Plan your career path

Unless you can see the future, there is no way you can fully control your career pathways in Australia. There are way too many factors that you simply can’t control. These include economic trends, the political environment and advances in technology – not to mention personal life events, like getting married, divorced, or having children – all of which have the potential to influence your career. 

However, that doesn’t mean planning your career isn’t a good move. Having clear career goals and aspirations can help put you in a good position for success, regardless of what life throws at you.

Read on to discover our tips on making your career plan.

One of the most important things you can do as part of planning your career is to really understand yourself. Learn to recognise your strengths and weaknesses. What do you like doing? What are you passionate about? What is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning? What are your values and beliefs – the things that you will never compromise, no matter what? Think about your skills, knowledge and experience. What skills do you have that are transferrable between different jobs? What specialised skills have you gained? What are your dreams and aspirations? Consider how you can capitalise on your strengths and overcome any weaknesses you might have identified.

When thinking about career pathways in Australia, it’s also important to understand what you want out of a career, too. Not everybody aspires to be a high-powered executive. Think about what is important for you to be happy in your work. Maybe you want flexibility so that you can balance family obligations. Perhaps it’s important to you to be doing a job that helps people or that somehow gives back to the community. Remember – we spend almost one-third of our lives working, so it’s important that we do work that is fulfilling and makes us happy.

Your self-reflection might take a bit of time – it’s a lot to think about! It’s helpful to spend time considering these elements and writing them down. Make lists of the things you discover about yourself and the sorts of things you’d like to do. Writing things down is very beneficial to clarifying the direction in which you’d like your career plan to take.

Once you have a better understanding of your strengths, values and aspirations, it’s time to start planning a career that suits you. This can be quite tricky, as the jobs we may think we’ll like may not always match our strengths, skills, and preferences. It’s hugely important to consider any potential career pathways in Australia in the context of your values, beliefs and personality. 

Check out various employment websites and job advertisements online to get an understanding of the types of jobs available. If there are particular types of organisations that you think you’d like to work for because of your personal reflection, check if they advertise their job vacancies on their company website. You might even consider reaching out to an organisation to ask them the sorts of things they look for in their employees. Or even offer to volunteer to get a feel for what it would be like to work there.

It can also be helpful to talk to a career’s counsellor or coach about career pathways in Australia. They won’t find you a job or tell you exactly what career plan you should follow. But they will work with you to help you identify what sort of roles fit with the skills, values and beliefs you have identified in your self-reflection exercise.

Add your list of potential jobs or careers to your lists from your self-reflection exercise and review all the information regularly – at least once or twice a year – to see what has changed and check your progression. 

Once you have considered the career plans available to you and identified what direction you want to take, it’s time to start setting some career goals. Set ‘SMART’ objectives to accomplish your short and long-term career goals. There are a few variations of what SMART objectives should address, but the important thing is to set them so that you can measure your progress - measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

S – Identify your goal clearly and specifically. Make them significant, and stretching

M – Make your goals meaningful, motivational and measurable. Make sure they include clear criteria to determine progress and accomplishment.

A – Your goals should be action-orientated and attainable. There should be a 50% or greater chance of success.

R – Ensure goals are realistic, rewarding, result-orientated and relevant to you personally.

T –Set specific timeframes for your goals and ensure they are tangible and trackable.

Planning a career really is a journey. Map your pathway just like you would any other adventure. Identify your starting point and your preferred ‘destination’ (i.e. what you want to achieve with your career) and figure out what you need to do to get there. What are the milestones you need to arrive at along the way, and how will you make progress towards each?

A careers counsellor or coach can be helpful for mapping your career pathway in Australia. They are terrific for helping you build a career plan roadmap, supporting you in creating long-term career goals and identifying the milestones you need to hit to accomplish them. They will also help keep you accountable for the goals you have set.

One of the few things in life that is certain is change. When planning your career, be open to the idea that you might change your path and adapt your career plan to accommodate new opportunities and challenges that pop up. The world in which we live is changing constantly, and as you continue to learn and grow and gain more experience, your preferences and the options available to you will shift accordingly. Part of being a successful professional is the ability to remain nimble, flexible, and responsive to your surrounding environment. Be open to new experiences and opportunities as they arise. You never know where something unexpected might lead.

Thinking of working in Australia after your study? You may need overseas visitor health insurance.

Our Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) includes a range of medical services and expenses to help you stay healthy during your stay. Our OVHC meets the Australian Government's requirements for adequate health insurance for the Temporary Skill Shortage visa (subclass 482) and Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485).