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Be kind to yourself in your career planning

Posted on • Career planning, Disabilities and health conditions, Interviews and assessments, Jobs, internships and work experience

A woman sits on the floor of a living whilst looking calmly at sheets of paper and a laptop.

Empower your journey: prioritise self-kindness in career navigation

We all know it can be hard to make good decisions when we’re feeling under pressure, are unfocused and time limited. So slow down, take a breath and pace yourself through our top tips encouraging you to be kind to yourself in career planning…

1. Give yourself the gift of time – you’re worth it

Our busy OU students don’t often have time to focus on planning to achieve long-term goals. If possible, try ring-fencing 30 minutes a week and call it ‘Career planning time’ . Start with any action, whatever you want, and try to complete 1 or 2 specific actions during each timeslot – for example, ‘find out about LinkedIn and set up a basic profile’, or ‘check the upcoming careers events and book onto those that interest me’ . Doing it a bit at a time can feel less overwhelming, build confidence as you see you’re getting somewhere, and move you towards bigger changes in the longer term.

2. Work with your strengths rather than against them

Suggested career planning strategies can sometimes feel rigid and may not work well for you. Be assured, there’s no singular ‘right’ way to approach career planning; we’re all different in our preferences and strengths. Apply strategies that you know work for you in your studies, work and life. For example, if you have dyslexia, more offline careers research activities might suit you better. Try the more visual activities in section 1 of Your Career Planning Guide, which is available as a printed book for offline work. Another example is if you have ADHD, work with your spontaneity to take advantage of opportunities for open conversations.

3. Remember, your career is your life, not only your job

Listen to your intuition to build confidence and gain motivation from uncertainty when dealing with unplanned changes like redundancy ‘Going with’ life can also lower stress and increase creativity. There’s a holistic career guidance theory that ‘life-is-career’ (Miller-Tiedeman, 1997) rather than defined as the jobs that we do. It’s a kinder, gentler way to approach your life and puts a strong emphasis on the process and not the outcome of planning your future.

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Fiona Munday - OU Careers and Employability ConsultantFiona Munday is a Careers and Employability Consultant with almost 30 years experience supporting adults and young people in education, the secure estate and community settings, helping them work towards achieving their career goals. At the OU, she combines work directly supporting students and alumni with developing useful resources and services to help OU students of all diverse backgrounds achieve their goals.