• Is there a labor shortage in your organization or industry? If so, in which fields?
  
  
• Which parts of your organization or industry are growing? Are you interested in any of these areas?
  
  
• What new technologies are there? How might these impact how you, your organization, or your industry works?
  
  
• Is there a need in your organization or industry that no one is filling?
  
  
• Are any of your customers, vendors, or suppliers experiencing problems in your organization or industry? (Problems often point towards great opportunities.)

• What tasks or projects do you most enjoy in your current role? Keep in mind that these tasks probably rely on your strengths.
  
  
• What do you do better than anyone else?
  
  
• What values do you believe in, that you don't often see exhibited in others?
  
  
• What resources do you have available that other people don't have?
  
  
• What influential people do you have in your network who could help you?
  
  
• What do others see as your strengths? (If you're not sure, ask them!)

• What tasks do you often avoid, because you don't feel confident doing them?
  
  
• What do other people see as your weaknesses? (Again, ask them if you're unsure.)
  
  
• Are you confident in your education and skills training? Where are you weakest?
  
  
• Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your career? (For instance, do you have low self-confidence, or do you procrastinate?)

• Fit with current lifestyle.
  
  
• Salary/compensation.
  
  
• Job security.
  
  
• Fit with overall career and life goals.
  
  
• Future training/development available.
  
  
• The opportunity itself; does it interest and excite you?

• What it involves, on a day-to-day basis, and how it fits with your lifestyle.
  
  
• The rewards associated with it.
  
  
• The knowledge, skills, aptitudes, and experience needed to take full advantage of it.
  
  
• How likely you are to find it satisfying.
  
  
• What career path the opportunity leads to.
  
  
• How easy it is to access the opportunity.
  
  
• The risks associated with it.

It might be obvious which opportunity is best for you. If not, it can be useful to do a Grid Analysis to make a well-balanced decision. This technique works by getting you to list your options as rows on a table, and the factors that are important to you (such as fit with your strengths and interests) as columns.

You then score each option/factor combination, weight this score by the relative importance of the factor, and add these scores up to give an overall score for each option. (You may want to include your current situation in this analysis, too - you may already be in a good position.)

Once you've identified the best opportunity to pursue, check your decision with your intuition. Does it feel right? If not, look at your analysis and scores again - your intuition could be telling you that certain factors are more important than you initially thought.

6. Prepare, and Take Action

Once you've identified an opportunity to aim for, you need to prepare, and then take action!
An effective way to do this is to incorporate the opportunity into your personal goals. You can then think through the steps that you need to follow to take advantage of the opportunity, and work towards these on a daily basis.

If the opportunity requires knowledge or skills that you don't have, our articles on Overcoming a Lack of Qualifications and Building Expertise will help you develop these.

If the opportunity is a new role within your organization, our articles on Getting Ready for a Promotion and Promotion Selection Panels will help you create a good impression and increase your chances of success.

Key Points

It is well worth taking the time to investigate career opportunities within your organization or industry. By doing this, you can discover opportunities that are perfectly matched to your interests or skills, find out about promotions and job openings before anyone else, and identify ways of expanding your knowledge and skills.

To spot career opportunities, follow these steps:

1. Have the right mindset.
   
   
2. Seek opportunities.
   
   
3. Identify your strengths and weaknesses.
   
   
4. Identify other factors that are important to you.
   
   
5. Narrow your choices.
   
   
6. Prepare, and take action.