How to figure out your career

I have finished my secondment at another company being a project manager, and I am more confused on the direction I want my career to head in, than before. As my last month came, I started reminding people that I am due leave and I got these questions:

1. Where are you going next?
2. What will you be doing?
3. Is it something that’s in line with your career goals?

To answer: I am back at my graduate job and doing the same things I was doing before (writing reports about other reports), and the answer to 3 was always no. But what followed my answer was 4. What role would be more in line with your goals? And the answer was I don’t know.

Why do I not know?

As a child of immigrant parents I was fed the similar narrative of “I didn’t bring you to this country to do [enter a job that isn’t recognised as successful career in the country of origin]”. This meant I was pushed in the direction of academics. I was informed of potential careers that my parents would have liked, and also had an internal narrative to give back to them, so medicine seemed like the right path.

Turns out I didn’t have the drive or capacity to try pass the medical entrance exams, so I didn’t get in. I took matters into my own hands and chose chemistry, and managed to justify it as being able to do the research better, in pharmaceuticals, than if I was a doctor. My goals are now different, having finished my degree and not having a job in pharmaceuticals. I still want to be involved in research, but I don’t want to do it, I am happy to manage it. This wasn’t my goal 18 months ago, when I finished university, so what changed?

Nothing changed

Nothing changed. At the core of all of this, I had and still have no idea what I want to do with my career. However, with the experiences that I have currently put myself through, I know what I don’t want.

1. I don’t want to write reports about reports all the time.
2. I don’t find the topic that I am researching, interesting at all.
3. I currently don’t like working in a role, that puts me in a very rural area.
4. I don’t want a role that’s very monotonous in the work and daily life.
5. I don’t want to be in a role, where I am seen as an expert of a very niche area in STEM.

The first 4 points I found out in the first 3 months of my job, the last one I found out recently, when I expressed my issues with the first 4. The unfortunate thing was that I gaslit myself into thinking it was “my Gen Z brain”, “my small attention span” and “my laziness” and that’s why I am still in the same job 18 months on. Those statements aren’t true, it just means you are not in a role/environment that benefits you and the company. In the short term, the company is benefitting from your suffering, but they are losing money and an asset in the long term.

This is not an attack on my workplace, it’s a personal preference, and neither myself nor the company should lose out because of this simple thing. However, if they do imply that you’re making it difficult, by not being the employee they hired you to be, then I don’t blame you for jumping ship.

So, what do you do when you realise you don’t know what to do with your career?

Get experience

There is nothing else you can do but get out there and try different things. You need to put yourself in environments where you can test your compatibility. Answer these questions:

1. Is there a skill/something that interests you?
2. Are you curious about something in an employed role?
3. Based on your past (academics and experience) was there anything/skill there that you enjoyed and wouldn’t mind exploring further?

Question 2 is what led me to project management. I had no experience in that before my 6-month secondment, but I was curious on what it’s like in the corporate world. Having organised the work Christmas do, which was fun. I love to be organised and to push people to communicate with me (yes that’s what I thought a PM was).

How?

If you’re employed, stay employed and get a temporary transfer (a secondment). This gives you a trial period, I recommend a minimum of 6 months. But if you can get longer, do it. This allows you to get more experience without leaving the job. Test out new skills and maybe get a few qualifications there. Most importantly, compare how you feel in the new role compared to the original one. If you like it, why? If you don’t, why? Having reasons to not like it are just as valid as reasons to like it.

There is a catch though- you need to justify to your original job, why the secondment is worth it. You need to show how the business/department will benefit from you being more developed, or from what you will bring back.

If you’re not employed, get a job and learn how to sell yourself and your experience. Being able to show how your skills can benefit a business with an insane amount of charisma, can hide the fact that you might not have all the experience they thought they were looking for.

My experience

For my justification I could bring my company more higher-level links into the industry (improving collaboration), and get them involved in work initiatives, that can improve the business with less resource and financial investment. And I truly did bring those, whilst benefitting my department who are scientists, with little involvement with projects and strategy.

Final thoughts

18 months in and I am investigating various roles, within and outside my current company. I have been given some advice from good people that I have connected with in my recent 6 months:

1. When you are looking at your next career move, you should know how it links into the career move after that. Basically, think 1 step ahead of life.
2. Being able to bullshit is a good skill. When you try to show case your experience to others
3. Be comfortable to tell people what you are looking for. Might save you having to move companies (unless you want to).

Moral of my story:

• Do you have career goals – If you do, that’s great follow them. If you don’t, that’s also great, you’re about to embark on a colourful journey to find a job worth being paid for.
• It’s ok to not know what you want to do or what you’re doing now – Who cares what other people are saying. All you need to do is take the next step that will give you more clarity.
• Knowing what you don’t want, is just as valuable as knowing what you do want – Some of us aren’t as lucky to have some clarity on where we want our careers to go, but that’s not a bad thing you get variety, and variety is the spice of life!
• Learn how to sell yourself – which is one of the best skills to have.
• Always know your next step, when you make a move ­– it’s like a chess game, except with a few more blind spots.
• Be direct with your goals – Once you have clarity on something, don’t sugar coat it. Tell them, and if they can adapt, that great. If not, then you’re not wasting each others time and resources. Life is too short.