You’ve probably heard the term career path or career pathway, but perhaps you want to understand what a career path is and why it’s important to you.
Are you ready to choose a career path for yourself, explore the types of career paths you could follow, or start to map out your chosen career in detail?
If so, this article will be a valuable resource to start the exciting process of planning your future career.
Your career path will be instrumental in achieving your career goals and finding your dream job. Mapping out your career stages will help you progress successfully through each step to ultimately accomplish your goals.
What is a Career Path?
Think of a career path as your roadmap to success. A career path is a list of steps to reach your career goal. It might start with the qualifications you need to gain from school, college, and then university, as well as mapping out acquiring practical experience and getting that first job using your qualifications that puts you on the ladder upwards to your final objective.
Let’s take the example of a game developer. Their career path will start by getting good grades in Maths, Science, and IT, at least. At college, they’ll need good grades in Maths, Physics, Computer Science, or other relevant IT courses if they are available. Art and Design might also be of benefit. Next, they’ll choose a relevant degree such as Computer Science, Software Engineering degree or a more specific course. Along the way, an aspiring game developer will want to get some practical experience, perhaps by creating their own simple games. While at university, an aspiring developer might wish to freelance or volunteer to build their skills and knowledge. After university, an internship might be relevant before a first-year role with a game development company. The end goal might be to lead a game development team on a major title.
Career paths can be linear and vertical, where a student progresses from unqualified to qualified, then into an internship or a junior role. After a period of time, they seek promotion and move upwards on the career ladder, perhaps even numerous times endeavoring to achieve the most senior role in their profession.
Careers can also be diverse and horizontal in nature. Such a pathway might see a student qualify in one profession, but rather than progress to a more senior role, they move sideways to experience new aspects of their skills. For instance, a software engineer might begin a career in application development but then move to a role in blockchain development or even AI.
A student qualified in medicine may want to experience emergency medicine but then work in the field as a Disaster Medical specialist before later becoming a teacher of medicine.
Although mapping a career path is a way to find direction and choose a course or degree to study, those just entering the workforce might find themselves embarking on the first stages of more than one career path before an ultimate direction makes sense.
Why is a Career Path and Outlining Your Career Goals Important?
Knowing your career path, starting with school, college, and university qualifications, is essential to achieving your career goal. By outlining your career goals and mapping out each stage, you’ll understand:
- What grades you need to achieve
- The courses you need to choose
- Any specialisations, modules, and options to look for
- Which university is best for your career path
- How long you’ll need to study
- What practical experience to gain along the way
- What the reward will eventually be for all the hard work studying
- How much you could earn
- Where your career could take you in 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years!
Most importantly, as you successfully pass through each stage of your career path, you will feel accomplished, and it will motivate you through the next stage.
Before defining your career path, you’ll want to decide what job you want to do when you finish studying and what your end dream job looks like. Questions to think about include:
- What do you want from your career?
- What do you enjoy? What are your interests?
- What are your strengths?
- What kind of personality do you have?
- Do you want to work with colleagues or alone?
- Do you want to be a leader or an expert?
What Are the Different Types of Career Paths?
There are hundreds of career pathways you could follow, and you likely already have an idea from your career classes or interests. Here are some great resources that list where different university degrees could take you and potential careers you could choose:
- Immerse Education – What Can I Do With My Degree?
- UK National Careers Service – Explore by job category
- Prospects – Job Sectors
- Indeed – How to Choose a Career Path
- UCAS – Find Career Ideas
- Youth Employment UK – Careers Guides and Job Descriptions
Career Path Examples
We’ve already shared examples of a game developer and some of the options for a degree in medicine. Let’s look at how a few more careers can map out:
Education
Teacher → Head of Department → Deputy Head Teacher → Head Teacher
Communications
PR Assistant → PR Representative → Assistant Director of PR → Director of Communications
Engineering
Junior Engineer → Senior Engineer → Project Leader → Engineering Manager → Engineering Director
They’ll all begin like this:
School → College/University → Further Education or On-the-Job Training
And they could include getting work experience, an internship, or finding a part-time job while studying in a related field.
How to Create Your Career Path
Now, let’s outline a plan that will get you started in creating your career path.
- Assess Yourself and Define Your Vision
Think about any career ideas you already have, then consider your personality, aptitude, and interests. Try online career tests and self-assessment tools, and if you have access to a careers tutor, consult with them on tools and ideas.
- Brainstorm Occupations and Career Goals
Note down jobs, careers, and goals. Just by brainstorming your ideas and the research you have already done, you’ll have an idea of which career paths you might want to pursue
- Explore Several Career Paths
Take your favourite ideas and start to map them out. Look at the qualifications you will need, read job descriptions from the internet, look at the courses and universities available, and find out what salaries or senior positions might be available.
Seek out someone familiar with your chosen career, ask them questions, and if they think the career would suit you. Also, research how these careers are relevant now and what might happen to them in the future. Will there always be demand for this job?
- Plan Your Career Path
You can now use all the information you have to plan a career path and research an occupation in depth. Don’t worry if you get so far and realise the career path is not for you. Try planning another career path until you find a route that really resonates with you.
If you have a career goal in mind, you can work backward from your end goal to determine the steps you will need to take.
If you would like to become a data analyst, for example, what degree do you need? Perhaps that’s an economics degree or a computer science degree, and if so, what grades in which subjects do you need to achieve at school or college to get accepted into your degree program?
Make sure to include:
- What grades or qualifications you’ll need to progress from one step to the next
- How to become accepted for the degree program or university you need
- How you might get practical experience along the way
- Example job descriptions for your dream job
- What companies you might want to work for when you qualify
- Goals for the first five and ten years of your career
- An action plan!
Conclusion
Mapping out a career path will help you to focus on moving through school to further education and knowing that you’re on the route to success. When you’re visualising and creating your career path, it’s okay to make changes, and it’s definitely recommended to seek advice.
Immerse Education has a range of Career Insights programmes, industry-focused and taught by professionals, all providing practical experience of popular career choices.
These programmes are a great way to experience studying for your chosen career path and to learn more about the subjects and skills you will learn at university.
Resources:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/choosing-a-career-path
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/career-path-definition-with-examples-2059765#toc-examples-of-career-paths
https://www.betterup.com/blog/career-path
https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/hr-glossary/career-path
https://www.coursera.org/articles/career-path
https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/career-path
https://www.thestudentpocketguide.com/2021/06/student-life/education-career/ways-students-choose-career-path/
