Smooth career moves

We've received a lot of queries asking: 'What am I qualified to do?'
From the well-qualified to the not so well-qualified, totaljobs.com Career Doctor, Sophie Relf, has some answers for you.

"I have read your general advice about switching between careers and transferable skills, which as a teacher for the past 11 years; I know I must have a lot of. But what I wanted to ask was what kinds of jobs Primary teachers typically go into? Having a list of the sorts of work most Primary school teachers end up in would be very useful to me."

Your success at changing careers is not linked to your former profession. It will turn on how well you match your strengths (a combination of what you are good at and what you are interested in) to suitable 'roles'. Start with you and finish with you; list your hard skills and qualifications with competence levels, ask your friends and work colleagues how they would describe your 'transferrable work' skills such as organisation or communication. You will end up with a 'career portrait' then see what roles fit your portrait. This will describe the options that are open to you. The more interested you are in the role the more likely you are to excel at it.

"I left school without any qualifications and have recently successfully completed two full time college courses, I have now achieved the equivalent of GCSEs and A-Levels. I would like to start work but I'm not sure where to go from here; should I settle for any job because I have very little experience?"

Well done you, it's a testament to your willingness to learn and work hard that you've achieved qualifications after leaving school, so don't undersell yourself. See my advice above re what friends or college peers would say about your work skills and then start matching your career options. As an alternative you might like to try our 'knowing you' skills and qualifications career matcher.

"I have worked for big accountancy companies at a senior level within computers within the Enterprise Resource Planning field. I have retrained as a plumber and heating engineer and gained all of my relevant qualifications. I was recently hired as a contracts manager which unfortunately did not work out and I find myself needing to get back into work. I am not sure how to present my work life over the past five years on my CV."

To retrain as you have done shows that as with most UK employees, having to learn on the job and fast is becoming the norm; and you managed it. Be reassured by your previous achievements and work through my advice above, once you've found your roles try our salary checker. You can match live jobs with job titles, salaries and locations.

With any potential career change, you will always have more transferrable skills than you realise. What you might see as an aside that you do without thinking in your current job, might well be the lynch pin of another. It's just a case of being identify your arsenal of skills. Take a look at the Career Doctor's other responses to career change questions, and you'll find more useful information about transferrable skills and how to write a skills based CV in the totaljobs.com advice zone.

Useful links:
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