Sometimes in the pursuit to get your perfect career you have to take what may seem like a step backwards in the short term to gain long term.

Some careers are notoriously difficult to get into and the most important thing is to get one foot in the door. A great way to do this is to start by doing some voluntary work if it’s available. A good example of this is if you’d like to join the police force. There are very limited spaces available within the police and getting into the career can be extremely difficult, however by joining the special constables, who are un-paid volunteers, you vastly improve your chances of being accepted onto the force as you can show that you already have valuable experience.

If you think you’d like to get into a career but you’re unsure volunteering is also a great way to try it out without the same level of commitment needed. For example by becoming a teaching assistant you can observe the roll of a teacher before deciding if that’s the direction that you’d like your career to go in.

Sometimes it’s best not to head into a career feet first if you have the chance to ease in slowly and get experience along the way.