It’s pretty understandable that over the period of your 40 year + career, you might need a little career guidance at some points. After all, to find and shape your career without any advice or inspiration might be a little tricky. So we thought it only wise to highlight 8 of the most obvious people who can do just that and fundamentally help shape your career.

Career Advisor

Arguably the most obvious of established routes for ‘career advice’, a career advisor may be the person you are pencilled in to meet at school, or the person that you meet at the jobcentre who is there to help you decide and shape what you do with your career or identify where you can potentially find work. You can also find specialist and private career advisors that you pay yourself to help you make future career decisions, or to make you more employable.

Recruitment Consultant

Recruitment consultants work for Recruitment Agencies and are responsible for working with businesses to find suitable candidates (job-seekers) for jobs. It is essential that they find suitable candidates for jobs as they are paid by the businesses to cover this personnel process. Of course if you have suitable work skills and experience and you meet with a Recruitment Consultant who finds value in your CV – then expect them to want to help you find a new job, or at least offer you some work opportunities. Therefore Recruitment Consultants have a powerful position in shaping careers, and many a person’s career too!

Family Member

Often the first person or people that help shape your career. Your family / parent / sibling may help advise you on what subjects you should study at school (that can initially shape your career) and then subsequently help shape the College / University course you go on. They may also influence you in terms of the type of job that you think is acceptable or suitable and in fact even determine if you value employment or a career as an important thing in the first place.

Teacher

Often the second most important person / people that you will meet pre-career. Many people cite their Teacher as the most important influential figure in shaping their career. Teachers can have a positive (and occasionally negative) affect in encouraging talent and skills and can often make valuable (or otherwise) advice that may shape what career decisions you initially make.

Friend

Friends can have also have both a positive and negative affect on what career decisions you make. Initially this may mean the friends you hang around with at school, college or University, but friends can help shape your career, all the way through the work lifecycle – offering you opportunities, the chance for career change, or valuable insight and advice from the experience and knowledge they have also gained.

Role Model

Career Role models can certainly come in all shapes and sizes. You may find a role model during your career itself and in a work environment, or you may feel inspired or influenced by someone that you hear speak, present or perform. Of course like all of the above, they may offer sound advice or inspiration, or disenfranchise or influence in an entirely different direction.

Boss

Perhaps your Boss will help you to identify and bring out your talents and skills. Maybe your boss will make your life uncomfortable so you end up moving on. But either way, it is fair to assume that your Boss will be an important factor in what you end up doing at the next stage of your career.

Yourself!

Of course ultimately it is you that shapes your own career or make a relevant career change. All of the above can do a mighty job in helping to shape your decisions, but ultimately it will be you that ends up making those good and bad decisions on what to do and what to do next in your career.