An Employability and Career Hub (EACHOT) page
“Your own style and how you work, drive and energy at an individual level, be accountable” “Having the confidence to go for those opportunities that may seem sort of unfamiliar” “Acting on my own appraisal and not expecting my employer to pull opportunities out of the bag for me” “Being brave and vulnerable and taking risks” “I wish some of my appraisers/supervisors talked to me more/encouraged me more in the area of career progression so I felt more able to seek support when needed” ”Need to keep people’s energy and drive” “Position yourself to be ahead of the curve for changes and opportunities within the working landscape” “Not everybody has the same journey and not everybody has equality in that journey” “You’ve done lots of things and you kind of hope that there is going to be something at the end of it” “Flexibility to think outside of the box” Use current role as a stepping stone to future roles – the whole job may not be perfect” “Need to think multi-faceted ‘wobbly career’” “is this all I’ll ever be as an occupational therapist?” “How do you get there? You’re going down a road that’s been travelled 1000 times and it’s difficult to diverge from that” “Good early career knowledge but less later in careers” “When a job of interest comes up it is up to me to explore any gaps in my skill set and proactively get there” “Rather than building a career/side stepping or not always linear and that’s OK/going down a pay grade” “Need to be clear about occupational therapy role in diverse roles and opportunities more widely”
A central theme for employability is the process of reflection. In the Where am I now? area of the EACHOT you will have had the opportunity to reflect on where you are now with your employability capitals and a range of work skills relevant to you as an Occupational Therapist in your current role.
Many successful people describe themselves as “lucky” and some people “fall” into opportunities in their careers. However, most of those “lucky” individuals will have been reflective over their current work/life situation and context, to help establish what they may want to change and aspire towards and then have been proactive over their own personal and professional development, to achieve those aspirations. This proactivity then positions those individuals to make and then take meaningful opportunities to progress their employability and careers in a more focussed way for them. Without a direction of travel people can end up doing a bit of everything, taking any opportunity just in case it may help them which can result in feeling overwhelmed and lacking a clear focus of how everything fits and works together. Some people are completely happy to go with the flow and see where their career takes them, but others prefer to have a more structured and strategic approach to their career progression. What type of approach works for you for your employability and career?
A career path, map and plan are linked but offer slightly different perspectives for you to consider, to facilitate you focussing on your career aspirations.
(3.5 minutes)
