Choosing a Career/Job/Role
If you’re just starting out, navigating a career switch, or jumping back into the job market after time away, figuring out what to pursue can be nerve-wracking. How do you know if you’ll like it? Will you accidentally pass on something great and wind up in a dead end? While I cannot see the future for you, here’s an easy exercise to align yourself with the right path.
That said, sometimes choosing a job is very easy: you need money in a hurry. If you have a little more time than that, read on:
What’s Right For Me?
“What’s right for Cate?”
A colleague asked me this some time ago, after I’d realized I was in the wrong role (at one point it had made sense, I swear). I was agonizing over the available roles at the company and trying to figure out which one to shoehorn myself into, suspecting that none of them were a good fit. Still, I was determined to make it work because I’m stubborn, and then she hit me with, “What’s right for Cate?”
The question surprised me, which was amazing, because I’m usually the one asking questions answered by, “Huh, I never thought of that.”
My reaction was, “Oh gods, I’m going about this the wrong way.”
Instead of starting with “what’s right for me?” I was setting myself up for failure and misery by focusing on “what are the options?”
What Scratches Your Dopamine Receptors?
Make a list of things you love doing. For me, the list that led me to offer my expertise to others looked like this:
teaching
asking useful questions
making meaningful connections
helping people communicate clearly
helping people win
influencing culture so people and teams produce their best work
mentoring
writing
telling stories
Your list will probably look different. Think about your past experiences and ask yourself, “What did I really like? What energized me? What did I look forward to doing? If I was tired and cranky, what would’ve I enjoyed doing despite my mood?”
Find Your Ikagi
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, ikagi in the professional sense is the intersection of 4 things:
What you love doing
What you’re good at
What the world needs
What you can paid for
The challenge here is knowing what the world needs and what you can be paid for. Sometimes it’s obvious. But often it isn’t.
First, take your list and ask people in your personal and professional network, “What’s this look like to you?” This may be enough to give you a starting point.
But for me, many answers for my list were, “that looks like a people manager to me.” I’ve no real interest in people management, especially not at an enterprise company where it’s a common thing to be told, “We need you to cut 7% of your headcount.” I don’t think I could look at myself in the mirror if I had to let someone go for an arbitrary reason like that.
I plugged my list into a generative AI like ChatGPT (I used Copilot, Microsoft’s AI offering), with, “Given this list, what careers would be a good fit?”
I got back a half-dozen answers, three of which overlap with the content and services on this website.
Stepping Stones on the Path
Finding that magical mix of expertise, satisfaction, value, and usefulness isn’t always available, nor may it meet your current needs. That’s okay. Going through this exercise will help you identify where to direct your attention first. Perhaps you’ll find the start of a fresh path, or highlight a destination somewhere around the next bend.
At the very least, you’ll steer yourself away from jobs where you’ll be bored or undervalued.