You're going to work for around 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year, and 40 years of your life, which is almost 80,000 hours in total! So it's best to make sure you're doing something worthwhile and enjoyable—something you really want to do. This quick guide is designed to help you make the most of your career.

We've spent about one week of our life seeking out around 150 of the best career guidance, recruitment, and job-hunting web pages to help you get yourself on the right path. We've wasted the time so you don't have to! The page is broken up into handy sections with several different pages offering a broad selection of advice in each one.

Last updated: 14 December 2008.

Introduction

Do you live to work or do you work to live? No matter how successful you are at work, things could always be better—right? You could always do with a little more money. But even if you're happy with what you're earning, perhaps you'd like more of a challenge or more responsibility? Humans have a built-in tendency to "habituate" to things: we become bored when the novelty wears off. Lots of people are quite content working within their so-called "comfort zone", but just as many people appreciate variety and the opportunity to do something new.

So, wherever you are in your career, how about spending an hour of your time taking stock? Ask yourself what things you're happy with and what could be better. What are your career goals for the next year, two years, five years, ten years and beyond? Maybe you simply fancy a change of job or environment in the short term, or perhaps you have a very specific ambition you'd like to satisfy in the longer term that will need you to accumulate skills, experience, and training over a number of years. How well are you doing overall compared to where you thought you'd be a few years ago? Can you see yourself satisfying your ambitions in the years ahead and, if not, what do you have to change to make things go your way?

Whatever you want to achieve, the things we've compiled on this page should help. From getting your first job as a new graduate to making a career change in mid-life; from writing the perfect job application letter and putting together your resume to finding a job when you have no experience. It's targetted mainly at readers in the UK and USA. If you live elsewhere and don't find what you want here, try using the Google search boxes at the top and bottom of this page to find more relevant information.

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Contents - what's on this page

• General careers advice
• Careers advice for young people
• Graduates
• General jobhunting advice
• Getting a job if you have no experience
• A mid-life career change?
• Tips for older jobseekers
• Tips for disabled jobseekers
• How to write a job application letter
• How to write the perfect CV/resume
• Tips for writing your own CV/resume
• Example CVs and templates
• CV/resume-writing services
• Your legal rights as an employee
• General sites
• Unfair dismissal
• Job search websites
• Using recruitment agencies
• Job centres
• General job-searching and vacancy sites
• UK: Information and advice about specific careers
• USA: Information and advice about specific careers

General careers advice

• Learn Direct: Mainly concerned with helping people train to develop themselves and their careers.
• Direct.gov Careers Advice: UK government careers and employment advice site.
• Careers Services: A good general careers site from the New Zealand government.
• Need career advice?: A BBC business news article sets out how a clear process for finding a new job if you'renot happy with where you are now.
• Career building: A good selection of tips from About.com
• Career Journal: Lots of coverage of topical careers issues in this section of the Wall Street Journal.

Careers advice for young people

• A Guide for People Leaving School and College: A really useful 56-page guide for school leavers from the UK Job Centres. It's a 1.3 MB PDF file (not a 613 KB file as it claims to be).
• Aim Higher: Careers advice for young people. Which career is right for you... and how can you possibly know?
• Connexions Direct: This great advice site for young people includes a very useful careers section.
• Springboard: Advice on careers, university courses, and gap years for young people.
• BBC One Life: Choosing a career: There's lots of other careers advice on the excellent One Life site.
• The Site: Work and study: Plenty of careers advice on the ever-helpful The Site.
• Need2Know: Choosing a career: Choosing your job. Dealing with problems that occur at work..
• Student Zone: Careers advice and services: A list of handy links to careers advice websites.
• "Careers Advice too Confusing": A BBC news report from September 2007 spells out what young people think of official advice.
• Young Money: Topical careers advice for young people, with an emphasis on financial issues.
• Advice for Children, Teens and Parents: Career planning advice from About.com.
• BBC Onion Street: Works: An online careers game for young people.

Graduates

• Graduate Prospects: The official UK graduate recruitment and careers site.
• JobWeb: Career development and job search advice for new college graduates (US site).
• GET: First for Graduate Jobs: A commercial job site for graduates from Hobsons publishing.
• The Graduate: Lots of graduate jobs and career advice.
• AGCAS: Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services: An organization linking up university careers services.
• Monster: Graduate Jobs: Graduate vacancies and a lot of general advice too.
• Just4Graduates: More graduate job searching.

General jobhunting advice

• The work you want, the help you need: A guide to job seeking help and benefits, from the UK Job Centres. Available in various languages.
• Finding the right job for you: Tips from The Guardian, includes how to change direction, how to make an application, and some advice on preparing CVs or application forms.
• Career advice: General tips from Monster.
• Job Seekers Advice: General tips from Monster.
• Job Search: The About.com guide to job hunting.

Getting a job if you have no experience

• How to get a job when you have no experience: Neil Sattin's blog explains how he talked his way into a job by showing an interest in the jobs he wanted.
• How to Get a Job With No Experience: Some more excellent personal tips from Regina Rodriguez.
• How To Get A Job Without Experience: According to ezinearticles, it's all about selling yourself like a salesperson.
• Need Experience to Get a Job/Need a Job to Get Experience: Agony Aunt Cindy has some suggestions to break the vicious cycle.
• Getting some work experience: Scott Boyd offers practical tips, including temping and voluntary work.

A mid-life career change?

If you're interested specifically in starting a business of your own, take a look at our complete guide to starting your own business.

• Planning a career change: A number of useful articles from About.com's career planning guide.
• Mid-Life Career Crisis? It's Never Too Late to Find: This Wall Street Journal article encourages you to analyze what's good and bad about your current career and how to make a change.
• Six Unconventional Mid-Life Career Change Tips: Is your current job good enough? What if it could be much better?
• How a Mid-Life Career Change Can Fill the Void: Job Journal shows how to rejuvenate your life by readjusting your work life.
• Career Change Tools for the Mid-Life Woman: 14 thoughtful tips from Ellen Ostrow.
• Can You Change Your Career After 40?: Six more steps to changing your career.
• Create a work-style for life: It can take two to six years to change your career, according to this Third Age article.
• Career changes: Redefine yourself, modify your expectations, prepare in advance—some tips for changing career in your middle years.
• Create the perfect resume for your midlife career change: Some sage tips from the Australian government's employment and workplace website.
• Job Searching When You Are Over 40: It's all about sorting out your resume, mastering interviews again, and having realistic expectations, according to Job-Hunt.org.

Tips for older jobseekers

• Advice for older jobseekers: Practical advice from the BBC Panorama programme.
• New Deal 50 Plus: UK government job programmes for the over 50s.
• Advice for Mature Students: One Mature Student's Job Search Tips: 12 very clear, very wise lessons from experience for older jobseekers. This experience comes from a lawyer, but it's more generally applicable.
• Advice for older jobseekers: Practical advice from the BBC Panorama programme.
• Wise Owls: An employment agency specially for the over 45s.
• Keep dreaming: a realistic plan for older jobseekers: Advice from The Mature Market.com.
• How to Make Age an Asset When Job Searching: Advice from About.com.
• Advice for Mature Job Seekers: It's all a matter of attitude: you're not too old, even if you're being made to feel that way. How you can win back your confidence and get the job you want.

Tips for disabled jobseekers

• Disability in employment: A guide to your rights in the UK from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• Disabled people: employment support: Help finding work, whether or not to mention your disability during a job application, and lots of other useful advice about your rights.
• Disabled People and Carers: Advice on getting work from Job Centre Plus and support you can get if that's not possible.
• Disability rights: You can expect legal protection from discrimination.

How to write a job application letter

• The Owl At Purdue: Step-by-step guide to cover letters.
• 1. Cover letters: Quick tips: What you should put in a cover letter.
• 2: Preparing to Write a Cover Letter.
• Cover Letters 3: Writing Your Cover Letter.
• Amazing cover letter creator: Listen to an animated Jimmy P. Sweeney explain the brilliance of his letter-writing software.
• Letter of Application : Tips from the University of Aberystwyth on CVs, covering letters, application forms, speculative applications, interviews, aAssessment centres, and psychometric tests.
• Job application letter writer: Fill in the blanks and the program will write you a very stilted letter!
• The Successful Application Letter: How to write a winning letter to go with your winning CV.
• Writing a Cover Letter when Applying for a Job: More tips, from About.com
• Cover letters: types and samples: Great advice and sample letters from Virginia Tech.
• Job application letters: Another selection of examples from East Carolina University.

How to write the perfect CV/resume

Tips for writing your own CV/resume

• BBC Just the Job: CVs: Explains what a CV is, what information should be in a CV, includes some tips for CV writing, and has two Microsoft word templates for CVs you can copy.
• Writing the perfect CV: Great advice from The Site, as usual. Explains the basic info you should include.
• How to write a masterpiece of a resume: "This award-winning guide to resume writing will teach you to write a resume equal to one done by a top-notch professional writer."
• Writing a CV resume: Advice on writing a succesful CV.
• MyJobSearch: How to write the perfect CV: Tips on CV layout, content, and vocabulary. How to sound professional rather than vague and woolly.
• BBC Panorama: How to write your CV: Another BBC guide.
• BBC News: How to write your CV: Yet another BBC guide.
• JobWeb: Resumes and Interviews: Lots of articles here to help you with resume planning.

Example CVs and templates

• Example CVs: Lots of examples from kent University careers service, including examples for specific jobs, good and bad examples, and different styles and templates you can use.
• BBC Just the Job: CVs: Explains what a CV is, what information should be in a CV, includes some tips for CV writing, and has two Microsoft word templates for CVs you can copy.
• Example CVs: A selection of very typical example CVs from Monster, from commercial director to fork-lift driver.

CV/resume-writing services

There are hundreds of CV-writing services advertising on the Web. You can find lots of them by Google searching in the box at the bottom of this page.

• Should you use a resume-writing service?: Yahoo! hotjobs considers the pros and cons.
• Resume services: Should you use one? How should you choose one?

Your legal rights as an employee

General sites

We recommend the Citizens Advice Bureau's Advice Guide: Employment as the best starting point.

• Employment contracts and conditions: Definitive information from the Direct.gov website, including contracts of employment, changes of employment conditions, breach of contract, rights for voluntary workers, and rights for part-time and self-employed people.
• Contracts of employment: Your rights, clearly explained by Liberty.
• Contracts of employment: Clear advice from The Citizens Advice Bureau.
• Your job and the law: What everyone should know about their rights at work. Includes an unfair dismissal flowchart.
• Employment: a guide from Community Legal Services Direct.
• BBC guide to employment law: Explains statements of terms, how much notice you should be given, wrongful dismissal, sex and race discrimination, unfair dismissal, and redundancy.
• Contract of employment: a discussion of employment terms from Oasis, the Irish rights website.
• Legal basics: employment: A good introduction to UK employment law.

Unfair dismissal

• Unfair dismissal flowchart: This simple set of yes/no questions will help you see if you qualify for compensation.
• Qualifying for unfair dismissal protection: An introduction from Monster and Compact Law.

Using recruitment agencies

• Using Recruitment Agencies: Oxford University's Guide to the pros and cons of recruitment agencies.
• Guidelines On Using Recruitment Agencies: Cambridge University's guide.
• Using employment agencies successfully: CollegeGrad.com explains how employment agencies make their money and what implications that has for your job search.
• What do recruitment agencies do?: Another brief introduction for graduates.
• Using recruitment agencies: What should you expect if you use a recruitment agency?

Job search websites

If you're looking for a new job, what have you got to lose by registering your details on a few job-hunting websites? So you just register and wait for the offers to come flooding in? Not exactly: do it properly and job hunting is almost a full-time job in itself. But it's worth the effort if you really want to get on! Here are 20 of the most popular, general job-seeking sites. Don't forget that there are many specialized sites for more specialized jobs. If you're looking for nursing opportunities, try doing a Google search for "job search nursing" or "nursing vacancies" as well as looking on the general sites. (Use the Google search box at the bottom of this page to help you.)

Job centres

UK

• Direct.gov Jobs and skills search: Just type in your job or your skills and this search engine will take you to current vacancies.
• Job Centre Plus: The old job centre goes online!
• Local council job search: Find a job at your local UK council

USA

• USA.Gov: Jobs, education, and volunteerism: One of the best starting points for US jobseekers.

General job-searching and vacancy sites

• All the Top Bananas: Simple-to-use job search engine.
• Career Builder: Another big job-hunting site.
• Experteer: A site specializing in high-calibre executive jobs (paying £50,000 and upwards).
• Fish4Jobs: General UK jobs.
• Guardian Jobs: UK job-seeking site. Particularly good for "leftish" jobs in social, environmental, charity, and media fields.
• Job Search: Large UK job site.
• Job Opps: A more regional emphasis on UK jobs.
• Jobs Abroad: International job vacancies.
• Monster.com: One of the world's biggest and best-known job-hunting sites.
• Telegraph Jobs: Advertisements from the UK's Daily Telegraph.
• Total Jobs: Local UK jobs advertised nationally.
• Yahoo! Hot Jobs: A worldwide site from Yahoo!.

UK: Information and advice about specific careers

• Childcare: Child care careers: Love children? How about looking after them?
• Fire: Fire Service Recruitment: Serving on the frontline of society.
• Finance: Inside Careers: A guide to 10 different professional careers, mostly in financial areas such as banking, insurance, accountancy, and tax.
• Government: LG Jobs: Jobs in UK local government (councils and unitary authorities).
• Government: Civil Service Recruitment Gateway: Careers with the UK Civil Service.
• Government: Public sector jobs: Guidance from the UK government's direct.gov website.
• Law: Becoming a solicitor: Advice from the law society.
• Medical jobs: BMJ Careers: Medical jobs from the British Medical Journal.
• Medical jobs: NHS Careers: Information about hundreds of different UK medical careers.
• Military: Army Jobs: Careers in the British Army.
• Military: Navy Jobs: Lots of interesting jobs at sea.
• Military: RAF Careers: Promises "over 60 exciting careers".
• Police: Police: Could You?: Serving on the frontline of society.
• Science: Royal Society: What's it like to work as a scientist?
• Science: New Scientist Jobs: Worldwide science jobs
• Science and engineering: NOISE: New Outlooks in Science and Engineering: Advice on careers for young people
• Social work: Social work and carers: Making people's lives better.
• Teaching: Training and Development Agency for Schools: Teacher training and development.

USA: Information and advice about specific careers

• Agriculture: AgCareers: Opportunities in agriculture, food, natural resources, and biotechnology.
• Fire: Firefighter jobs in the United States: Not an official site, but a jobs clearing house for the whole country
• Fire: Fire Jobs: A selection of fire-fighting jobs from the US Department of the Interior.
• Fire: US Fire Jobs: Hundreds of fire-fighting jobs.
• Forestry: Forestry: Love children? How about looking after them?
• Government: USA Jobs: Check out jobs with the US Federal government.
• Government: Best Places to Work in the Federal Government: Check out the highest rated places for public service employees.
• Government: Whitehouse appointments: Go work for the President!
• Government: Student Jobs: Opportunities for young people in the Federal Government.
• Law: Law Crossing: "The largest collection of legal jobs on Earth".
• Medical: Health Job USA: Advertising over 275,000 jobs in healthcare and medicine in the USA.
• Military: Go Army: Careers in the US Army.
• Military: USAF Careers: Enlisted airforce careers.
• Police: Officer.com: Includes a selection of police vacancies.
• Police: US Police Jobs: Includes a selection of police vacancies.
• Police: LawEnforcementJobs: "Recruiting tomorrow's heroes today".
• Science: New Scientist Jobs: Worldwide science jobs
• Science: Science Magazine: Next Wave careers in science.
• Space: NASA Careers: "NASA is more than astronauts. We are scientists, engineers, computer programmers, personnel specialists, accountants, writers, maintenance workers and many, many other kinds of people".
• Teaching: Teaching jobs: A commercial vacancy site.

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