ike to work in. How woud I ike to work with peope? What kind of environment? Write down the kind of contact you d ike to have with peope, and the kind of environment you d ike. What other aspects are important to me? Write down any other factors that are important to you, such as ocation, trave, organisationa structure, etc. What changes woud I ike to make? Write down some changes you woud ike to make in your ife and work. You've now competed Section 5 - we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning and a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. 11 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

12 6 What options are avaiabe to me? 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Whatever your persona starting point, the extent to which you can reach your goas depends, in part, on being abe to identify and take advantage of the opportunities open to you. You wi now focus on exporing new opportunities and/or ooking to take advantage of ones that aready exist. Whether you are interested in paid or vountary work (or both) you need to be abe to map out the options avaiabe and evauate which might suit you best. 6.1 Exporing opportunities How cear do you need to be about the kind of work you want before you start exporing opportunities? One way of thinking about this is to use a scae from 1 to 10, where 1 is I have no idea what I want to do and 10 is I know exacty what I want to do. You wi have the opportunity to try out this approach, but sometimes thinking about another person s situation can be a good way to start thinking about your own. The case study beow offers a brief exampe, which might spark your own thoughts. Case study: Christopher Christopher is 35 and has been unempoyed for 12 months; his ast job was as a pizza deivery driver for a sma oca company that cosed down. He has since ost his driving icence due to a succession of speeding fines. Christopher gave himsef a 3 on the cear about work scae. His notes expained his thinking as foows: 12 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

13 6 What options are avaiabe to me? I am saying 3 because reay I woud ike to go back to driving, but I do not think I can in the short term. I might have wanted to do taxi work. I know what I do not want to do work in construction or in a shop and that is a that seems to be on offer in my oca job centre. I have thought about working as a car mechanic, because I am pretty handy at that kind of thing, but I do not know if you have to have quaifications. Perhaps I need to ask around and find out about what I need to be a mechanic. I am not an exams kind of person so that might rue me out, if you need to do that. Activity 7 Aow about 5 minutes What do you notice about Christopher s case? Are Christopher s thoughts cear? Note down a few points. Perhaps the first thing you noticed is that Christopher s career was disrupted when the company he worked for cosed down. That s something he had no contro over. However, you might think Christopher did have contro over getting the speeding fines, which ed to the oss of his driving icence. Athough you might fee differenty if you discovered that most of those fines were incurred doing the deivery job where he was under pressure to make deiveries on time. You might aso notice that Christopher considers, but dismisses, other types of driving work at east for now. Instead, he identifies something different, but reated. He thinks he might be interested in, and suited to, working as a mechanic. However, he has gaps in his knowedge and is abe to identify a key question he needs to try to answer before he can assess if it is a viabe opportunity for him. Now think in a simiar way about your own situation. Activity 8 Aow about 15 minutes This activity heps you to decide how cear you are about what you want to do, using a scae of 1 to 10, and to sort out what questions you might need to ask. On the scae, 1 represents feeing very confused about what work you want to find and 10 represents absoute certainty. Try to choose the number that best represents how you fee at the moment. Now you have made this judgement, answer these points beow to hep you see why you might have rated your eve of carity in the way you did: 1 Why did you choose the number you did? 2 What do you now know about the kind of work you want to do? 3 What woud you ike to find out about work opportunities? 13 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

14 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Hopefuy, you found that you had some ideas about the kind of work you woud ike to do based on your work on the course so far. If you found yoursef saying that you have no idea at a, be cautious. Is it reay that you do not know? Or are you ruing yoursef out of some things that might appea to you? Whether you are absoutey cear about what you want to do, or just have a vague idea with ots of doubts, you need to do some testing of what opportunities are avaiabe and what they might demand of you before you can start to pursue the career of your choice. Remember, at this stage, you are not committing yoursef to anything you are just exporing the options, and can afford a bit of uncertainty. You can aso afford to change your mind if your research shows that your initia ideas are not the best ones to pursue. Now that you ve got some ideas to work on, your next task is to refine these further. 6.2 Finding out how to refine your ideas However cear you fee about your preferred work options, it is usefu to bear in mind how we they match you as a person, your current circumstances and your ife pans. In this section, you are invited to find out more about one type of work and what it woud demand of you. This wi work best if you can identify a particuar type of work or specific career path as one that interests you. For instance, you might have identified a career in the retai sector as something you fee woud suit you. Aternativey, you might be interested in vountary work and fee that working at a food bank, or another charity that heps peope, woud be rewarding. Whatever your thoughts, you need to do a bit of research on what the opportunities for this type of work are in practice. To do this you need to know where to ook, and hep may not aways come from the most obvious pace. Tabe 1 ists the possibe peope or organisations that you coud use, and what information you coud find out from them. Tabe 1 Finding out information Source Business coumns of newspapers Your oca contacts Nationa Careers Service website Jobcentre Pus Friends and famiy Description of information May incude features forecasting which empoyment sectors wi be recruiting or are in decine. May hear of oca jobs and, if they know you are ooking, mention it to you. A government website that incudes information about training and apprenticeship opportunities. As we as paid job vacancies, they have information on vounteer work and your rights in reation to seeking work. They may have direct knowedge of the type of work you want to do, know if their organisations are recruiting or making peope redundant in some areas, or may have good contacts that they can introduce you to. 14 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

15 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Jobs pages of oca newspapers Professiona institute magazines Professiona institute websites Organisation s own websites Office of Nationa Statistics Socia media networks Radio programmes Community notice boards Loca Chamber of Commerce Give a good idea of what empoyers are ooking for in certain types of work, and a sense of how frequenty those jobs are advertised. Advertise jobs specific to their profession and this can give you a good idea of speciaisms within the fied. Expain the knowedge and skis requirements for the type of work and the training avaiabe. Many have a careers or working with us section that tes you what kind of work environment they offer and the types of job for which they recruit. Provides information on jobs in the pubic and private sectors, and gives an anaysis of the UK workforce jobs by sector. It aso ooks at industry changes. A new and deveoping source of information about jobs and organisations. Loca programmes might report on new businesses starting up in the area. They wi occasionay carry job advertisements for oca jobs, such as acting as cerk to the counci. Meeting peope through this network may mean that you hear of jobs that are not advertised. This is true of many professiona networks. Activity 9 Aow about 10 minutes In this activity you wi need to seect three of these potentia sources of information that you can use now. This wi vary depending on where you are ocated, but may mean that you are imited currenty to searching on the internet. You can expore other usefu sources at another time. Spend a few moments thinking about which three sources you want to consut and why. Then note down your thoughts in the box beow. For instance, you might be interested in a retai career and decide to ook at supermarket or department store websites. You might aso want to check if there is a speciaist magazine for the retai sector and visit your oca ibrary to ook at a few copies. As you competed this activity, you may have found that your reason for choosing certain sources was simpe curiosity because they directy reate to the type of work you are interested in, or they are easy or practica, or enjoyabe for you in some way. Before going to your sources for information it is vita to start out knowing what you want to find out. You be heped with how to organise your thoughts on this next. 15 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

16 6 What options are avaiabe to me? 6.3 Questions to ask If you don t know what you want to know, you wi have no way of starting your research into different job opportunities you just won t have a cue where to begin! So the next activity is designed to hep you identify a few questions that you want answered. At this stage, these sorts of questions might be usefu: What is the avaiabiity of a particuar kind of work? What is the nature of a particuar kind of work? Is the work associated with a specific type of organisation? What are the practicaities, such as pay, working patterns or ocation? Which of these questions are most important to you right now? Your answer might depend on how cear you are about the type of work you want, your motivations for pursuing the work and the time frames you have in mind. For exampe, if you are aready in work but short of money, you might want to ook for additiona work that fits around your existing job. In this case you woud be more concerned with the avaiabiity of work and with the practicaities, such as weekend or evening working options. If, however, you are aready on a career path but considering a different empoyment sector, you might have questions about organisation types and avaiabiity in your area. To hep you decide what questions to ask, in the next activity you re going to ook again at Christopher s situation. Activity 10 Aow about 15 minutes Christopher has decided that he wants to pursue the idea of becoming a car mechanic. Consider what questions you think he needs to ask, which are reated to: avaiabiity of the work 16 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

17 6 What options are avaiabe to me? nature of the work types of organisation practicaities of the work. This is not a fu set of the questions that coud be asked, but it iustrates how using the different question categories can hep you to identify usefu questions to expore. How many garages are there in my town? (Avaiabiity) How many advertisements for mechanics are there at the moment/have there been over the past six months? (Avaiabiity) What quaifications do you need to be a mechanic? (Practicaities) What does a car mechanic spend most time doing? (Nature of the work) Does a car mechanic spend a their time fixing cars or are there other tasks they have to do? (Nature of the work) Is there a difference between working for a chain of garages (such as Kwik Fit) and an independent garage? (Organisation type) How much coud I expect to earn as a mechanic? (Practicaities) How ong woud it take me to train as a mechanic? (Practicaities) Use these ideas for questions when you think about your own situation in the next activity. Activity 11 Aow about 25 minutes Remind yoursef of the three sources of information you chose in Activity 9, and identify three questions you think it might be hepfu for you to answer. Use the types of question isted above to prompt your thinking. For exampe, you might have isted Nationa Office of Statistics as one of the sources you wi consider. If so, your questions coud be as foows: What is the trend for software deveopers in the UK are the numbers of empoyed workers going up or down? In which industry sectors do most software deveopers tend to be empoyed? How up to date are the figures on the current website? Do I need to check esewhere too? You wi see that the questions here are argey about avaiabiity. However, the type of question you ask wi be reated to the source that you are consuting consider this carefuy when constructing your own questions. Now go to the tempate for this activity in the resource pack and note down the information sources you chose and the questions you think wi guide your research. The tabe beow provides an exampe of how to organise your thoughts. Tabe 2 An exampe of some questions Information source My three questions 17 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

18 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Food bank website Are there any food banks cose to my home? Is it possibe to get to them by bus? What sort of work do they ask vounteers to do? You are refining your ideas as you work through this process. At this point you shoud fee peased with your progress. You aready have: an idea of the work you want ook into three information sources you are going to consut some questions to guide you as you go to the information sources. Now you have a ist of questions, you can start to research what you want to know. 6.4 Finding your answers The next step is to find the answers to your questions. In other words, do your research. This is the kind of activity that, before you know it, you ve spent a few hours on. That s fine if you have the time to spare; if not, keep an eye on the cock and try to spend no more than haf an hour on your research. If you don t manage to get answers to a your questions now, come back to the activity at another time to finish it off. You wi have penty of time in Bock 3 to ook over what you have done, and to decide whether there is anything more you coud do that woud strengthen your action pan. Activity 12 Aow about 30 minutes This activity is designed to give you practica experience in finding the information you need, and in evauating how we your work aspirations match what is avaiabe. First, ook for answers to the questions you identified in Activity 11. Spend the same amount of time on the three information sources you identified as usefu. Note down any information you find, as we as the source of the information (in case you want to find it again). When you ve done this, use the tempate for this activity in the resource pack to organise the information under the foowing categories: avaiabiity of the work nature of the work types of organisation practicaities of the work. If any of the four categories are empty, this might be an indication of the information you sti need to seek so make a note of these too. You can return to the questions ater. Now you ve had a chance to do some research into one type of work you are interested in, bear these processes in mind for any other work opportunities you have 18 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

19 6 What options are avaiabe to me? identified, to consider in the future. It s time to think more about the information that you uncovered. 6.5 Broader options It is common, when thinking about a job, to associate it with a fu-time commitment to one organisation over a sustained period of time. Increasingy, this is not the ony way of working, and one way of thinking fexiby about the kind of work you want to do is to consider different work patterns. Some of these might combine we with your existing commitments. Others might be a stepping stone towards the work you want. The ist beow contains different types of work patterns. As you ook through it, ask yoursef if any of these options might work for you. Some of the terms used are ega or technica ones, which are important to understand, so these are described for you. 1 Part-time work invoves working for fewer hours a week than the equivaent fu-time job. Such jobs normay have a set working pattern, such as every morning, or three specified days of the week. Part-time work has many advantages but can be particuary usefu in enabing you to continue to buid skis and experience whie fufiing other commitments. 2 Temporary and contract work is most often a job that has an end date, unike a permanent job with an open-ended contract. It can give you experience and vauabe contacts in a variety of environments, as we as being a vauabe opportunity to taste a range of jobs and hep you to be cearer on what work best suits you. Another benefit of this is that you get a foot in the door of an organisation that interests you. It might then be possibe to appy for permanent roes. 3 Zero hours contract work is a contract between an empoyer and a worker where the empoyer does not guarantee minimum working hours and the empoyee does not have to accept any work offered. The empoyee is sti entited to statutory empoyment rights. This type of contract obviousy provides fexibiity for both parties, which can sometimes suit an empoyee depending on their circumstances. 4 A home-based empoyee is someone empoyed by an organisation but works from home for a or part of their working week. 5 Sef-empoyment means working as a freeancer, for yoursef, or running your own business, rather than working for an empoyer. Sef-empoyment presents both opportunities and risks. It is an increasingy common form of work, and one that may or may not suit you. 6 Fexibe working is something you can appy for if you are aready in empoyment and have worked for your empoyer continuousy for the ast 26 weeks (this is correct at the time of writing, but check the current egisation that appies where you work). It can take different forms, but can mean: fexitime choosing when to start and end work within agreed imits annuaised hours working a certain number of hours over a year but having some fexibiity about when you work. 7 Portfoio working usuay refers to work that invoves earning your income from a variety of sources. For exampe, you might work on freeance contracts or as a parttime empoyee for severa organisations and, perhaps, aso run a business. 19 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

20 6 What options are avaiabe to me? 8 Working in another country can be a very attractive option if you are at a stage in your ife when you fee free to ive and work away from your home country. Perhaps you have the trave bug and woud ike to see as many different countries as you can? It coud be that you think that work experience abroad wi hep you to obtain your chosen job when you return, or that improving your anguage skis might be important to your ong-term pans. Having earned about the potentia work options, you need now to think about which ones might work for you, and the next section focuses on this. 6.6 Making choices and keeping going At this point you may, understandaby, be feeing overwhemed by a the potentia work options. The work and thinking you are doing on this course can fee chaenging at times. You may think that there are just too many options, which may be making you fee unsetted. Athough uncomfortabe, these feeings are not necessariy a bad thing, as they can be a sign that you are making progress with the changes you want to make. So, if you find yoursef feeing daunted or acking motivation to continue with exporing the options, some of the foowing tips might hep: Prioritise ony the options that you think you coud make happen within the next three to six months. Do a ratings exercise on the options give them 3 points if they fee reay attractive, 2 points if they have some attraction and ony 1 point if they do not appea to you. Then concentrate your thinking ony on the one or two top-scoring options. 6.7 Matching you and the work Your work in Bock 2 may have uncovered practica issues that you coud face if you want to do a specific kind of work. For exampe, your preferred work options may not be widey avaiabe in your area, or you may have discovered that the type of vounteer work that you want to do is restricted to the organisation s head office, which is too far away for you. Activity 13 Aow about 20 minutes Before you et issues ike these dominate your thinking, consider your timescaes for finding your preferred type of work. Ask yoursef these questions and note down the answers: How ong are you prepared to work to deveop your career and get the job you want? Do you have a time imit for entry into the job of your choice? Have you got time to study for any necessary quaifications? Do you have any other options? Are there other ways into the job? 20 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

21 6 What options are avaiabe to me? You may not fee the need to answer these questions now, and that s fine. Aternativey, if you have concerns, you might want to note down your immediate thoughts. This aows you to park the probems for now and move on. You can aways return to these questions and your refections ater. Earier you considered your preferences based on your capabiities, vaues, interests and persona circumstances. It is usuay ony when you start to ook at what is avaiabe that you discover that it might not be so easy to find job opportunities that match your preferences. Try not to become despondent. You may be abe to retrain or find simiar jobs that you can appy for. You may just need to think more fexiby, to take advantage of what is avaiabe. Before moving on to Activity 14, remind yoursef of how much you have aready achieved. Focus ony on the things you have done, not the things you might have eft to one side. Whatever you are abe to do on this course is great, as it sti takes you forward. Remember that you wi have your notes to return to at any stage in the future. You can pick up any oose threads when you fee ready and abe to do that. Activity 14 Aow approximatey 20 minutes First, read back through your notes and identify the type of work you want to find. Next, think about whether any of the eight options in Section 6.5 open up ways of working that you had not previousy considered. For exampe, can you combine two forms of part-time work? Coud you set up a sma business from home, aongside your existing job if necessary? Woud it be practica for you to do temporary work, as a way of finding out more about the types of work and empoyer that appea to you? Make some notes in answer to the foowing questions: 1 What work pattern options had you not previousy considered? 2 Do any of them appea to you? If so, why? 3 Do any of them seem to have the potentia to provide a bridge or stepping stone to the work you want? 4 What research question(s) does this raise for you? What might you need to find out to test the viabiity of your new ideas? As with many of the activities in the course, your answer wi be persona to you. Whatever these are, they represent rea progress in the career panning process so we done! 21 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

22 6 What options are avaiabe to me? 6.8 Networking You may have noticed that severa of the information sources isted in Tabe 1 invove networks a group of interconnected peope who have something in common; for exampe, oca contacts, friends and famiy, and socia media websites and apps. There are different types of network, a of which can hep you to expore options and achieve your career goas. Persona networks Your persona network is ikey to be made up of members from different areas of your ife: your famiy friends educationa contacts hobby or interest groups peope in a simiar situation or with simiar perspectives. As we as heping you to seek work, such networks can provide more genera support. Sometimes you may just need encouragement to fee positive about your aspirations and achievements, or you may benefit from hearing the experiences of peope in simiar situations to you. Organisationa networks Most organisations wi have a number of informa networks of peope with simiar vaues, who trust and hep each other to get things done. If you rey ony on forma structures, you are missing opportunities, so it is usefu for you to engage with or deveop more informa networks. Three types of organisationa networks have been identified: The advice network the key peope that others turn to for advice. The trust network in which peope have common interests and enough trust to support each other in times of crisis. The communication network (often known as the grapevine ) where peope tak to others about work issues on a reguar basis. You can aso think about wider organisationa networks, which incude customers, suppiers, competitors, partners, government bodies, trade unions or professiona associations. Occupation-specific networks Professiona networks operate outside of organisations. For exampe, if you have membership of a professiona institution, such as the Chartered Institute of Pumbing and Heating Engineering, then you have access to other peope in your profession whether or not you work with them. 22 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

23 6 What options are avaiabe to me? Not a occupationa networks are attached to professiona institutes. For exampe, a simming cub eader might be part of a regiona network of eaders who meet for training or product updates. For the sef-empoyed, there are networks for oca businesses who meet for mutua support. Peope who perform simiar vountary work sometimes meet formay or informay to share ideas. Now you ve earned about different types of traditiona networks, it s time to start thinking about your own networks. Activity 15 Aow about 20 minutes In this course you shoud concentrate on contacts that you think may be hepfu with your career deveopment otherwise your network coud become unusabe due to its size. Be carefu who you omit though, because it may not be immediatey obvious that a contact wi be usefu. Think about what you know about them and what they do before dismissing them. Note down ists of peope under the foowing headings: persona networks your famiy friends educationa contacts hobby or interest groups peope in a simiar situation or with simiar perspectives organisationa networks occupation-specific networks. Whether you have written a ong or short ist under the different categories or even no ist at a is not important. This wi entirey depend on what point you have reached in your ife. What matters is that you have begun to think about mapping your networks. It is important not to forget about onine networks. This wi be more or ess prominent in your ife depending on how you use the internet and how you fee about sharing information onine. Whatever your situation, the next section wi sti give you a favour of what is out there. 6.9 Socia media networking Socia media networking invoves onine interaction with other peope. These might be friends or tota strangers, and often the interaction is through specific groups or communities who share simiar interests. It can be a hepfu way to expand your knowedge and contacts, or exchange mutua support. It is aso becoming one of the ways 23 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

24 6 What options are avaiabe to me? in which empoyers recruit peope. It is becoming increasingy important to engage with these networks if you are serious about finding work. Now you earn a itte more about the types of socia media that can be reevant to your career deveopment. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn At the time of writing this course, the three main patforms which may be of use in shaping your work or ife are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (pronounced as inked in ). You may aready be using one or more of these, but for those who aren t famiiar with them, here s a brief overview of each: Facebook aows you to ink up with friends, and even friends of those friends. It provides a pace to share your news, views and items of interest. For recruitment, Facebook can bring together recruiters and job seekers, and you can use it to gather information on potentia empoyers with Facebook pages. Twitter is mainy used on mobie phones and enabes short messages of 140 characters or fewer to be sent to a the peope who foow an account. It may be used by recruiters to get messages out to many potentia empoyees very quicky and so can be a very good way of keeping track of opportunities. Top tip: incude your career interests in your Twitter profie. Make it a micro-pitch for work. LinkedIn is used primariy for work networking. When you set up a profie, the system automaticay inks you with peope you might know, initiay using your own education and work experiences. You can aso make contact with organisations and individuas who may be abe to offer you work, or hep you to find it. There are different eves of membership but the most basic (and free) eve is more than adequate for most peope. Getting started with socia media Socia media can be very usefu for widening your existing networks and therefore career opportunities. Even though you may fee wary about using them, it is worth considering giving them a go if you re not aready doing so. Here are some tips to hep you: Limit the amount of time you use it. Choose socia media sites just for career deveopment purposes. Log in to socia media sites and just observe what's going on. It s fine to watch from the wings before making your appearance. If you do take the punge, these tips wi hep you to use the sites wisey: Be carefu about what information you share and who you share it with. 24 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

25 What you have earned in this bock Don t accept new friends, foowers or contacts without asking appropriate questions to estabish who they are. Project yoursef in a way that does not undermine your credibiity at work. Avoid responding to negative comments about coeagues past or present, and peope who have interviewed you. Think about the tone you use in your communications. Activity 16 Aow about 15 minutes Note down the networks that you are invoved in and think about how each of them coud hep you to move forward with your career pans. Hopefuy, you now fee better informed about the potentia that networks have to hep you with your career deveopment; by heping you to expore your options, access information about opportunities and aso to appy for jobs. You've now competed Section 6 we done! We hope that you have found your study usefu and are motivated to carry on with the course. Remember, if you pass the quiz at the end of each bock you wi be abe to downoad a badge as evidence of your earning. If you coect the fu set of badges, you can downoad a statement of participation that recognises your competion of the whoe course. What you have earned in this bock In Bock 2 you ve had the chance to ook further into the work that interests you and to consider how various areas and options might aign with your vaues and your current circumstances. You may we find that instead of having fewer questions, you now have more. This is to be expected when you start exporing your future options, so see this as a positive step in your career panning process. In Bock 3 you earn how to take decisions, set reaistic goas and receive some practica advice and guidance on how to appy for jobs and succeed at interviews. 25 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

26 Bock 2 quiz Bock 2 quiz We done; you have now reached the end of Bock 2 of Panning a better future, and it is time to attempt the assessment questions. This is designed to be a fun activity to hep consoidate your earning. There are ony five questions, and if you get at east four correct you wi pass the quiz. I woud ike to try the Bock 2 quiz. I ve finished this bock. What next? You can now choose to move on to Bock 3, How do I get there?, or to one of the other bocks. If you fee that you ve now got what you need from the course and don t wish to attempt the quiz, pease visit the Taking my earning further section. There you can refect on what you have earned and find suggestions of further earning opportunities. We woud ove to know what you thought of the course and how you pan to use what you have earned. Your feedback is anonymous and wi hep us to improve the courses that we offer. Take our Open University end-of-course survey. References 123test (n.d. 1) Work vaues test [Onine]. Avaiabe at: (Accessed 1 March 2016). 123test (n.d. 2) Career test [Onine]. Avaiabe at: (Accessed 1 March 2016). Acknowedgements Except for third party materias and otherwise stated in the acknowedgements section, this content is made avaiabe under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercia-ShareAike 4.0 Licence. The materia acknowedged beow is Proprietary and used under icence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Gratefu acknowedgement is made to the foowing sources for permission to reproduce materia in this unit: This course has been adapted from materia in the Career Panning and Job Seeking Workbook, the Succeed in the workpace badged open course, and the Career deveopment and empoyabiity course, a produced by The Open University. 26 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017

27 Acknowedgements Images Introduction: Fynt/Bigstockphoto.com; Section 2: a2studio/bigstockphoto.com; Section 4: styf22/bigstockphoto.com; Section 6: maridav/bigstockphoto.com; Section 6.3: gstockstudio/bigstockphoto.com; Section 6.9: Facebook ogo: Twitter ogo: LinkedIn ogo: Video Introduction: Kye Burke: The Open University Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertenty overooked, the pubishers wi be peased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. 27 of 27 Thursday 7 December 2017