How to get ideas for your career

Our online tools are a great way to find career ideas and identify your interests and skills. Once you have some career ideas, research them further using our jobs database.

• CareerQuest - answer questions to find jobs based on your interests
• Skill Matcher - get job ideas based on your skills
• Skills Builder - build on the skills you have and figure out your next steps
• Subject Matcher - get job ideas based on your school subjects

Often you may have a rough idea of an industry you'd like to work in,  but you're not sure of the different jobs in these industries.

Exploring our industry information can introduce you to job options that you didn't know existed.

• Jobs database - explore jobs and industries that interest you

Get inspired and get ideas by watching New Zealanders talk about how they got from ordinary to the top of their careers on our Oompher website.

• Oompher website - browse videos of well-known New Zealanders discussing their careers

You can also get job ideas just by tuning yourself in to job ideas that may be all around you. For example, you may get ideas from:

• Online - browse our YouTube channel or your favourite channels, get ideas from your favourite sites and apps
• Job vacancy websites - read the jobs to see if they match what you want in a career
• Noticing gaps - is there a service or job that you could do that no one is doing? Could an existing business use your skills? 

• Job vacancy and recruitment website links - browse job ads online to get ideas

Sometimes other people may be able to see you more clearly than you can see yourself. 

Try asking:

• family/whānau
• friends
• employers 
• church or community group leaders
• teachers.

You may also get some ideas by looking at what the people around you do for a job. It is quite common for people in a family to have talents in the same areas, or work in similar jobs or industries.

After working through the activities and tools to know yourself, and doing some research, you should now have a list of job ideas that interest you. 

• Find out more about the jobs that interest you - next steps