So what can I do

If I am interested in a non-traditional career

If you’re thinking out of the box when it comes to career choice, you may find yourself having to work just a little bit harder to bring everyone on board.

If you’re looking at areas of work where your gender is currently under represented, you may have to:

• Handle the reactions of friends and family
• Convince people you are serious
• Show how committed you are

You can do this by:

• Researching the options
• Making contacts and getting advice
• Getting relevant experience

Support, advice and guidance are never far away: it’s just a matter of knowing who to go to, and what to ask.

So, now, get with the programme: here are six steps you might take towards a career in a non traditional area:

1. Work experience or work shadowing

You will have the chance to do a period of work experience later on in school. Your pastoral care or guidance teacher will support you, and there may be a work experience coordinator in school.

• If you are really interested in finding out what it’s like to work in a non-traditional area, then work experience (spending some time in a workplace finding out about the range of activities that go on there) could be really very useful. So could work shadowing: where you spend time with an individual, observing the detail of his or her day to day work activities.
• Either way you would have the chance to getting an insider’s view, ask questions and find out loads of information: especially to find out people’s views about girls or boys working in that area and any extra support that might be available.