Explore my options

Career paths are long and winding, with many stops, detours and decisions along the way. However, exploring possible career paths is a great way to start your career to build the right skills, education, and experience and should account for your goals and plans.

Once you’re confident knowing your values and skills, you will now have a clearer picture of the future you want to contribute to. 

5 Steps to weigh up your career-study decisions

Discover

• Discover the job opportunities in your area of study What can I do with a degree from UC?
• Take the Career Possibilities tutorial. This short programme is a guide to help you discover the career options out there for you

Explore

• Explore Career NZ  job profiles and industries
• Talk to friends, family and professionals about what it's really like to work in those occupations
• Informational interviewing is a great way to gain insider information on employment trends, the skills required by employers, and confirm whether it's an area of work you are interested in or not. Check out Questions for informational interviews (PDF 420KB)

Research

• Researching the organisation (PDF 131KB)
• Refer occupations in Aotearoa in the MBIE Occupational Outlook. It's a great tool for exploring over 100 occupations in New Zealand, with information on labour supply and demand. 
• Download the Hays Salary Guide for salaries and recruiting trends in New Zealand. Although income is important, so is finding a job you will be good at every day

Consult

• Book an appointment with a career consultant to help you make career-based study choices and explore job prospects
• Having doubts about your study? To help you identify the reasons for your concern, read this: Should I stay in this programme of study (PDF 704KB)

Action

• Once you're confident with your decision, get in touch with your College Student Advisor to help plan the structure of your degree and the courses you should take.

Explore occupation and industry insights here

• MBIE's Medium to long-term employment outlook: Looking ahead to 2028
• CareersNZ Job profiles
• Careers in the state sector (PDF 699KB)
• Considering a career in academia (PDF 589KB)
• CareerQuest
• Australian Labour market industry reports