As youngsters, we all have ideas of what we want to be when we grow up and these often change as we get older. Some people in their thirties and forties still do not know exactly what they want to do for a career, so although it does not have to be set in stone, it is helpful to have a goal to aim towards.

You will first have to consider this when choosing our GCSE subjects, as this can make a difference as to what A levels or college courses you can apply for. Once you have completed that, you may wish to go to university, where many course have strict criteria of qualifications you need to have obtained in specific subjects to allow you to apply for a position.

If down the line, you find that you want a change in career you may have to be prepared to return to education to train or to take a pay drop whilst learning a new skill on the job.

If you are in the web design industry then you will probably know that to create a comprehensive jobs board website requires a lot of programming and complex functionality.

Ideally a jobs board should let employers and recruitment agencies register on the site and upload any job vacancies they have. If you are charging for this service you will need to add in a payment gateway system and possibly some sort of recurring payment system too.

For the candidates you will again need to ensure that the jobs are able to be searched and filter often on location, job type / role and salary. The system could even be created more comprehensive by allowing candidates to apply for the jobs online via an upload system (for their CV) and also an email alert system which will notify anyone registered when a new job matching their criteria is added to the site.

If you are looking to set up a recruitment agency then it is vital that you get the right software in place. You are likely to have a large number of clients on your database, some that are searching for work and companies that are searching for candidates. You will need to ensure that your software is secure and that you can keep a record of documents such as CV’s, contact information and job roles available.

There are some software systems that will offer you this type of functionality but ideally you want to invest in one that has been designed specifically for recruitment agencies. Some systems will also create and chase invoices and relevant legal documents that you are required to keep.

The cost of this type of software varied, it is not usually cheap, but it can be the difference between a business that makes it and one that doesn’t.

This is a question that often gets asked. Within each industry there is a massive range of salaries, even within the same job role. Depending on the company you work for, the hours you work and even what part of the country you work in can have a massive impact on your salary.

The highest paid jobs are usually found in London, but also the cost of living in London is much higher than the rest of the UK so unless you commute there from out of the city, you may not end up with much more money than someone on a lower wage living in the Midlands.

The financial sector often offers quite well paid jobs and also jobs that require a number of years training such as doctors and vets. You can earn good money within a job even if you have not attended University or College, if you work hard you can progress up the job ladder via internal promotions.

If you are wanting to progress up the job ladder, no matter what career you are in, learning is a vital skill. To be able to learn new processes and skills will give you a great head start in career progression as many jobs require you to be able to apply new methods or techniques to the job role you are performing.

For example, if you have new software installed in your company, the quicker you get to grips with it the more efficient you will be and therefore the more work you can do. Employers will see this as a massive assets and it means your production level will be higher.

If you have a new product coming to market or if you are having new systems installed, then why not dedicate a bit of your own time to carry out further research to allow you to be able to sell the product or work with the software more efficiently.

With many A level and GCSE students obtaining their results this week, it means that the number of people applying for jobs over the next few months is set to rise. Some students will have already decided that once they have completed their exams they want to go in to employment rather than carry on with their education. Many of these students will have already started applying for jobs as soon as they finished school or may already be working, but for the students who were hoping on going to university or college, their results may have changed their plans.

If a student does not get the relevant exam results set out by their chosen uni, college or school then they may have to look at going straight in to employment as an option.

Finding a job can be hard at the best of times, but for someone with little or no experience it can be a huge challenge. I would recommend registering with a recruitment agency who will assist you in finding that job vacancy that you wish to apply for.

If you are in a career which you feel you want to progress further in then now may be the time to consider your options on how you can accomplish this. Companies are always on the look out for hardworking, dedicated and loyal members of staff and if they find one they are normally very quick to try and hold on to them.

If you want to try for a promotion at work then you should consider how you are going to approach your boss. If there is a new internal vacancy that has been advertised, then you may have to go down the route of a formal interview but even if there isn’t a position being offered you still may be able to progress up the job ladder.

Look at your current position within the company and find out where you would like to be. It may be that you need to move departments or go through a number of other job roles before you end up where you want to, but all of this is great experience.

Many students wish to go straight in to employment after finishing school. This can be for a number of reasons such as wanting to get out of the education system, needing to earn money or they already have a career in mind which does not require them to have gone to college or university.

It can be hard to find a job once completing your school education and there is often a lot of competition around for every position advertised. Firstly you need to make sure you have a CV drafted. This should give details of your education and / or any additional training or certifications you have, past employment (even if part time or summer jobs) and a bit about yourself such as your hobbies.

You can go round to individual employers handing out CV’s but this is often a long winded way of doing it and it is a bit of a numbers game, or you could chose to register with a recruitment agency or upload your CV to a jobs board. A jobs board is an online portal full of potential employee CV’s that an employer or recruitment agency can then have access to. They will often search for suitable candidates CV’s and then invite them for an interview.

If you own your own business, there may come a time when the workload simply becomes too much and you need to hire someone to help you. It may be that you are looking for someone skilled or trained in your profession or you may require help with the administration or accounting side.

When hiring anyone there is a lot to consider as you are not only now responsible for your own income but that of a member of staff. You are also responsible for their safety whilst artwork and need to have adequate insurance to cover everyone. You need to ensure that all legal documents / training is done correctly and that you have enough money to pay them each month even if the business has a quiet one.

There are however great advantages of employing staff rather than sub contracting such as being able to set working hours and pay rates and managing the project more closely that if you had outsourced work.

If you advertise a position for a PA role (personal assistant) then you may notice that you get a vast amount of applications as it’s a quite a sought after job, especially amongst people just starting out in the working world looking for a good starter job.

So what are the key qualities of a good PA that you should look for at the application and later interview process?

Punctuality – this is essential as it’s a good indication of how organised someone is, if they can’t make an interview on time then they are unlikely to have taken it seriously.

Experience in a similar role – the role of a PA isn’t something that you can train for at college or university so experience will be a real bonus especially if you only intend on having one PA.

Great organisation skills – the best way to test this in an interview setting is to give them a diary and a sheet of appointment times to input then ask them what they would do to book train tickets and hotels. This is a great way of seeing how they handle data entry under pressure.

And lastly always check that they have good references.