London: The place to really develop your career

London is a city of great opportunity and a place to really develop your career.

The city attracts a large majority of global organisations who all want to have a presence in and around the capital, as do many entrepreneurial small/medium businesses looking to grow and when you combine this with London's transient population it means job opportunities are always opening up.

In short London has a thriving job market...........

So to take advantage of London's job market you need to understand which stage you are at in your career and develop a strategy that will best get you to where you want to be.

Understand your situation and develop a strategy

Happy in your current chosen industry with 2-3 years plus experience:

Ask yourself what is the next step you want to achieve in your career and work towards that goal.

Is the next step likely to be an internal with your current employer or an external one?...It can be both.

In most industries in London it can be just a case of finding the relevant recruitment agencies and putting your CV on a few online job boards as well as Linkedin to help you get to your next step.

In industries where there is more competition (e.g. TV Production) you may need to research, network and hunt for opportunities directly yourself. This can also be worth doing if you know which companies you would like to work for next.

Tip: Develop a spreadsheet of relevant potential companies/organisations you would like to work for and keep track of their website, Linkedin and Facebook pages. Also keep track of recruitment agencies/job boards recruiting for your sector on the same spreadsheet.

Looking for a Career Change

If you are looking for a career change these are the things you will need to consider.

Am I happy to drop my income? (This will often be the case but not always and should be worth consideration).

What do I want to do? If you don't know this is maybe worth speaking to a career advisor or doing a career test to identify possible occupations you may be interested in.

Once you know what you want to do:

What transferable skills do I have? What skills/training will I need?

Consider doing voluntary work for a relevant organisation to gain experience as well as to see this is the new career you really want to undertake.

The next step is to develop a CV that targets the new roles you are seeking.

The best way to find work for a career change will be through networking and approaching companies direct. Try using recruitment agencies and Jobsites although these may not be as fruitful as you hope.

Starting your Career

Try temping to gain experience and doing voluntary work experience in industries you feel you could be interested.

If you don't know this is maybe worth speaking to a career adviser or doing a career test to identify possible occupations you may be interested in.

The best way of finding work and shaping your career is to approach companies direct that are relevant to the types of roles you will be interested in.

Networking for relevant contacts and approaching companies direct.

Don't be afraid to approach companies direct.

- Approaching companies direct shows firstly you are interested in them and secondly gives you an advantage as companies are not going to have to pay agency fees or advertising costs for you.

Networking (People love to help)

- Linkedin is a great tool to source people and companies from. By joining groups you can potentially ask other users in a specific industry how to find the work that you seek.

- If you speak to a contact from a company and they don't have a role for you ask them for ideas on any people or companies they feel you should approach.

- Exhibitions are a great way to meet people within an industry. Look at NEC (Birmingham), Olympia and Excel to see if there are any industry exhibitions relevant for the work you are seeking.