How do I want to work?
What sort of candidate are you?
It often helps to get where you want to go by understanding where you are coming from. I tend to use this as a framework to helping people to plan their careers.
Cross-skiller
If you want to move out of your current role to a tangential position which might or might not be in your current industry or sector, this might be you.
Up-skillers
Maybe you have outgrown your current role and you’re ready to trade-up. If you want to take on new experiences and to broaden or deepen your skills to achieve more, then this could be you.
First-time leaders
If you’re in your first team leader position or supervisory role and you have been a unique contributor in the past. You may have potential to be a good manager of bigger teams, but first you need to consolidate and make a plan.
Mid-level leaders
Is your job an operational leader who manages other leaders in your department or across the organisation?
Senior-leaders
If you have very high level of strategic responsibility, line-management and leadership responsibility for operational leaders across the organisation then you qualify as a senior manager.
Re-skillers (sometimes thought of as mid-career flounders)
This category describes people who for one reason or another have a dramatic or radical change of plan.
Maintainers
You enjoy your current work but in a climate of flatter management structures you may be in danger of limiting your prospects and losing potential salary and benefits.
Consolidators
Consolidators can be seen as ‘proactive maintainers’. These individuals are realists who although they enjoy their job, understand that nothing stands still and if they are not taking on new skills, they are in fact regressing.
First or second steppers (young graduates)
In the early stages of a career there is what is called a ‘sensing stage’ where you start to understand your working preferences. People in the early years of their career are beginning to apply this knowledge to their career decisions.
Returners to the job market
There are various reasons why you might have had a break in your career. You are now in a position where you need to review the type of work that you want to undertake in the future.
Older workers
You could fit into one of the previous categories but you may have specific needs and require support analysing what your best course of action may be and in building a plan to achieve it.
Alumni members
You may be working with a ‘fledgling identity’ having completed academic study e.g. MBA, MSc. You now want to find work that is commensurate with your qualification.