Choosing a Career
When choosing a career, you're considering a range of things including your interests and strengths, and what lifestyle you want to live, plus what you want to do during the hours of the day or night.
To help you choose a career that suits your goals and aspirations, we recommend following the below career planning steps. We've included a variety of resources that help match your interests to careers and courses, plus we've incorporated what our past students have said motivated them to choose their courses.
1. Self Awareness
To make well-informed career choices you need to know your likes, dislikes, values, skills, education, employment history, priorities, and personal circumstances to develop a clear understanding of important personal criteria for your future - as all of these things will have some influence over your occupational pathways and career choices. Explore the 'I' statements below.
I like to help people and have an interest in how the human body functions.
Students who have been motivated by wanting to help people have gone on to study courses across a range of health disciplines as listed below. Explore these courses and the career outcomes to see if this is the dream career for you.
- Chiropractic
- Echocardiography
- Exercise and Sports Science
- Medical Imaging
- Medical Science
- Medical Science (Pathway to Medicine)
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy
- Oral Health
- Paramedics
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry
- Sonography
- Speech pathology
I am a creative person who likes technology. I enjoy creative arts.
If you find yourself utilising the left side of your brain and enjoy expressing yourself creatively, you may be inclined to choose similar courses to our students who also identified with this strength. Some of our most creative students chose to study courses across our digital media and performing arts disciplines.
- Digital Media
- Music
- Theatre
I am a computing technology enthusiast.
If you enjoy problem solving, and technology makes you tick, then check out what past students just like you have gone on to study. There's a myriad of career options when it comes to working with technology. Choose from networking, cyber security and app development.
- Information Technology
I am interested in how things work.
Our students who are curious by nature, and enjoy breaking things down to understand how they work together, have gone on to study an engineering course at CQU. With the option to major in civil, civil with humanitarian, electrical, electrical with data analytics, electrical with information processing, mechanical, mechatronics, and resource systems engineering, you have ample choice to pursue your passion.
- Engineering
- Built Environment
I love science and discovering things.
Are you an outdoors person that enjoys discovering new things? You too might find the right career choice is working in science, environment or agricultural fields. Students who shared your passion for science studied some of courses listed below. We have a wide selection of innovative courses to marry your passion for science with an exciting career.
- Environmental Science
- Agriculture
- Science
I want to make a difference in young people's lives.
You have the potential to nurture and influence young people's lives by pursuing a career in teaching. Many of our students passionate about making a difference in young people's lives chose to study teaching.
- Teaching (Early Childhood)
- Teaching (Primary)
- Teaching (Secondary)
I want to keep people safe at work.
If you get satisfaction out of looking out for people's safety, then a career in occupational heatlh and safety could be for you. Our students who have been passionate about keeping people at work safe have pursued rewarding careers within the workplace health and safety industry, across a range of sectors. Explore our range of OHS courses to see if this sounds like the right option for you.
- Occupational Health and Safety
I find people interesting and would like to understand their behaviour.
Do you have a curiosity for what makes people tick? Like you, some of our students who are curious about people and wanting to understand why they behave the way they do, have gone on to study a range of courses at CQU.
- Criminology
- Psychology
- Social Work
- Business
I like working with clear rules and boundaries. I like numbers.
Whether you thrive on having a structure or embrace the opportunity to debate, students just like you have chosen to study our law and accounting courses. We offer a range of dual degrees so you can balance your preference for boundaries with complementary disciplines such as IT, psychology, criminology and more.
Explore our suite of courses within the accounting and law disciplines to see if there is something that appeals to you.
- Accounting
- Law
2. Occupation Awareness
Understand exactly what each occupation entails, including the typical tasks and responsibilities you would expect to perform in the role. You may also be interested in the expected job prospects and average salary details for the occupations you are considering. There are comprehensive resources available online where you can access this information including:
- Career Voyage - a comprehensive career planning tool
- Career videos - a snapshot of skills needed for a variety of technical and professional careers
- Labour Market Insights - the latest insights from the National Skills Commission to help you understand your local labour market
- The Good Careers Guide - explore over 400 job descriptions
3. Decision Making
Weigh up all the information that you know about yourself and the occupations you have researched, to make a decision about the most suitable career path for you. You can then identify the course that you need to study to achieve your goals.
4. Action planning
Identify the steps that you need to follow to ensure that you can enrol in your dream course that will ultimately allow you to achieve your career goals. This starts with checking the how to apply information, key application dates, and entry requirements of your course.