Three Top Tips For Getting Started With Your Career

By Right Futures

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There are lots of things you can do to prepare for your future career – whether you’re a few years away from leaving school, or starting your first job tomorrow.

We’ve come up with our top three activities to secure your place on the career ladder….

Work experience

Work experience is a really important addition to your CV. A recent employer survey found that 68% of employers are more likely to hire someone with work experience than someone with top grades (ncseast.co.uk, 2014).

You can build your work experience in loads of ways – a weekend job, after school activities, taster days or volunteering during the holidays.

Work experience is brilliant for: 

• Trying different things and helps you discover what jobs you enjoy
• Showing your skills and enthusiasm to employers
• Helping you understand what training or uni course you should do
• Meeting new people and building contacts
• Improving your confidence
• Wowing an employer so much you land a job!

Talk to people

You can find lots of useful information online these days. But nothing beats getting first hand advice by talking to people.

Parents or carers, friends, family, teachers, coaches, neighbours, team mates, sales assistants, waiters/waitresses, careers advisers…all have valuable career knowledge - ask them about their experiences

How did they get into their industry? What do they enjoy about their job? What did they study? Do they have special qualifications? What would they have done differently?

Perception is not always reality - sometimes a job may be completely different to how you think, so it is really valuable to talk to someone who’s in the know.

Remember: knowledge is power!

Start NOW!

When finishing school and applying for jobs, your CV is the most important tool in your belt.

Putting one together can be a big task… so why not start now?

Start by drawing up a list of everything you have achieved so far.

Keep adding details of your experience, work history and qualifications – plus all the little things you might forget about, like projects at school, awards, or extra-curricular commitments.

This way you’ll never leave anything off your CV – and save you loads of time and effort in the future. If your CV looks a bit blank why not look for more opportunities, like National Citizen Service?

Right Futures was a London based programme run by Reed in partnership and designed to help 16-19 year-olds living in London to find jobs, apprenticeships and training courses.