To help you find the right career, you need to look at the scope and focus of different employment opportunities. Consider the sector, size, and structure of different workplaces - these may be deciding factors in your choice of employment.

Considering structure

Study an organization's management structure to help you identify new opportunities and avoid jobs with little potential for growth. Most organizations have broadly similar management structures, whatever their size or sector. Senior management has a strategic overview of the essential business, and reporting to them are the departmental or divisional managers who set the day-to-day priorities. Middle managers or supervisors report to these managers and have an overview of the teams carrying out the work.

Monitoring sectors

Monitor the fortunes of sectors and the companies within them. Your options will be more limited in a declining sector and vice versa. The real growth area of recent years has been in the service sector. Read the home news and business pages in the broadsheet press to assess current economic successes and failures.

Considering the size of an organization

Size Advantages Disadvantages Small asdfsdf Your actions and decisions are vital, so your responsibility is greater. Family atmosphere but family-type pressures, too. Limited scope for progressing up the career ladder. Medium Teamwork is important; close relationship with colleagues. Opportunities to see and learn from other disciplines and functions. Chance to input your ideas. Financial stability. Too large to star, too small to allow much opportunity. People outside the company are unlikely to have heard of it. Less secure employment than with a large organization. Large Many career routes may be available. More chance of organization's investment in your development. Higher salary levels and benefits. Has currency in wider employment market when you want to move on. Organization may be so large that you feel compartmentalized. Less chance of any one individual having an effect on the company. Can be difficult to gain recognition or a sense of achievement.

Choosing public or private sectors

The old boundaries between public and private sectors are becoming increasingly blurred. Private companies support schools and hospitals; trades unions and businesses work in partnership; government and corporations cooperate on national initiatives, and the non-profit sector is keen to learn best business practice. Public sector experience is now highly valued by companies that sell goods and services to schools and hospitals. It is important to understand the differences and similarities between the sectors to enable you to talk confidently at job interviews about the environment of your choice.