Careers Advice

Effective careers advice can be crucial to the decisions young people make about their future. The transition that leads from school to the working world can be rough or smooth depending on a combination of advice given, personal focus and whether expectations of working life are met. Far from all young people are fortunate enough to know exactly which vocation they're after so that they can find the right guidance, training or even lucky breaks in order to pursue that career. These pages aim to help our students here at Lanna make better decisions.

Some of the following common sense points should be borne in mind when thinking about future education and careers:

What extracurricular activities do you enjoy? Experience gained from hobbies, interests or travel can be matched with academic or vocational skills learnt at school.

Keep persevering if you know you have a specific talent, no matter how many possible knock-backs may occur along the way.

Be open-minded about where your career plans will lead you, and be prepared to change your mind along the way, even if you've specialised in a certain area.

Be aware that your aspirations may well change, and what you think you want to do at 14 may be very different from what you eventually end up doing.

Personality Tests. A Good Starting Point?

Before thinking about what careers you may be suited to it may be useful to think carefully about your own personality. Try taking the BBC's " What am I like? " personality test. A test where you discover if you are a Big Thinker, an Idealist or another of 16 personality types.

Career Tests - What type of career might you be suited to?

To be happy and successful in your working life, it’s important that you ensure your abilities, values and personality are well matched to those needed for your chosen career. Lots of people are now turning to free online career tests in order to assess themselves. They are quick to complete and can help you discover your strengths, in terms of your skills, knowledge and personal qualities. They then offer you an individual analysis (usually computer generated) and some recommended career options.

Here's a few that you might like to try:

The Princeton Review Career Quiz™

After answering 24 questions, you receive a description of your interests, skills and preferred style – using the Birkman colour approach – plus a list of the careers this points to.

Prospects Planner Free Online Career Tests

This test helps you clarify your ideas. It is a shortened version of a longer test for University graduates. You’ll need to register and then answer some questions about your skills and what you want from a job. The results show what you might do for a career. You don't have to explore all the options at once, as you can return and view the results again on your next visit.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) / Résumé

Your CV/Résumé is brief written account of your personal details, your education, your interests, your particular skills and abilities, and the jobs that you have had. You are often asked to send a CV when applying for a job. CVs come in many shapes and sizes. While there is no "correct" resume format, you should try to ensure that your's highlights your strengths, particularly the strengths that you think your prospective employer will be looking for. Consequently you may have more than one CV, each tailored to the demands of particular positions for which you are applying.

Remember: Short-listed (invited to interview) and successful candidates are invariably the people who provide employers with the best CV's and best covering letters (a letter in which you explain why you are the best candidate for the job).

You can download a sample school-leaver CV (in MS Word format) by clicking the button below. Please don't copy it - see it as a guide to what you might include.

For more advice on writing your own CV do a web search for "Curriculum Vitae" or "Résumé". One very useful source of online advice can be found at http://www.businessballs.com/curriculum.htm

Choosing a University?

Are you looking to see what universities in Thailand have to offer? Lanna staff have put a great deal of work into compiling an up-to-date list of what international programmes are available here in Thailand - to our knowledge nobody else has compiled this information! To download a file (in .pdf format) giving details of international programmes available at Thai universities click on the button below.

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