Ask yourself some initial questions
- What type of job do you want? What skills do you already have?
- What types of work would be interesting for you (e.g. research, teaching, admin, entrepreneur....)? How come?
- Who does the sort of work you’re excited about (e.g. academia, non-profit, private or public sector, industry...)?
- Who shares your interests?
- Who might need employees with your skills and experience?
- How can you best use your experiential and knowledge capital?
- What types of employers would be interesting for you?
- How much relevant experience do you have? If not too much, where can you get it?
Know your field
Find out as much information as you can about the fields that you're interested in
- Do your research – how well-informed are you about the field you wish to enter?
- Look up companies online (their focus/mandate/mission, who’s expanding/who’s shrinking), trends, new developments, current literature, etc.
- Who are the experts? (Try the industry or professional association, academic supervisor, etc.)
- Who has funding in your area of interest (e.g. research)?
- Which specific employers do you wish to target?
- Do they have competitors?
- Blend hard info (e.g. online research) with soft info (e.g. info interviews).
