“I’m looking for a new career. What should I do?”
I hear these words often as a coach who supports folks navigating life and career transitions. While I can’t tell you what to do, let me share with you some tools and approaches to help you find a new path that suits your current life stage and goals!
Before diving in, keep a few things in mind:
- There isn’t a single way to find a new career. Different methods will work for different people. That’s why I’m going to share a variety of ideas in this article. Try a few approaches to discover common themes.
- It takes time to pursue a new career. Keep taking steady action. You’re investing in your long-term happiness, and it’s worth your time and effort.
- Research is great, but don’t get stuck in it. Know when to take the next step. This might mean testing things out in a tangible way. If you’re nervous about making the “wrong” decision, know that there can be different paths to fulfillment. There’s no “right” or “wrong.”
When you start your career exploration with an open mind and positive attitude, you’re already halfway!
Career assessments and exploration tools
A career assessment is probably the most direct answer to the question, “What should I do as a new career?”
There are many quizzes out there that look at your skills, strengths, aptitudes, and personality traits to suggest possible career paths. Some are backed by more research than others, but that’s not to say you can’t learn anything from pop psychology, like an enneagram test. How you interpret the results and what you do with the information is always going to be more important than the data itself.
More rigorous career assessments will usually require a fee, and some can only be administered by trained facilitators (like my colleague Cliff Thorbes, who offers Personality Dimensions® workshops). My recommendation is to connect with your local library and employment center to see if they provide free access to career exploration tools. For example:
- The Vancouver Public Library provides access to Career Cruising, a comprehensive career guide providing detailed listings of 550 occupations.
- WorkBC offers Career Discovery Quizzes to help you discover careers that best suit your abilities, work preferences, and interests.
If you’re willing to pay for a career assessment, here are some options:
- Kolbe Career Advantage™ is a career matching program that identifies how you naturally take action and connects you with careers that fit your innate way of doing things. Instead of just looking at preferences, it assesses the way you instinctively do your best work.
- MBTIonline Careers helps you find career satisfaction by matching your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® results to occupations that best fit your unique personality. This assessment is based on how you perceive the world and make decisions.
- CliftonStrengths identifies what you are naturally best at. This assessment helps pinpoint your natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, which are then categorized into 34 themes. You can also download the career development guide to better understand how you work best and why a role is suited for you.
For a well-rounded view of what you’re looking for in your next role, check out my free job search assessment workbook. I created it as a way to help career changers look beyond personal characteristics to also assess broader life conditions. The reflection questions inside will guide you toward aligning your work with both who you are and what you need.
Books to help you launch a new career
Do you enjoy reading? When you slow down with a good book, you can truly dig into the topics and reflect along the way. Below are a few career development books to guide you on your path.
(Please note that the links below are affiliate links. I encourage you to also take advantage of your library and consider purchasing from your local bookstore.)
- What Color Is Your Parachute?: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success by Richard N. Bolles has been a classic since 1970. The tips for discovering and landing meaningful work are still relevant today.
- Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans draws on the principles of design thinking, straight from Life Design Lab at Stanford University, to show how you can thoughtfully build a fulfilling career and life.
- Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams by Barbara Sher was recommended on one of my podcast episodes. My guest, Miranda Maslany, found it liberating to hear that some individuals are wired to pursue many areas and simply cannot (should not) decide on a single path.
- Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at Work by Minda Zetlin was featured at my local library. After reading it, I appreciated its down-to-earth narrative voice and approachable strategies for nurturing peace at work and in life.
- The Layoff Journey From Dismissal to Discovery: Navigating the Stages of Grief After Job Loss by Steve Jaffe provides a roadmap for anyone navigating a layoff. The author pairs personal experience with practical exercises to help you discover a way forward after an unexpected job loss.
If you’re not sure what book to choose, chat with your local librarian or bookstore owner! They’re some of the kindest and most supportive people. In other words, they’re exactly the people you want to speak with when you’re feeling lost.
Alternative ways to find career direction
Another approach is to take a more spiritual or metaphysical route. After all, what you do in your new career is a way to align with your purpose on this planet. You might explore your human design, gene keys, or birth chart. Maybe you’d like to consult a tarot reader or spiritual teacher. Again, I believe what you do with the information is more important than how you gather the information.
If you’re someone who tends to overthink, I encourage you to actually take a break from your career exploration. Do things you enjoy. Hang out with your favorite people. Relax and have fun for a few days or weeks. When you feel more at ease, you’ll be in a better position to notice what truly resonates with your heart and soul.
What to do with the information you collect
Once you’ve gathered information about yourself and ideas for potential career paths, it’s time to sit with the data. Here are some questions to ask:
- Do I agree with the information? Remember, you don’t have to agree just because an assessment says so. You know yourself best. Whether you agree or not, make note of what you’re learning in the process.
- How do I feel about each possibility? Entertain each idea for a few minutes and notice how your body reacts. Notice if you feel excited, upset, curious, scared, or anything else. Then see if you can uncover what’s under those feelings. You might want to journal to capture your inner wisdom and pushback.
- How can I learn more about each career? When you’ve narrowed down some options, it’s time to deepen your research. Informational interviews can be an effective way to understand the day-to-day reality of each career option.
From data, you can uncover insights. From insights, you can design your next course of action. And nowadays, you can speed up the process with generative AI!
Using AI to hone in on your new career
Technology is here to help. You can submit information to AI tools like ChatGPT and ask for its feedback on what careers you could consider.
You can provide information like:
- Your resume (remove your personal information especially if you’re using free, open-source tools)
- Your LinkedIn profile
- A summary of your career assessment results
- A description of what you liked and didn’t like about your past jobs
- What you’re looking for in your next role
- Dealbreakers for your career change
Your AI prompt can be something along the lines of “Given the information I’ve provided, what careers might I consider?” You can also ask for details about the training required to pursue those careers and the labor market trends for those careers in your region. This information will help you assess how realistic it is to make a living from those jobs, and how much time, money, and energy you’d need to invest to support that career change.
How the human touch supports your search for a new career
I’ve been coaching for over 12 years and I’m so excited by how technology can support job seekers. Now when folks ask me, “I’m looking for a new career. What should I do?” I can provide a range of resources to help them along.
Within our coaching sessions, we can then focus on the deeper human work of:
- Clarifying what you want
- Understanding what would bring joy and purpose to your work and life
- Finding creative ways to turn insights into action
- Transforming emotional blocks into motivation for change
- Strategizing on your job search
- Maintaining momentum when things don’t go your way
- Breaking patterns that no longer serve you
- Building new mental models to support your lifelong fulfillment
I’ve also personally experimented with AI tools and would be happy to support you on your career exploration journey! Check out my career coaching services or contact me to get started.
Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash
Crystal Lee, MPH, CPCC is a holistic career coach who helps mid-career professionals transform their work and life with clarity, confidence, and kindness. Let her know if you have a career question and join her newsletter to get the answer!
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