Your needs, responsibilities and constraints
Take into account any practical restrictions
Personal factors
Personal factors may affect your career choice. These could include
- needing to earn a certain amount of money
- your age or health
- being responsible or caring for family members
- issues such as equality and diversity
- needing to stay in a particular area
- wanting to get a qualification as quickly as possible
- needing to gain a qualification which also gives professional recognition.
What are your needs and responsibilities?
Make some notes of your needs and responsibilities (RTF, 16KB) on this form (completed example RTF, 15KB). This will help you to think about the possible constraints there are for you in your choice of career, and to see if there are ways to overcome these.
Given the needs, responsibilities and constraints you have identified
- have you considered all the possibilities that are open to you?
- are the barriers you see as great as you first thought?
- are there any creative strategies you could use to help overcome them?
Continue with the career planning activities by moving on to What do you want from work?
OU students can contact a careers adviser if you would like some help making use of this activity.