“I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” and other cliches
What To Do When You Don’t Know What You Want To Do
Almost everyone, at some point, wonders if they’re on the right path. Even your most impressive LinkedIn connection—the one with the obnoxiously polished career trajectory—has probably had moments of staring blankly at their laptop, questioning their life choices. Welcome to the club.
Uncertainty about whether your career path is right for you is common. It’s expected. It’s ok. While getting my MBA at UCLA (#1 Public University in the country, wow, pretty impressive), I was struck by the number of accomplished professionals who were looking for something different. This searching, perhaps even longing for something different is ok. We’re all dealing with it. You’re not defective, you’re human, living in the 21st century with both wild abundance and radical uncertainty. So, when you’re looking for WHAT TO DO, I think it’s helpful to start thinking about your future is a range of possibilities.
A Range of Possibilities
Maybe you feel like your career is on a conveyor belt, shuffling you toward your manager’s chair or a similar role at a different company. Or maybe you’re still in school, eagerly awaiting the launch sequence of your first job, hoping it doesn’t explode on the pad like a budget SpaceX prototype. Maybe you just got laid off thanks to AI, or interest rates, or some other nonsense that has nothing to do with you at all.
But either way, you’re not hooked on a single rollercoaster track, just waiting for the ride to end.
Life is a sprawling Vegas buffet. Yeah, there’s some weird junk in there, but there’s also sushi, prime rib, and lobster mac and cheese. And though you can try to have it all, you’re probably just gonna have some.
You have options. More than you think. And the first step in figuring out what’s next is recognizing that fact.
Explore Possible Selves
You’ve made it this far. You’ve got a damn boatload of skills.
Do you have every skill for every job?
No. But who cares?
You’ve got SOME skills for a LOT of jobs.
o here’s a simple exercise: start listing out jobs you could do.
Your current job… but at a different company.
Your boss’s job.
Your boss’s boss’s job.
Your co-worker’s job (the one you secretly think you could do better).
Your vendor’s job.
Your client’s job.
Any job that has similar functions to what you already do.
Now let’s get weird. What are the jobs connected to your hobbies? What do you always volunteer to do on projects because you secretly love it? What kinds of companies or people do you admire?
Write it all down. Get messy with it. Don’t filter. The goal here isn’t to land on a perfect answer but to widen the playing field.
Sorting the Chaos
Now it’s probably worth sorting these into two buckets.
Jobs that are close to what I’m doing now
Jobs that are a stretch
And as you’re sorting these, think, who might I become?
Which of these options feels inviting rather than just impressive on paper? And most importantly: What can I start exploring right now without quitting my job or making a dramatic announcement on social media?
Up Next: The Answer Is Not Inside Of You
You can’t think your way into a different future…