Written by Tania Lyden, Careers Consultant
The term ‘career’ has interesting origins in the mid-16th century denoting a ‘road’ or ‘racecourse’ which comes from the Latin ‘carrus’ or ‘wheeled vehicle’. What the term captures is this sense of travel, movement, momentum and progression and not the stagnant sense of a ‘job for life’ that we often think of today. 
Years ago, smaller proportions of the population than today would head to University to gain a degree and leave with a specific profession or career in mind that would see them through to retirement. But despite the myths, any job you take on straight after university now is extremely unlikely to be a job for life! It is also possible that you have no idea about what to do after university.
The goal is to equip each individual in society with the opportunism, proactivity and resilience to enable them to navigate their way through a range of jobs as part of a more varied, meandering career.
“So what?” I hear you say. Well, what this revelation should do is make you feel under a bit less pressure:
- Your first decision needs to be good enough, clever enough and informed enough but not perfect.
- Any dilemmas between different career options might be ironed out by concluding that both might be possible at some point.
- You can embrace the idea of continuously developing, moulding and perfecting your career by seeing this first step after graduation as an optimal learning opportunity.
So don’t stick your head in the sand in fear of not securing the perfect role. Come and talk to us about what will prove to be an exciting first step after graduating from the University of Reading. Book an appointment on MJO.