How to choose a career – Careers in Eyecare

Not sure about what direction to take? Looking towards starting your working life, or seeking a fresh challenge? Creating a career development plan can help you take the first steps towards a successful future. A plan can be useful for anyone from school leavers to students, graduates to career changers.

You can break it down into four stages:

identify your skills and interests
research ideas
make your choice
set achievable goals

1. Identify your skills and interests

Think about your range of skills and knowledge and what kind of job they’d fit. Being aware of your abilities helps you to spot any gaps that you need to tackle.

Questions might include:

what am I good at?
what are my interests and values?
what do I want from my career?
what is important to me?
what kind of work environment do I want?

If you are struggling to answer these questions, try a job match quiz.

2. Research career ideas

Next, you need to find careers that meet your skills and requirements. Explore sectors that interest you, from healthcare to transport, sales to engineering and more.

Browsing job profiles can introduce you to some less obvious roles. Healthcare isn’t just about doctors and nurses, for example, but a whole range of professions, from dispensing opticians to orthoptists and lens designers.

You could also try:

searching job boards – explore platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Indeed to see job adverts, salaries and company reviews
listening to industry podcasts
exploring our career guides to see the variety of roles in eyecare
reading our articles for everything from a day in the life of an optometrist to how to find work experience.

3. Make your choice

Combine what you’ve discovered about yourself with what you’ve learned about the options. Think about your first choice and a couple of alternatives.

will I enjoy the job?
does it reflect my interests and values?
do I have the skills needed or can I develop them?
is the salary range what I want?
is this sector growing – or shrinking? Healthcare is one area where demand is increasing, for instance

To find out more, look at

company websites
media articles
professional bodies
careers services

4. Set achievable goals

Your career plan should outline where you want to be and how you’ll get there. Think about your short, medium and long-term goals. What actions are needed and when? You should review your progress regularly, particularly after reaching each short-term goal.

Short-term goals could include writing or improving your CV and covering letter. Others could include:

Your school, college or university careers team can help to review your plan. If you are already working, check out the National Careers Service for information, advice and support.

5. How to use AI for careers planning

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a useful tool for ideas and research. With the right prompts it can analyse your skills and interests and suggest careers you might not have thought about.

For instance, try asking ChatGPT: ‘I studied maths, enjoy problem solving and helping people and I’m interested in health. What careers might suit me?’

You’ll get a list of potential roles and why they might be interesting. Then you can go on to explore salary ranges, what employers are looking for and more.

Platforms such as Perplexity can help you to look at industry trends and find employers. You could ask:

help me identify careers that fit my strengths
ask me five questions to clarify my values, interests and preferred work environment, then suggest five potential careers
what are the fastest-growing job roles in healthcare right now?
which companies are leaders in sustainability?

AI is only a starting point. It can help with ideas but your career decisions should always reflect your own personal goals and strengths.

Find out more

Learn more about how to find a job
Get more career ideas from skills for careers
Speak to an adviser from the National Careers Service. Call 0800 100 900 or use webchat.