The Career Key®

Solutions for Adults Changing Careers in the United Kingdom

Living in the United Kingdom (UK) and thinking about changing your career? Are you unemployed?  If so, you may be asking questions like these: “What kind of future does my current career hold? What are my other options? What is the job outlook? Should I go back to school? Does it fit my personality?” If so, Career Key can help.

Our scientifically valid, career personality test can help you identify occupations that fit your personality (or confirm that your previous one fits). For each of those jobs you identify, you get accurate career information – including the employment outlook.  You also receive solid career advice. All of these are based on the best practices and science of career development.

1. Reading our career advice. Our articles Job Satisfaction and Career Change and our popular e-book, The 2010 What Job is Best for Me? will give you a solid foundation for making a good decision.
   
   
2. Taking the Career Key personality test. When you take the Career Key career test you assess the strength of your six Holland personality types and identify matching occupations (and for UK specific information, see #3 below),

   You get full and accurate information about each career option, and download a 4-page interpretive booklet. Research shows that a good personality-career match is a predictor of job satisfaction and success (assuming you use a valid career test).

   Simplicity, practicality, and validity are Career Key’s strengths. It takes about 15 minutes; results are immediate; and there are no complicated tables or abstract concepts to understand. 
   

Download free resources like "Choose a College Major Based on Your Personality"

3. Explore job profiles and career information from the UK. The Careers Advice website of the UK government provides over 700 job profiles with detailed information about what the work is like, education requirements, and salary.

   To learn more about the jobs that interest you (like those on your Career Key test’s Personal Job Option list), enter the title of each one in the Job Profiles “Search” box on the Careers Advice website.

   You can also download PDF Factsheets with job market information for different areas of the UK economy at the Careers Advice webpage, “Labour Market Information”. In some areas, the information is broken down by geographical region.

   • For Welsh job profiles, visit the career information page at Careers Wales (registration required).
     
     
   • For Scottish job profiles, visit the “Research a Career” article at Careers Scotland.
     
     

More schooling? Read why a close personality match is vital.  To learn about training for the jobs you selected during the Career Key test, go to the Types of Job section of the Prospects website. Click on the job title (do not use the search box) and, then on “Training”.

1. Identifying and strengthening your job skills. As you know, job skills are what count in the workplace. Are you thinking about going back to school to strengthen them? The Foundation Skills: Job Skills All Workers Need article describes those that experts consider essential.

   The Free Agent Outlook on Work describes six basic principles that guide the “free agent” worker – an essential primer for today’s workplace, where marketable skills are the key to success. Identify Your Skills and Make Them Work for You follows up with sound advice and practical steps.
   

2. Making good decisions. High Quality Decisions describes the essential steps in making a good decision. The ACIP method is practical and based on many research studies. The evidence clearly shows that the more you use these steps, the less likely you will regret your decision later. Use it in making your decision about changing your career.
   
   
3. Learning about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. This article is one of our most popular. Career development professionals and their clients praise its clarity and practical applications. And, literally hundreds of studies show that the theory has a solid scientific foundation. Our e-book, What Color are Your Feathers?, describes his theory and expands on how to apply it to career and educational choices.
   
   
4. Visiting our eBookStore. We offer many high quality publications. All are
   offered in a “green”, sustainable PDF file that you download to your computer. Your purchase is an important way to support our efforts.

Created in collaboration with

Lawrence K. Jones, Ph.D., NCC President, Career Key.