Career Path Advice
Most career advice is about climbing a ladder that doesn't exist anymore. If you're feeling lost or stuck, it's not you - it's the advice. Here's a guide to finding your way by focusing on energy, curiosity, and small, smart experiments.
By Tony Musso on
You’re at after-work drinks, or a family dinner, or catching up with an old university friend, and the question comes up: “So, how’s work?”. You paste on a smile and say “Yeah, good, busy you know!”. But inside, a small knot tightens in your stomach. Because it’s not ‘good’. It’s… fine. It’s a salary. It’s a routine. But it doesn’t light you up. You feel like you’re on a train going somewhere you’re not sure you want to be, but jumping off seems terrifying. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. We’re sold a story that by our late 20s or early 30s, we should have our ‘career path’ sorted. But the world has changed, and the [best career path advice often feels counter-intuitive](/blog/why-most-career-advice-fails "Why most career advice fails and what works instead"). It’s not about finding a map; it’s about learning to use a compass.
Ditch the ‘Forever’ Myth
Let’s be honest, the idea of a ‘job for life’ is a fossil. Our parents or grandparents might have joined a company and stayed there for 40 years, steadily climbing a predictable ladder. For us, that ladder has been dismantled. It’s been replaced by something more like a jungle gym - with multiple ways to go up, down, and across. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s a brilliant thing. It means you have permission to change, to pivot, to evolve.
The pressure to choose the ‘right’ career feels immense because we treat it like a marriage. We think we have to find ‘The One’ and commit to it forever. But your career isn't a single, lifelong commitment. It’s a series of seasons. What you needed from your work at 22 will be different from what you need at 32 or 42.
The goal isn't to find the perfect, final destination. The goal is to find the right next step. Freeing yourself from the ‘forever’ myth is the first and most important step in finding work that truly fits. Your career is not a straight line. Expect to change industries or roles several times as you gain new skills and interests.
It All Starts With You - Not a Job Title
When we feel lost, our first instinct is often to look at job search websites. We scroll endlessly through titles - 'Project Manager', 'Content Strategist', 'Data Analyst' - trying to see which one feels right. This is like trying to choose a holiday based only on the name of the hotel. It tells you nothing about the actual experience.
Forget job titles for a moment. The most meaningful career path advice is to start with who you are, not what you think you should be. You need to become an expert on yourself. This isn’t a self-indulgent navel-gazing exercise; it’s practical data collection. Try these two simple exercises:
1. The Energy Audit
For one week, keep a small notebook or a note on your phone. Draw two columns: ‘Gave me energy’ and ‘Drained my energy’. Throughout the day, jot down specific tasks, interactions, and situations.
Be specific. Don't just write 'meetings'. Was it a brainstorming meeting with a small, collaborative team that gave you energy? Was it a formal, top-down presentation that drained you? Don’t just write ‘emails’. Was it crafting a thoughtful, detailed response to a client that felt good? Was it clearing a backlog of 100 mundane admin requests that made you want to cry?
At the end of the week, look at your lists. Patterns will emerge. You are mapping your unique wiring. This isn’t about judging your current job. It’s about gathering clues about the components of a future role that would make you thrive.
2. The Curiosity List
What do you do when you’re not working? What kind of articles do you click on? What podcasts do you subscribe to? If you fell down a YouTube rabbit hole for three hours, what was it about? What problems in the world make you angry or passionate?
Write it all down. No matter how random it seems. Ancient Roman history, sustainable farming, [how to build a custom mechanical keyboard](/blog/generalist-vs-specialist-in-your-20s-which-career-path-is-better "Should you be a generalist or a specialist?"), social justice reform, vintage fashion. This isn’t about turning your hobby into a job. It's about identifying the underlying themes that genuinely engage your brain. Your curiosity is a powerful signpost pointing towards subjects and fields where you might find a deep sense of purpose.
Gather Clues, Don’t Make Grand Plans
Once you have some data from your self-reflection, the next step isn’t to quit your job and enrol in a masters degree. That’s a huge, risky bet based on a hunch. Instead, you need to become a detective. Your job is to find low-cost, low-risk ways to test your new hypotheses about what you might enjoy. This is a [key piece of practical career path advice](/blog/free-career-advice-2 "More practical and free career advice").
Think of it as running small career experiments. Here are a few ways to do it:
- **Chat with people:** This is often called 'informational interviewing'. Find people on LinkedIn whose job titles look interesting or who work at companies you admire. Send them a polite, brief message asking for 15-20 minutes of their time for a virtual coffee to hear about their journey. Ask them questions about the reality of their job, not just the highlights. What’s the most frustrating part of their role? What surprised them most when they started? What does a truly boring Tuesday look like? People are often incredibly generous with their time if you approach them with genuine curiosity.
- **Start a tiny project:** Want to explore writing? Start a simple blog or offer to write a newsletter for a local charity. Curious about UX design? Take a short online course and try to redesign the homepage of your favourite app. Interested in community management? Start a Facebook group for a local interest you have. These small-scale projects give you a real-world taste of the work without the pressure of a formal job. You’ll learn very quickly whether you actually enjoy the *process*, not just the *idea*.
- **Skill-building weekends:** Instead of committing to a long, expensive course, look for short workshops or online tutorials. You can learn the basics of digital marketing, video editing, or Python in a single weekend. The goal isn't to become an expert; it's to get a feel for the work and see if it sparks enough interest to pursue further.
Redefine 'Skills' and 'Experience'
Many people feel stuck because they believe they don’t have the ‘right’ experience to make a change. They look at job descriptions and see a list of technical skills or industry-specific qualifications they don’t have. This is a narrow and unhelpful way to view your own value.
You have a unique toolkit of skills, but you might be describing them in the wrong language. A teacher who manages a classroom of 30 children has incredible project management, stakeholder communication, and crisis-negotiation skills. A retail worker who handles difficult customers has more practical conflict resolution experience than many senior executives.
Think about your skills in three categories:
- **Hard Skills:** These are teachable abilities like using a specific software, speaking a foreign language, or coding.
- **Human Skills:** These are often called 'soft skills', but they are foundational. They include things like communication, empathy, persuasion, collaboration, and adaptability. These are [highly transferable across industries](/blog/why-your-degree-doesnt-have-to-define-your-career-and-what-does "Transferable skills and how to move industries").
- **Your Unique Combination:** Your real power lies in the unique intersection of your skills. Maybe you’re an accountant who is also a brilliant storyteller. That’s a rare combination that could make you a phenomenal financial communicator. Maybe you’re a scientist who loves organising community events. You could be perfect for a role in science outreach and public engagement.
Don't pigeonhole yourself. Your experience is not just a list of job titles. It’s the sum of all the problems you have solved, the projects you have delivered, and the people you have influenced. Learn to tell that story.
What to do next
[Feeling lost in your career](/blog/i-hate-my-first-job-is-this-normal-and-what-to-do-next "Feeling lost in your first job? Here is what to do next") is not a sign of failure. It’s an invitation to get curious and reconnect with who you are and what you care about. You don't need to quit your job tomorrow to start exploring new options. It’s about a series of small, intentional steps. It’s about replacing fear with curiosity and grand plans with smart experiments. A fulfilling career path isn’t found, it’s built. Focus on gathering one specific insight or having one coffee chat this week.
So, here’s your first step. Forget the big, scary question of "What should I do with my life?". Instead, just for this week, set up your Energy Audit. Many professionals feel the same quiet frustration when their roles stop challenging them. Gather that first piece of data. That’s it. Use your energy audit and curiosity list to decide what to try first.