Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Career Planning

When I was in my twenties I was struggling as an ill-placed maths teacher. Desperate for a career change I found I didn't understand the structure of possible careers at all. Here is what I should have known.

Public Sector Employers

I know Robert Heinlein said harsh words about those who would 'stick their snouts in the public trough' but he was in favour of the military, wasn't he? Here are some public sector employers:

  • Civil Service Fast Stream
  • CPS (Crown Prosecution Service)
  • Police
  • HM Revenue & Customs
  • GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters)
  • MI5 (Security Service)
  • MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service)
  • Ministry of Defence (Army, Navy, Air Force)
  • Teaching
  • National Health Service

Private Sector Employers

Much more choice in the private sector.

  • Accounting, Auditors, Tax & Bookkeepers
  • Advertising & Public Relations
  • Agriculture Products & Services
  • Airlines, Aviation Services / Supplies
  • Apparel / Accessories / Textiles
  • Architecture, Planning and Design
  • Banking & Financial Services
  • Beverages, Alcoholic & Non-alcoholic
  • Building Systems / Materials / Fixtures
  • Business Consultancy & Advisory
  • Computer & IT Products & Services
  • Construction
  • Education & Training
  • Engineering and Technical
  • Entertainment & Recreation
  • Environmental Products & Services
  • Executive Search & Personnel Recruitment
  • Food Manufacturing / Distribution / Services
  • Freight Forwarders / Couriers
  • Gases, Natural & Processed
  • Hospitals
  • Hotels / Restaurants / Caterers
  • Insurance
  • Legal Practice
  • Manufacturing – Cars, Consumer, Electronics, Industrial, Chemical
  • Marketing & Communications
  • Petroleum & Petroleum Products
  • Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Products
  • Power & Electrical
  • Printing & Publishing
  • Property & Real Estate Services
  • Retail Consumer Products (Shops, Supermarkets)
  • Scientific & Medical Instruments
  • Security, Investigative Services & Products
  • Transportation & Logistics
  • Travel & Tourism

Horizontal Departmental Roles

Big organisations are specialised into departments which offer quite different work experiences (and suit different kinds of people). Here is a fairly comprehensive list.

  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Consultancy (sales support)
  • Customer Engineering
  • Customer Relationship Management (includes call centres)
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  • Research & Development
  • Design
  • Manufacturing
  • Operations
  • Logistics & Supply Chain Management
  • Procurement
  • Inventory
  • Billing and Payments
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  • General Management
  • Public Relations
  • Government Relations
  • Project & Programme Management
  • Process Development
  • Quality Assurance
  • IT
  • Training
  • Internal Audit
  • Internal Security
  • Human Resources
  • Legal
  • Finance

If you know your Myers-Briggs personality type (on-line test here) then you can get career suggestions at this site.