The seven common career mistakes students make

Life is about making mistakes and learning from them. But, when it comes to career guidance, where do students tend to go wrong?

Jane Downes, author of The Career Book and a career coach at Clearview Coaching Group, shares her insights.

1. Students don't always take it seriously enough. They don't allocate enough thought to it and they leave it till the last minute. Transition year is, ideally, the time to start thinking what you're all about.

2. They don't look at their skills, interests, values and personality. Your values might centre on making a positive impact on people and society, or to be recognised, or simply to make a lot of money, but you do need to know what they are. Also, they don't consider what drives them – whether introvert or extrovert by nature and how they can use their personality in their work.

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3. Students don't do enough research and don't always realise that career planning is a project in itself.

4. They listen to their [Generation X, born between the early to mid-1960s and the early 1980s] parents who, with the best will in the world, don't always realise that the world of work has fundamentally changed. They don't always know that two new roles are created in the working world every week, and they don't always understand newer areas like digital marketing or data analytics.

5. They don't take on board what the career guidance counsellor is saying.

6. They don't use the resources available to them, including Qualifax.ie and CareersPortal.ie

7. Students can go wrong by not cultivating a mindset of curiosity and asking questions.