What You Want to Do I Don t Know What You Want to Do Now Don t Start That Again

May 09, 2022 Post a Comment

I tin't tell yous how many times I've gotten a call from a client in a career puzzler. He doesn't know what kind of job he wants. He doesn't know what he wants to practise. He's not sure what his passion is. He'due south overwhelmed. Lost. Then, he's thinking of taking the path of least resistance. If you've ever uttered the phrase, "Maybe I'll go back to school. Constabulary schoolhouse. Grad school, yeah…" you know what path I'm talking about.

If you aren't sure what you lot want to do, taking a detour on the highway that is your career is tempting. Merely without forethought and intention, that detour can be plush, painful—or both.

If you're yet trying to figure out what your golden career path is, you lot can start by asking yourself these nine questions. In the meantime, here are five missteps to avoid.

1. Taking an Interim Job Doing Annihilation

Taking a job, any at a, may serve a brusque-term demand; it'll give you something to do all day and help you lot pay the bills. But it'll as well probably suck all the time and energy you could be using searching for that dream career. Moreover, by keeping you firmly employed and in your comfort zone, it won't push you to explore options that would be a much better fit for you.

Unless you're drastic for a paycheck and anxious to go out of a bad situation—terrible boss, bullying co-workers, unhealthy work environment—latching onto something random won't help you identify and land your dream role.

2. Going Back to Grad Schoolhouse

When clients call maxim they don't know what to do, and they're thinking of going dorsum to grad school, I get all up in their face most it. In a nice way, of course. If graduate school involves going into debt (which it typically does), or if there isn't a conspicuously delineated career event, I'm against information technology. I know too many people buried in school-loan debt and no thought what to practice with their expensive degrees.

Unless you take a very articulate understanding of how grad schoolhouse will further your career goals, unless you're 100% certain it will land you the job of your dreams, don't make this costly, often uninformed mistake. The task-search process doesn't disappear when you emerge with another caste.

3. Taking a Promotion in a Function You Don't Love

Fifty-fifty if you lot don't beloved the job you're in, you might be good at information technology. So skilful, in fact, that your boss comes along and offers y'all a promotion. Y'all think, why not? You're not happy where you are, merely how can you pass up a more money and a flashier championship? Becoming further entrenched in a career you don't want, however means you lot'll probably quit somewhen, at which indicate you'll still accept to contend with the "What do I want to do with my life" question you brushed aside months—or years earlier.

4. Staying Where Y'all Are Because You Don't Know What Else to Do

When you stay at length in a job because you lot don't know what you want, it could play confronting your long-term career goals. Some prospective employers see a long-term stay in i role as a negative—and it could affect your pay, too. Hiring managers may expect at your resume and presume you aren't ambitious, or that your skills take gone stale.

Although it may seem like a comfy solution to your career quandary, staying in ane place ad infinitum tin can hurt you when you finally are gear up to motility on, so don't put it off because yous're confused.

5. Bailing Out

Yous took a task because you weren't sure what else to practice. Not surprisingly, y'all reach the point where you but can't take it whatsoever more. Yous may not exist equally fed up as the flight bellboy who bailed out of the plane in spectacular style. Only if y'all make up one's mind to spring ship in a less dramatic fashion, you lot're still going to have to start the process all once again.

Not knowing what yous want to do with your life is daunting. Few people figure information technology out overnight. But wasting fourth dimension with options that don't help yous make progress with identifying your career goals isn't the way to get. Y'all've got to be intentional about finding your career path. These xi career quizzes can help, but you should also know that it'due south OK if what you discover is that you don't need a dream job to feel fulfilled.

Photograph of frustrated man courtesy of vgajic/Getty Images.

Lea McLeod is an experienced director, career consultant, and job search coach. Formerly a director-level manager at HP, Lea helps you lot acquire skills to build confidence and competence at piece of work and to deal with tough situations that tin can exist super frustrating. In her articles for The Muse, Lea empowers readers to confidently identify and tackle but about every dilemma at piece of work, from challenging colleagues and bad bosses to interviews to career changes and professional evolution. Her writing has also appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, and other outlets. Discover her on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit her website. She authored The Resume Coloring Book, a simple and color-coded guide to writing a solid resume.

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