I've graduated, now what? | Q&A

Dissertation done, graduation booked… now what? Careers adviser, Paul Mitchell from Futures for You joins me to discuss some of life's biggest questions

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ
• Paul Mitchell - careers adviser, Futures For You

Transcript

Paul Mitchell: Of all the different methods there are to find a career and succeed in finding the career that you want, one of the most dynamic and positive and actually effective means of finding a career is approaching companies directly.

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You. The podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ. I'm your host, Emily Slade, and this episode is another Q&A. This week we look at the big decisions, education all done? Now what?

Paul Mitchell: I'm Paul. I work as a careers advisor for a company called Futures For You, it's a big company based in Nottingham, but I'm based here in Norwich. My job is giving careers guidance to adults, for anybody from 18 up to 100 There's no age limit. The best way I try to explain my job is, I don't know if you've ever been on a long train journey where you find yourself talking to a complete stranger and you find yourself telling that person your complete life history skeletons in the cupboard. Well, in a way, that's how how my job works, just maybe as a complete stranger, a neutral outsider, we can sort of help you cut through the emotions, the fears, anxieties, expectations, the ideas to help you kind of sort of see the wood for the trees to help hopefully you can be honest and you can be really clear up front about who you are, the ideas you have, and it's a conversation. Yeah, I can give suggestions. I can give ideas, information, recommendations, but always, we want you, the individual, to say, What's your dream, what's your goal, what do you want to achieve?

Emily Slade: That's brilliant. Well, the theme of the Q&A today is, what do I want to do with my life? We've had questions written by me and sent in by our listeners, so we're just going to go through them one by one. To being with, where can I find careers, ideas and inspiration?

Paul Mitchell: There are websites you can go to. There are places where you can find information quite easily, quite accessible prospects is kind of sort of the go to website for graduates, because they're specifically designed for graduates. So there, if you go on to their browse by sector, you can find information about specific career sectors and specific job ideas. You can also, there's also a section there called careers advice, and there you can find ideas of careers that match the degree you have taken. There's also the National Career Service website that is more kind of, sort of designed for adults, right across the board, but it's very easy to use. It's very accessible, where you can explore career ideas you can do what we call psychometric testing, a kind of careers analysis, what we what is called the skills health check, where the the the website will ask you lots of questions about your interests, and then match those interests to sort of job ideas to think about brilliant.

Emily Slade: Perfect. Thank you. So this is from Dan, how can I know what type of job might be right for me?

Paul Mitchell: Ooh, how might you know whether a job is right for you?

Emily Slade: It's a big question, isn't it?

Paul Mitchell: When it comes to kind of getting a handle on choosing the career path you want. I think there are three distinct elements. There's the knowledge element. There's the skills, you know, strengths and values element, and there's also the confidence element. The knowledge is about doing your research. It's about kind of understanding the career that you're interested in and getting as much information about that career as possible. It's about understanding and carefully reading the job profile, and it's also self knowledge. I hate using the word self awareness, but it's about understanding who you are as a person, what you want from a career or job, besides money and who you are, what makes you tick, what are the things that you think are important. So it's it's gaining knowledge. The other element is the skills, the skills, the values, the strengths that we all have in my in my experience as a careers advisor, people underestimate their skills, from the very top people who I talk to managing directors to single mums to students, graduates, people tend to underestimate their achievements, and I think it's quite hard actually to be objective about your skills. And part of my job as a careers adviser is to help you articulate and draw those strengths out so they come to the surface, and it's not about it's just not about qualifications. It's not just about technical skills, though those things are important. It's things like resilience. It's things about problem solving. It's things about determination, enthusiasm, the qualities that make you unique. Week as an individual, and then the other thing is confidence, because, without a doubt, you want to have some degree of confidence about this is a job that is worth your time, effort, blood, sweat and tears to to apply for and confidence, in my opinions, like fitness, there are things that you can do to improve your confidence, and there are things that can happen that can happen that can diminish that confidence. And so the thing that I'm always trying to gage when I'm talking to people is, what are the things that kind of get you excited? What are the things that you care about? Because those are the things where your confidence will be, the things that matter to you. So once we can get an understanding of what, yeah, what really matters to you, what's going to get you engaged, what's going to get you up in the morning to go into a job that you really want to do because it's important to you. So it's knowledge, skills, confidence, perfect.

Emily Slade: I have an idea of what I might like to do. How can I find out what I could earn?

Paul Mitchell: The quickest way is simply just go onto a website like Indeed. And if you know what you want to do, just go on to indeed Google, if you're an accountant, if you're looking for an accountancy type job, google accountant jobs and that'll bring up real job adverts that'll tell you the salary. You can go onto the careers website that can tell you the average salary and for jobs in your particular area. There's a website called LMI for all.org.uk, but to me, the quickest way is just look at real jobs for this area that can tell you.

Emily Slade: Okay, this is from Kitty. If I'm not sure what my skills and strengths are, how can I find out?

Paul Mitchell: Come speak to a careers adviser, because it's a big part of careers guidance. It's part of my job to get you talking about the things that you enjoy, the things that you've achieved so far, the things that you have a natural interest in doing. Everybody has skills. Everybody has strengths. If you're the kind of person who enjoys doing psychrometric testing. There's a whole range of websites that you could go to to do a skills analysis. I've already mentioned the this skills health check on the National Career Service website. There's another analysis called the buzz quiz, 16 personalities. There's actually a website called skills strength.com so you know, if you're into that kind of thing, have a go, because it will deliberately give you a positive assessment of how the how the website, how that particular website, analyses your skills. And it's a good starting point, because we have to accentuate the positive, and the more positive you can be about your achievements, your values, your skills, building that confidence, the more motivated you're going to be in applying for the job you want.

Emily Slade: What is your number one piece of advice for people thinking about their careers?

Paul Mitchell: Oh, gosh, I could have 101. Can I have two? I allowed to have two?

Emily Slade: Go for it.

Paul Mitchell: The first number, the first one that came to my mind was, it's from the line in in Hamlet, in Shakespeare. And this is, it's a message that Polonius gives to his son he's about to embark on his journey. And I'm sure people have heard it before, but the the actual line is unto thine self be true. And it's, it's, I think that is the number one thing that I'm trying to convey to people, is one, be yourself, be the person that you are meant to be, and don't compare yourself to others, but as Shakespeare put it unto thine self be true. I was looking at a book recently by this Australian nurse who wrote a book, it sounds a bit melancholy because it was a book. Well, she was a palliative care nurse, and she wrote a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. They know they only have a short time left - and the number one regret that people had, if they had more courage to do the thing that they really wanted to do and not the thing that other people expected them to do. And it's all about finding that unique voice, that unique identity, that individual individuality we all have, and it's just been able to express it and find the place where you can be that person. There was a there was a great question that was put to some sixth formers, and this question was given to these sixth formers, how would you describe the difference between fitting in and belonging? And one of those sixth formers said, "Well, when you're fitting in, you've got to try harder to fit in with the people around you. And those people aren't really that bothered whether you're there or not. But when you find the place where you belong, you don't have to perform so hard, because your natural skills, personality and talent will come out. And also, people do care whether you are there or not." And as a career service, we're trying to help people find out where do they belong. Unto thine self be true.

Emily Slade: Brilliant. Thank you. Okay, this is from Rachel. What are good ways to get work experience?

Paul Mitchell: There's so many places you can go. So many things you can think about, if you want to find specific you know what you want to do every industry. If you go onto a website, you'll find institutions and organisations that can tell you about how to get work experience. If you're looking for a career in the legal professions, there'll be law placements, vocation placements. Companies will offer vocation placements for you to sort of like experiment to see if it actually is a field that would really interest you. One thing that I would always recommend is contact companies directly. If it's just an idea, but you want to see if it's the right thing for you, contact companies directly with what we call a speculative inquiry, and ask about either internships, which tend to last about three or four months job shadowing, which could just be a matter of days, or just simply to be there as a volunteer, to see if, just to purposely get insight, experience and knowledge of particular industry, to find out, is this right for me, take the initiative. A lot of universities who offer degrees with work placements, they would usually have a careers office, which would have a database of companies that offer work placements, and they could be a source of information to actually find companies who are willing and keen and interested in talking to graduates of all the different methods there are to find a career and succeed in finding the career that you want. One of the most dynamic and positive and actually effective means of finding a career is approaching companies directly with a speculative approach, not just saying, have you got a job, but being upfront about what you are looking for, whether you are exploring and just trying to find things out whether you've got a specific job idea. According to LinkedIn, 60% of the UK job market is what's called the hidden job market. In other words, jobs that you see advertised, whether they're through jobs fairs, whether through websites like Indeed, Total Jobs, CV Library only represent 40% of jobs that are out there. So in other words, it really does pay to approach companies because taking that initiative, having the courage and boldness to do so, but not being vague or wishy washy, but being as bold and as clear as possible about who you are, what you're looking to achieve. Asking, can you help me? Just three simple words, "can you help me"...four words. Tell them what you need.

Emily Slade: Yeah, brilliant. Okay, this is from Lewis. How do I figure out what to do with my life?

Paul Mitchell: Okay, every career has three distinct elements, what, who and where. The where one's easy to explain. Every job has a culture, a physical location and an environment. So even if you don't know what it is, what job, what career, what direction you want to go in, it's getting an idea of the kind of world you do want to work in. Is it indoors, outdoors? The more kind of sort of precise you can be, then the more the better able you are to find that job that you want. But it's just, we've all got to start somewhere. So it's getting an idea of the kind of world you want to be in. Is a corporate, global company? Is it a small family business? Is that high tech, cutting edge, digital technology? Is it a service, hospital, library? Is a modern office building? Is it civil service? Is it government? Is it science? Is getting a sense of the kind of world that attracts you. Are you by yourself? What does that world look like, and what do you look like? How do you see yourself? Are you somebody who wants to be looking smart, going to work, making an impact, an impression? Do you prefer being casual? Are you wearing a uniform? It's what does that world look like? What do you look like? That's the where the other aspect is the the who. Truth of it is, people are complex, but generally speaking, certain careers will attract certain kinds of people. And it took me a long, long time to understand the social aspect of work, because I think when I was a teenager, I used to think, well, now so long as you just do your job, you'll be okay, you'll be fine. But that isn't enough. You want to be with people. People who you have similar interests and ideals and expectations, because it will make your job a lot easier if you're with like minded people. When you're not in the right job, somehow they'll just be an undercurrent. There'll be a friction. You just won't be able to connect to people around you. So it's getting a feel for the kind of people that you feel the most confident with. Are they entrepreneurs? Are they business people? Are they just simply people who want to go to work, finish at five o'clock and then go home and do whatever you want to do? Are they people who have a mission, interested in the emergency services, the police, the military, the ambulance service? Are they people who like that kind of, sort of dynamic, physical world? Are they more kind of digital technology? People, engineers? Who do you feel comfortable with? Are they patients? Are they the elderly? Are they children? But the other, the really crucial bit, is the is the what every job has, a jargon, a language will have words attached to that job. It's getting a sense of the kind of words that define you, the kind of words that gage that kind of engage your attention and interest. Because when you know what those words are like, for example, if I just give you some words, curiosity, equality, mission, time optimiser, are you somebody who's a good planner, a good organiser? You somebody who likes to take charge, adventure, self belief? Are you somebody who's kind of steering towards the kind of mentoring, motivation, the therapy, the nursing type, jobs, careers, explainer, innovation, humor? Are you somebody who you're a people person, and you get a great deal of energy from just simply engaging with people customers. If you're working with the public, there's one thing you do need to have, I can guarantee, is a sense of humor. So you've got to have a sense of perspective, because you're not going to like everybody who you talk to, and I'm not going to like you, but to have a sense of humor can make a difference. So there are words, phrases, subjects, connected to a job that will either engage your intention, get you involved, get you excited, or there'll be just words that will just kind of your switch off. So yeah, what, who and where.

Emily Slade: That's really good. I love that. This is from Matt. Do I have to make sure I'm using my degree straight away?

Paul Mitchell: Depends. When I was looking at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ website recently, and according to this website from last year, 2023, a great, a great many graduates took seven months to find the job that they wanted, and apparently, in 2023 less than half the people who graduated last year found a career connected to the degree that they did. So it's not a disaster if you can't find the job that you want in that first year, that first summer. But there are advantages. I mean, when I when I was at university, I mean, I was very optimistic. I mean, I kind of had some friends who had already applied for the graduate trainee programmes. After graduation, they knew exactly what they were going to do. And sure enough, they they had got their their job interviews, they've got their placements all planned, organised, set up. But I wasn't one of those people. I think, if you know what you want to do, and because there are some industries that are very competitive, the sooner you start to apply for those jobs, you do have an advantage, because you'll have a broader range of employees to think about, to contact, and you have more time to hopefully, if you are ahead of the game, you've got time to assimilate what employees are looking for and to prepare yourself. But if you're not sure what you're looking for, then experiment, you know, explore, have curiosity, try different things, because the statistics show that you're actually in the majority. And the thing I always say to people is that it's always good to work, and I think all of us, when we have to we will earn a job because we want money, but what we want to be able to do is have a goal, and if we know what that goal is, or some idea of that goal, we can compromise. We can do a job in the meantime. We can do a work placement, we can do an internship, we can do a training course, but take your time, because I learned the hard way when I when I graduated, I just bounced from one job to the next, and with hindsight, I really wished I could have spoken to a careers adviser or somebody who knew me well, where I could say I'm stuck, and I think that was like a bit of pride, because I think when I graduated, I thought, well, I can sort this out myself, and I couldn't, and I had to, kind of it took a while for me to find my feet, and I do wish I could have spoken. To somebody at that time because I did jobs that I was not wired up to do. And that's the thing we're always trying to say to what's what we're trying to find out, what makes you you? Where is your enthusiasm, where's your passion, where's your confidence? And then you'll find the thing that you want to do may not happen straight away, but you will,

Emily Slade: Yeah, and there's a lot of value, I think, in knowing what you don't want to do, as you've said, Yeah. And if you do something and you don't like it, you're like, cool, won't do that again?

Paul Mitchell: Well, this, that's, that's a thing. And But what's interesting is that, because it's what I love about my job, is sometimes it's like, it's the crisis and the problems and the challenges that go through, that you go through, that actually make you the person you become who then moves into a career and job that is just right for you, because you've been through a lot of stuff, and you want to help other people who are going through similar things. A classic case is kind of like people who I talked to have had, say, problems with substance abuse and but they've overcome it, and the thing they want to do is pass on that wisdom, knowledge and experience to other people who are going through the same kind of problems and issues. So, you know, it's, I don't believe anything can be I don't think anything is wasted, and I think but the thing I would say is that if you don't know what you want, be curious. Try new things, but don't panic, because it's a learning process. Yeah, you know to find your voice.

Emily Slade: Brilliant. Oh, it's the last one. What's more important? Money or happiness? Money or happiness? Very existential question.

Paul Mitchell: They're both. They're both really important, because we all need money. And for sure, you don't want to be in a job where you're miserable, because you're not going to survive for very long. And one of the saddest things I met, one of the things I remember when I first became a careers adviser. Guy came to see me had been working in a factory for about 20 odd years, and he said I hated every day, and I thought, Wow, gosh, to do a job that you hated for 20 years and because and because he was made redundant, that he had to rethink his career plan. So happiness and money are very important, but there's a thing that I believe is more important, and what I believe is even more important than happiness and money is integrity. And what I mean by Integrity, it comes back to what I believe is so important, it's being true to yourself. It's finding that purpose, that role, that job, that best reflects your skill, ability and and purpose. I get inspired by people's stories. I was reading about a young woman called Poppy O'Toole who was a young judge. It was a judge on Young Master Chef programme, and she was, she was Michelin, trained as a chef in London. She was made redundant through the covid period. She had to legal back home because it was too expensive to live in London by herself. And her siblings kind of showed her TikTok videos, and that's what inspired her, watching TikTok videos, thinking I can do that. And through doing having a love for doing things with potatoes, she becomes an influencer. She makes a reputation, she writes books, and she gets invited to be a judge on Young Master Chef. So what I'm trying to say is that do something you love, whatever it is, whatever you're interested in, do something you love, because you never know, as long as you can keep that confidence, motivation, that interest, that love of life, who knows what can happen. But please, get connected. Stay connected. Another piece of use is information, if you like, all the research that's been done on careers is that a major factor in being successful and finding the career that you want is staying connected. Because when you're not working, one of the biggest challenges you have is isolation. And I think when you're isolated for a long period of time, you start to then doubt and question, well, what can I do? Who am I? What am I good at? But when you stay connected, whether it's through friends, family, learn a language on an adult learning course sport, get involved with groups, organisations of like minded people of the same interest, when you stay connected again, you'll be with people who you have a similar interest to, and that keeps morale intact, that hopefully can keep you at a level of confidence that's positive. So there are things that you can do that are positive, that have meaning while you're in a period where you can't, at this precise moment, go into the career that you want. Does that make sense?

Emily Slade: Yeah. No. It. Does it? Does That's brilliant, yay. Well, we've reached the end of our questions. Thank you for joining me.

Paul Mitchell: Yes, we're here. Come and talk to us. Speak to a career adviser.

Emily Slade: Thank you so much for your time today.

Paul Mitchell: Thank you. Thank you.

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Paul for their time. For more information on figuring out what to do with your life. You can head to prospects.ac.uk, if you've enjoyed the episode, feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify for a full length video version of this episode, make sure to check out our YouTube channel @futureyoupod. Thank you, as always, for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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