Planning your next career move.

It is so important not to waste time of yourself or a future employer when you’re looking for a new opportunity. Helping too plan your career moves prior to applying for jobs is what we’ve set out to do with this insight, for those who are looking for a new career move, here are some questions worth asking yourself prior to looking for a new career move. 

What locations would you be happy to work in?

An important question which we generally always consider is location, as many people see a career opportunity in another city or town, but considering travel expenses, traffic and general logistics in mind, it may be easy to be forget everything that goes into travel planning. Consider building a check-list of key things important to you that the location has to have, does it have accessible parking? is the location not ideal if you’re in a rush for example, so it’s worth building up a set of key things that would aid your location choices when considering a career move.  

Why are you looking to move?

It may sound simple enough, but it’s worth bringing up just how important it is to really realise why you’re making a career move. Motivation for moving careers could be an interest in skill building, like wanting to pursue unexplored skills in other career areas, or even just different duties within the same career, it’s fundamental to you and your employer that you know why and what motivated your career move.If your looking to move for money, would your current employer pay more?, if you feel as though you’re in a good position to bargain on factors like pay, ask them early on. It may mean you could take on some duties you’ve seen yourself doing well in, the worst that happens is they know that you’re dedicated to working on your skills and career.  

What types of companies might be of interest?

At one point, we all gain a good idea of what work we’d like to do, it could be something creative in theatre or media, or it could be being a chef in a Michelin star restaurant. We all decide where we would like to work, but there’s many avenues to go down within the same career. You may be a chef in a restaurant hotel that’s been awarded as best of the year. Ultimately the biggest difference is found in the company and their work culture, considering that all companies act and operate differently in work culture, it’s worth considering that in your next career move. It’s really important that you’re comfortable with the environment you’re in and a large part of that can be determined through the type of company, maybe it’s a modern start up feel that you’re after? or you want to work for a company with a more structured and large presence like a global logistics company, these two companies will feel very different and offer different things so it’s important to research the work culture of a career you’re interested in. 

One thing you don’t like in your current job?

After having a few years in a career or even after a few hours in some work places, you will find things you plain don’t like, but there’s a difference between a small pet peeve and a genuine alarming concern. Say for example in your current job, you dislike where you work because of faulty air conditioning, would this be a motivator to move careers? for some people yes, they may actually have a very good reason for it too, like a health concern. However, we often find that small bothersome things can add up, creating a larger image of concern. So ask yourself what is one thing you simply just don’t like about your current job that you know doesn’t have to be that way. It can be essential to your career move planning. 

What number one thing you do like.

Now name one thing that you want to keep, a thing that motivates you to get up and into work. It could be the way a new week brings new challenges, or getting to see a colleague you get along with. But consider it as a planning motivator, something that you would want in a career, that if it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be there. There’s many ways to find out if a career path has this available too. You could consider looking at various websites social media pages to see what they’re like, or the Linkedin pages of employees there, to see what working there is really like and if it offers what you’re looking for. Considering that you could end up spending a lot of time in a single job role, it’s vital to have positive motivators built into the career you’re looking for.  

Timing and planning a career move.

Once you’ve settled on the motivating factors behind your career move. you’re ready to begin planning the real life aspects of a career move, while daunting at first, good planning and time management will make your move go smoothly. The first place to start is time, consider if you’re already working or not what your leave notice is, as your future work place will need this information, and if you’re relocating for work, you’ll need the time for packing and the moving process.Consider your current schedule as a guideline, you’ll want it to fit into your current schedule and life, so balance your spare time a healthy amount, ratio your time if it helps, but always spend a good half hour as a minimum looking up what your options are for housing if you’re moving accommodations. Make sure you have enough time in between jobs to plan your career move, this will make it easier to plan a travel route and trial it if necessary, it will help you navigate your career move with ease. 

Long Term Career Mapping and career move.

Most people have a Long Term Career Map, it’s essentially their plan for where they want to be in later life. But by having a career change on the mind, it may be necessary to revisit your career map or to make one if you don’t already. A career map is done by dividing it into three separate cells, for short, medium, and long term goals, allowing you to map out what important steps you’ll need to take to achieve this end goal. By building up your steps in this order, you’ll be able to build a simple but effective plan that leaves much room for things like career changing. When your career move is done and settled and there’s nothing left to do, write up a long term career map for this new career, by using a structure in your career move, you’ll be able to see and think of what your next logical steps will involve, providing you that extra edge you need in starting your new job .  

HtE Recruitment Interview & Careers

This Interview & Careers  page has been written to give support and tips. HtE Recruitment take no responsibility for this post and please always ask your consultant for any bespoke advise. This page was written by Josh, our Marketing coordinator.