If you don't know how to handle work, it is nasty and wild. It becomes a nightmare that happens every day! But if you know it better, it becomes your friend. It is something that pays you, connects you with the society Work properly conducted can gives you a sense of meaning and mission to life, and it can nourish friendships too...!
Think of it this way: if you devote half of your future wakeful life to work, then work cannot be just about money. It is really about your life!
Strangely, you begin to learn about the work animal by getting to know yourself first–your interests, your values, and your competence. It may sound embarrassing, you may know yourself much less than you think.
You can find out more about yourself by doing online personality tests. Some popular personality tests related to work are Interests and Skills Assessment, also called the Holland Code Test, and the Values Assessments. Others are the MBTI and the 16PF although these are more technical and may need help for interpretation. You can find these tests and test information located at these sites:
View self assessment information of Career and Leadership Centre:
Take psychological tests offered by SDS:
Some free online psychological tests:
Take some tests that you like. We recommend that you always include Interests and Skills Assessment as it is known to have good long-term reliability and is explicit in relating personality to work types.
Do remember that tests results are a source of reference to help you to make a choice. Use this information wisely and do not let results over constrain you. Ultimately, you know what you want the best. If you are in doubt, print out the results and seek assistance from a career advisor at Career and Internship Centre.
After you get to know yourself and the type of work that may suit you, it's time that you learn to tackle the work in real life. This can be a very exciting time. You have done enough research about work. Now it's time that you go out and get a job and find out how good you are. But how?
Finding work may not be easy, especially work that you like. But not to worry too much about this at this stage. Now you should be exploring the different ways you can find work or 'simulated work' as in extra-curricular activities. A lot of information about jobs and internships can be found through these channels:
Find recruitment talks, interview training workshops, career talks, and many other very useful activities that will bring you closer to the job you desire.
Becoming a site member will keep you abreast of what is going on in the world of work and things you need to do to get a job that you like.
Go on JIJIS or Jobplus, Classified Post, and other newspapers and magazines. A list of profession-based websites is available on request at Career and Leadership Centre.
The keyword is PLAN. Managing your time to strive a balance between gaining work experience and academic learning is important.
Volunteer work is a great way to learn various types of skills related to work. It is a good place to network people too.
Many university associations are outgrowths of professional bodies. Some examples are the Interact Club and the Lions Club. Becoming an active member will allow you to be mentored by professional people in different trades and to start future professional relationships too.
Career advisors are most helpful when you have done you work finding homework. They can help you to identify your strengths and blind spots and when you feel 'stuck' in your career endeavors for personal or other reasons.
Now that you have got yourself work. It may be part-time, full-time, volunteer work, or a post in a student club or association. This does not matter. This is a great opportunity for you to learn about work, people at work, and about yourself too! At this stage, you may want to pay attention to:
Think of the technical side of things--How can you do your job well? What is 'well'? What can you do to improve on it?
No man is an island. Here self awareness, people skills and communication skills count. This is often the easiest part and the most difficult part of work. For many university students, the make or break at a job is because of 'people issues'. At this stage learn to be observant about how you interact with people at work. Note that people skills are more than just pleasing your clients!
Keeping a work journal--a kind of diary about obstacles that you face, about how different people work is a good way to make you more aware of factors affecting and therefore will help you to improve on your career in the long run.
There are many different ways to put together a CV–a document that captures your cumulative experience related to work, your training and your education. For beginners, it may be good to follow the more popular 'chronological' format. An example for the chronological format and CV writing advice can be found here.
There are many things you can do to get your ready for work. Here are some of the activities offered at Career and Leadership Centre that you may want to join:
Keep yourself updated on these very important activities on the website of Career and Leadership Centre:
