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How to get ideas for your career

How to get ideas for your career

Get ideas for your career from our online tools, inspirational videos, career experts, career expos and the people around you.

Use our tools to get career ideas

Our online tools can help you get career ideas.

CareerQuest – take this quiz to find career ideas based on your interests.

Job profiles – explore over 400 jobs.

Skill Matcher – get career ideas based on your skills.

Subject Matcher – get career ideas based on the subjects you studied at school.

Who can help you get career ideas

Get career ideas from the people around you.

Friends and family/whānau

To get career ideas, ask your friends and family/whānau about their career paths. How did they choose their careers? What did they do?

Ask them what they think your skills are, and what careers you might be good at.

Teachers, tutors and career advisers

Teachers, tutors or career advisers can help match your skills to possible careers.

Or contact us to get free career help.

Employers and industry associations

Employers and industry associations can talk to you about the range of jobs in their organisation and what it's like to do a particular job.

Employers can help you trial a career by doing work experience, or give you ideas for careers you can progress into.

People you admire

Think about people who have the life you'd like. Would their career suit you?

People at career expos and job expos

Career and job expos are an ideal time to talk to training providers, industry associations and employers about your options.

Get inspired by people who love their careers

Career stories from people who love their careers can inspire you and give you advice on how to work towards your career goals.

My career inspiration - exercise

Think about someone who has the career and lifestyle you admire. Use this worksheet to uncover their career path and help you get ideas.

Other ways to get career ideas

You can get career ideas from:

  • browsing job vacancies
  • browsing advertisements for businesses or franchises
  • thinking about services or businesses that could help people
  • finding out about what industries have skill shortages.

Learn more about your career ideas

Once you've found some careers ideas, you need to learn more about them.

Research your career ideas so you can remove some jobs or add new ones to your list.

Do online research

Doing online research is an important step in making an informed career choice.

Find information about:

  • how you enter the jobs
  • study or training needed
  • opportunities, pay and other employment conditions
  • training or geographical limitations, for example, is there only one training provider for the job or can the job only be done in certain regions?
  • level of demand for the job ideas you’ve identified
  • where you’ll find most of these types of jobs in New Zealand
  • the risk of automation.

Four ways to get career ideas - video


Find four ways to get career ideas – 0.40 mins.

Four ways to get career ideas

1. Chat with whānau or family

2. Go to career expos

3. Explore our online tools such as CareerQuest

4. Be inspired by our stories

Get career ideas from careers.govt.nz


Updated 16 Oct 2023