No ideas?
Tired of people asking, what’s next and not knowing what to say? Does it feel like everyone has a plan apart from you?
Don’t feel pressurised into making a rushed decision: even if you’re in your final year there’s time to work it out and you can use our services as a graduate.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone - we’re here to help you every step of the way.
I had an appointment with Deborah because I had no idea what I wanted to do. Deborah helped me to realise that the charity sector might be a good fit for me. She told me about CharityJob where I found an entry level job in the fundraising team at a local charity. I have since taken on a new position as a Grants and Trusts fundraiser and feel like I've found a career that I love.
Getting to know you
First things first, to work out what jobs will interest you. You’ll need to know:
- What energises you?
- What are your strengths and skills?
- What do you like doing and what don’t you like doing?
- What interests you?
- What would be important to you in a job or an employer you would like to work for?
You can then review job profiles to determine how well different jobs would suit you.
Sounds like hard work?
Here are three different ways to develop your self-awareness
Try one or two of them and then come and talk to us.
The worksheet
Use this worksheet to structure your thinking. You don’t have to do this activity alone – ask friends and family for their input.
Download the worksheet 
You might be surprised by what they say: they may identify strengths that you hadn’t recognised in yourself or highlight areas that you haven't placed much value on.
The online personality questionnaire
It's simple and at the end of the questionnaire you'll be matched to one of 16 personality types.
16 personalities
Find out more about your 'personality type' - how accurate is it? Does this give you an insight into the type of job that would interest you?
I have a bit more time (includes new interactive exercise)
The interactive exercise
Building self awareness to help your career thinking
We've created a 30-minute interactive exercise designed to help you explore and understand why your values, preferences, interests, strengths, motivations are key to making good career decisions (and avoiding bad ones) now and in the future.
Go to our self-awareness reflective exercise
Once you've completed the exercise, chat through your thoughts with an adviser.
The job matching quiz
Prospects Planner is an online questionnaire that asks about your interests, skills, motivations and desires. It then matches your interests to a wide range of graduate job profiles.
The system lets you know how well you’ve matched up to the profiles based on your interests, skills, motivations and desires. Remember this is a guide or a starting point - it is not a definite list of the jobs you should or could do!
Prospects Planner
Cross off any jobs that don’t interest you and highlight say, five jobs that you’d like to find out about. Use the links to the profiles and explore. Once you’ve done this, are you going to keep them on the list?
Talk to an adviser
Not sure why some jobs are on the list? Not sure it's helped? Chat through the results with an adviser.
Book an appointment
Read our blog
Having a graduate job or career in place when you leave university is not the be all and end all. Read our blog to hear how Anna approached not having a job in place when she graduated.
Read our blog: I Don't Have a Grad Job: Now What?
I want an in-depth look using Profiling for Success
We subscribe to Profiling for Success, an online tool to help you understand your abilities, learning styles, personality, motivations and interests. The company behind Profiling for Success is Team Focus.
You can take all four questionnaires or take one or two and return later to do the others. You will need to make time to complete these tests - up to one hour.
The reports and talking to an adviser
After completing a questionnaire, you will receive a detailed report. Again, these will take some time to read through and digest.
Once you’ve read through the reports, why not book an appointment with an adviser to discuss the outcomes and your next step.
Book an appointment
Explore career areas to help you consider where your interests lie
Alongside considering your skills and interests, it's also a good idea to explore a range of career areas to get a sense of what might appeal to you.
Using our A to Z of careers and sectors, there maybe some job areas that stand out for you sparking an interest and there may be others that you wouldn't consider at all. Take your time and don't dismiss any area if you're not really sure what it involves as it might just be perfect for you. You can also check out the job profiles on the Prospects website.
Watch our video about how we can help
Lots of students don't know what they want to do after university.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone - we’re here to help you every step of the way.
This video will help you generate ideas and understand how we can help.