At 16 – 18 years of age many young people have no idea of what they would like to pursue as their final destiny in the workforce. Not only that, these days people are known to change their careers, not just their jobs, on average of 5 times over their working life. Destiny, opportunity and chance often take the place of planning. This does not mean that you shouldn’t have a plan – just that the plan needs to be flexible enough to adapt to change.

Many jobs that will be available in five years have not yet been thought of! A number of jobs that are available now will disappear over the next five years. We live in a world of ever accelerating change where opportunity is presented often. Having said that, it is not wise to jump at every opportunity. A wise man once said “the opportunity of a lifetime is presented every two weeks”. Careful thought and planning and a good dose of self reflection will help to identify opportunities suitable to pursue.

How often do your hear people say “I should have done….”? Well as the saying goes – Just Do IT! If it means taking a course or going back to school or evening college there is no time like the present to make that decision!

1. Choose the subjects you like because they challenge you and you are interested in them.

   Preparation to undertake that first university course starts some years before the last year of school. The subjects chosen in the last few years of school are an influence, though not always critical, on what you will go on to study at university. For readers who are reading this article in advance of subject choices at school keep this in mind. Choose subjects that you like because this increases your chances of being interested, motivated and successful at school, and this in turn increases your choice of universities and courses that you will find interesting.

   If you are returning to study as a mature aged student do not concern yourself with what you did at high school – focus on what you are interested in NOW!

2. Try not to think of a particular job, rather think of a field of interest to aim for.

   If you have an idea of what you like and are interested in and can apply that to a career field you are stepping in the right direction. Look around you and watch what people are doing in their work, and think about whether you would like to do the same or similar. Visit places where you can see yourself working, places you are interested in. Ask the people who work there what they do every day. Most jobs will have a mundane element to them, the bookwork, the routines, the systems. Find out how much time people spend on these things. Movies and television tend to focus on the dramatic and exciting and neglect to show the routine tasks. Speak to people about their work; your friends who are working, your family, parents of friends, people you come across.

3. Vocational versus academic courses.

   Most universities will offer both options. The vocational options are designed to move you directly into a career on graduation. Examples are teaching, nursing, engineering. Other courses will provide you with a broad range of skills that might be applied across a number of careers. Examples are Communications, Arts, Computing. Studying these may mean you are prepared for more than one job – you will have choices available.

4. Combined Courses

   If you are not sure exactly what you are interested in but have narrowed the field to a couple of options it may be possible to combine your courses. Examples may be Industrial Relations and Law, Economics and Finance, Geology and Engineering. Once you have studied at university level in two areas of interest you generate several more employment options.

5. Work experience

   Many young people will delay their entry to university so they can go out and experience the world of work, earn some money and gain some independence. Often in this period of time people will come across an area of employment they may never have considered previously – something they knew nothing about. It is a good idea to try out your area of interest. Liking pictures of horses and riding them all day is vastly different to performing operations on them as vets do. And yet some people have decided they would like to be a vet simply because they like animals. Vets often see the saddest side of animal life and need to have more than an infatuation with things cuddly and cute!

And the last little tip is not to put too much pressure on yourself. People under pressure make some very strange decisions and then feel they need to ride them out. This often leads to a disappointing result – So relax – the rest of your life lays ahead of you, allow it to flex around you and sculpt you to what you will be best at.