Look for career opportunities
To achieve your career goal it may be necessary for you to develop new skills, gain some experience or knowledge in a specific area or undertake a qualification. There are a number of ways you could do this:
Personal development planning
- Plan your development using the template Personal Development Plan (Word) and guidance
- Look for appropriate courses or development opportunities from the University's training providers
- Record any development activity, reflect on what you have learned from it and how you are going to apply that in the work place using the Learning Log (Word) template
On-the-job
- Undertake additional responsibilities in your current role
- Seek a secondment opportunity
- Do a job swap or job shadow a colleague
- The Staff Review and Development process is a useful mechanism for identifying your skills and attributes and for deciding which direction to take your personal and professional development.
Courses/qualifications
- Undertake internal or external learning opportunities
- The University has funding available for some vocational qualifications
Mentoring
- A mentor can keep you motivated, act as someone to bounce ideas off and give you some tips and hints from their own experience of finding work
- A mentor can be anyone from a friend to a work colleague
- Identify someone you feel comfortable with and who will give you confidence
- See the mentoring section for more information
Coaching
- A coach can help you decide which direction you want to go and help you focus on the best way of getting there, preparing for and overcoming any potential obstacles along the way
- Learning and Organisational Development can offer career coaching to non-academic staff - contact Learning and Organisational Development for more information.
Networks
- Personal and socialnetworks can help support you with new career opportunities, whether that is keeping you motivated or putting you in touch with someone who can help and advise you
- There may be people within your network who know about a job opportunity that would suit you. Others in your network could provide useful tips on searching for jobs in a particular sector
- As a member of University staff you can access a wide variety of societies and networks
Volunteering
- Volunteering in the wider community can help to develop new knowledge and skills