Planning your career just got easierVery few of us put much effort into planning for the kind of career we want. Thinking about where we are going at work is something we all need to do throughout our working lives. The nature of work and employment is always changing. When economic times are difficult, you need to show potentialemployers that you have something special to offer. You may also need to be more flexible in your plans. New kinds of jobs emerge all the time and many labour markets are becoming increasingly specialized.

his book is for users of comparisons in health care and for researchers. More clinicians managers and patient groups are using research to make comparisons. Information technology and new databases make comparisons easier but not necessarily better. Comparisons can help us discover the causes of disease whether a treatment is effective if it is worth the cost whether a service is performing badly and the value of a health reform or policy. Comparisons can help us learn from other cultures and understand the implications for our own health services. Yet it is all too easy to misinterpret or uncritically accept a study and reach invalid conclusions. This book encourages decision-makers to make more use of comparative research but with an awareness of the limitations of comparisons. Its practical approach enables researchers to plan and carry out better comparative research and to develop new methodologies for this fast growing field of research.

This book seeks to set out a clear model of how to approach the process of career planning. It includes a number of exercises to complete, and it identifies the key steps in the career planning process, such as learning what we want from work, deciding what we are good at and what we enjoy, collecting information about job options, setting a course for the future and making a career plan, and taking the first steps in putting our career plan into practice.

Assessing You: The first step in career planning (formerly the Skills Plus Handbook) addresses the self-assessment phase of the career planning process.

This book encourages decision-makers to make more use of comparative research but with an awareness of the limitations of comparisons. Its practical approach enables researchers to plan and carry out better comparative research and to develop new methodologies for this fast growing field of research.