6 Steps to Get Into Nuclear

Finding a job is hard work. This is particularly true when entering an industry that you may not have worked in before.

At getintonuclear.com, we have worked with hundreds of candidates and nuclear employers over the last four or so years. We have used this experience to create an online course that will guide you by creating a CV perfect for the nuclear industry. In addition to this, we can help you create a supporting job seeking a strategy for you to follow over the next couple of months as you embark on finding a job.

Note: the six steps apply to any industry at all.

The first step is all about gaining an understanding of your interests, passions, skills and experience.

This step is all about you.

Before you embark on your job-seeking quest, it is important that you understand who you are in consideration of your back story, skills, qualifications likes and passions.

It would help if you considered your strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. The better understanding of this you have the more successful your job seeking endeavours will be.

Grab something to take notes on (and a glass of wine if it helps) and take some time to consider the below:

Your Background:

Your skills:

Your Qualifications:

Your SWOT:

As an example, you can see mine [here].

Make sure that you write this down. It doesn’t really matter how or where you write it down, but make sure these notes are available to you as we continue through the remaining steps of the course.

If you have any questions, ask them on the forum and someone from our team or community will be able to respond and help you.

The concept of ikigai (’a reason for being’) has long existed in Japanese culture and has become more popular in recent decades across global philosophy.
 
 There are whole books written on the topic, but to find your ikigai you need to identify the intersection of four areas:

As part of the first step, we identified what you are GOOD AT and started to consider what you enjoy doing.
 
 This second step is where you can put more focus on what you LOVE.
 
 What do you want
 Step one gave you a good understanding of yourself and what you are GOOD AT, you can now consider why you are looking for a career move.
 
 It is essential to consider what you want from a new job. You can then clearly define what you are seeking and be confident in ad-hoc conversations that may provide the chance to discuss career opportunities.
 
 Don’t underestimate how important it is that you have clear in your mind why you are looking for a new challenge and that now is the right time to make a change.
 
 Your certainty will come across strongly throughout the whole recruitment endeavour. Even though you may not recognise it, the language you will use and the way that you present yourself will be much more positive.
 
 Call to Action
 
 #1 - Now is an excellent opportunity to consider what you want from your new career. Start with the end in mind and write down what you are looking for - or wish to avoid in your working life.
 
 #2 - In preparation for Step four, make a list of the types of jobs you would be interested in. This could be “Project Manager” or “hands-on work”.
 
 #3 - As a bonus action, you may want to take a personality / behavioural assessment such as DISC or the Myers-Briggs Type to gain an additional perspective on the type of work you would naturally enjoy.
 
 These may look like three simple activities but it is worth investing some time here as what you learn about yourself will pay dividends. Assessments such as Myers/Briggs not only help to understand yourself but to appreciate the individuality of the others around you.
 
 Set up for success
 Again, head on over to the forum with any questions and check out previous examples or comments to help you with this step.
 
 You may find the above a futile exercise (particularly if your DISC personality is identified as a Red or Yellow) but please persevere.
 
 The effort you put in here really does pay dividends in the end when you know you are committing a substantial amount of your life to something you LOVE.

In the previous two steps, you have considered what you are GOOD AT and what you LOVE. This email will cover the next two steps:
 
 Step 3: know the business
 Step 4: know the skills
 
 These two steps will provide the last two factors in finding our ikigai, which are to discover what the world NEEDS and is willing to PAID FOR.
 
 You’re in luck, as the nuclear industry provides you with just that!
 
 Know the business
 We, as part of this particular course, are talking about the Nuclear Industry.
 
 Call to Action
 Like any industry, the nuclear industry incorporates many businesses across the globe working on all manner of projects. We are not going to be able to provide all of that information here.
 
 And the good thing is, you don’t need to know it all either.
 
 It is good to get an overview of the industry within the Country where you will be working and the demand for nuclear technology.
 
 A great resource for this is the Country Profile provided by the World Nuclear Association. Click on your particular country to get an overview of the nuclear industry within that country.
 
 For a more general overview of the nuclear industry, the uses of the technology and how nuclear energy forms part of a clean, sustainable future, head on over to our ‘what is nuclear’ pages on the GetIntoNuclear.com.
 
 This should be all the information that you need, but you can follow the links within the above to delve deeper into the rabbit hole if you wish.
 
 Know the skills
 As you read this, you should be clear in what you are GOOD AT, what you LOVE and that the world NEEDS nuclear.
 
 The final piece of the puzzle is, what you can be PAID to do.
 
 Call to action
 We have been doing this for almost five years trying many methods of skills mapping over that time. It so happens that the method that is the most effective is the method that is also the most simple.
 
 #1 Head on over to a jobs board that has live nuclear jobs to find the jobs you identified in step two - Get Into Nuclear, NuclearJobs, and Energy Jobline should be enough to have you covered.
 
 If not, search “nuclear [insert your role] jobs” or “[insert skill/interest] jobs in nuclear” and you should find a number of roles that would be of interest to you.
 
 #2 Pick the 2-4 types of jobs you would be interested in applying for, and list or highlight the key skill and experience outlined within the job specification ("e.g. APM or equivalent qualification").
 
 #3 Undertake a skills mapping exercise by making an assessment of your skills and experience against those required for the role.
 
 #4 Make a list of any gaps between the job requirements and your resume.
 
 #5 Based on the above, if you feel that you are ready to apply for live nuclear jobs, continue below.
 
 However, if you feel that you need to upskill yourself before you feel ready to apply for a role, get in touch with us to find out more about where you can find upskill courses relevant for you.
 
 Plan for success
 As with the other steps, feel free to add any comments or ask any questions in the Get Into Nuclear Forum.
 
 Before you move on to the final two steps, it is a good idea to tidy up any notes taken during steps 1-4 to make it easier for you to reference them as you start to action your job-seeking plan.

Now that we have put effort into defining who you are and what you want; learned about the nuclear industry, the roles, and created your CV; we need to formulate a plan to put you front and centre when that perfect role lands.

The key idea is that getting a job is about convincing someone you have something valuable to offer. So it would be best if you focused on doing whatever employers will find most convincing. That means instead of sending out lots of CVs, concentrate on getting recommendations validating that you can do the work.

Put yourself in the frame of mind that you are now actively seeking work in the nuclear industry. During this step, there will be a need for massive action. And continued action. Some of this may initially be out of your comfort zone. 

 We recommend that you push yourself out of your comfort zone but don't do anything you do not feel comfortable. As an example, you may be fine having social media interactions with influencers in your field. You may be okay with posting a video on LinkedIn, but you may not feel comfortable creating a podcast in your expertise field. This is fine. Just be you.

You may find our previous post on creating job opportunities useful here.

Okay, so you are finally here. Step 6 is where it is time to put a plan in place and then execute - Ready, Fire, Aim. 
 

At this stage in the plan, we appreciate that we need to "Be Known". We need to identify who needs to know us and like us to refer us for our dream role. The method you need to employ to make this happen from the Ultimate Sales Machine book is the "Dream 100 Effort".

To identify your Dream 100, you start by creating four separate lists, each with 25 dream members:

Choose people who serve your ideal employers, but don’t compete with you or what you offer. Make getting to know these influencers part of your daily routine. You do this by reading and commenting on their blog; liking photos of a finished project they posted on LinkedIn; adding an interesting comment to the day's topic on Twitter and referencing them in your content.

The above is hard work and requires massive action but the rewards on the other side, in our experience have been well worth it. Just completing an application form and submitting your generic CV is not going to cut it right now. There are often 100+ applications for a single role, so you need to find a way of standing out.

We genuinely wish you the best of luck in your endeavour to find work in the nuclear industry. We are all workers in the industry ourselves and would love for you to get the same job satisfaction that we get daily. If nuclear doesn't work out, please tweak the above and apply it to other industries.

>>> Find out more about the nuclear industry in general
 >>> Learn about how you can develop the skills needed to get into nuclear
 >>> Ready to apply? Find where to find jobs in the UK nuclear industry
 
 If you are a business, find out more about the opportunities in the nuclear industry at our Business Hub.

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