Defining your path is, in my experience, one of the most important steps in doing a job search. Having a crystal clear idea of what you are seeking helps put all of the other pieces into place. This step might also be the most difficult.
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Start by asking yourself this fundamental question:
“What are you seeking in your next position?”
This simple yet profound inquiry forms the cornerstone of your career exploration.
If you are unsure of your direction, try this exercise. I’ve been using this process for decades (and it’s still useful today!) to help people figure out what they want in their next position for it to be satisfying.
Interests
How do you enjoy spending any free time you might have? What hobbies do you have? If you had a Saturday with no plans, and all of your “chores” are complete, how would you spend your time? What is filling your TikTok or Pinterest feed?
Make a list of those activities and topics that pull you in.
Skills
What skills are you known for? What activities do you “get lost” in doing? The State of Flow, first used by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is described as “the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”1
Think about the last time you experienced FLOW. What were you doing?
Add all of your skills, strengths, and activities that pull you into flow.
Values
What do you need in this next opportunity for it to be satisfying? Think about each of these categories and jot down criteria that fits for you.
Choosing a career that aligns with your values is crucial for long-term satisfaction and fulfillment. Here are various areas to consider when evaluating whether a career aligns with your values:
Work-Life Balance: Consider how the career aligns with your desired balance between work and personal life. What kind of flexibility do you desire?
Impact and Contribution: Determine how important it is for you to be in a career that allows you to make a meaningful impact and contribute to causes or issues that are important to you. If you find this important, write down what those causes or issues might be.
Financial Considerations: Whether or not this is the sole determinant for you, you still need to think about what your salary requirements are. We’ll spend some time in a future blog post on how to determine what your salary requirements are. Also, think about whether the career offers opportunities for growth and advancement and how important that is to you.
Company Culture and Values: Think about what kind of organizational culture and values are important to you. Consider things like transparency, diversity & inclusion, innovation, customer/client focus, collaboration, corporate social responsibility, learning & development, and how much of your whole self you will be able to bring to your work.
Opportunities for Learning and Development: Is it important for you to have a career that offers opportunities for continuous learning, skill development, and career advancement? What might those opportunities look like to you?
Work Environment: Make a list of factors such as office culture, team dynamics, leadership style, and the physical work environment that appeal to you.
Creativity and Innovation: If creativity is important to you, include values such as innovation, problem-solving, and expressing creativity.
Autonomy and Control: What level of autonomy or control over your work and decision-making processes is necessary for you?
Recognition and Appreciation: Consider how much you value recognition and appreciation for your contributions. Everyone needs this to a certain extent, but if this is essential for you, go ahead and include it in your values list.
Some other values that clients have added to their lists include: influencing others, being regarded as an expert in my field, adventure, helping others/society, leadership, power/authority, working independently, working under deadlines, having variety in responsibilities.
Another way to think about values is in terms of what your career allows you to do outside of work. These values might include ability to travel frequently, easy access or visit family/support network, access to cultural experiences, and the type of settings in which you would like to live such as rural, urban, suburban, or near mountains, water, etc.
Pulling it All Together
The specific relevant content for this request, if necessary, delimited with characters: Take your three lists and look for themes or overlap. Are there threads that weave throughout all three lists? If so, make a note of these. For example, you might have an interest in hanging out with friends, a skill in helping others solve problems, and a value of helping others/society. So, working/helping others will make your list.
Try to find 8-10 items that we’ll call criteria, that you need in your next position for it to be satisfying.
You can go ahead and move on to Step Two: Research Your Career Field or, if you are ready, try to create a clear and specific Career Goal.
How to Write a Career Goal
- Career Field: What general career field are you interested in?
- Position Title: What position titles are you seeking? Do a quick search of job titles related to your career field. Choose the ones that resonate most with you.
- Population: What type of people would benefit from your work? Who would be the clients, customers, or recipients of your services or products?
- Strengths/Skills: What are the skills, talents, functions, or tasks that you would use the most in your position? Do a quick search of top skills you possess that are related to your career field. Choose the ones that resonate most with you.
Let’s say you are looking for a position in Learning & Development. You might pull together a career goal that looks something like this:
- Career Field: global technology company
- Position Title: learning & development specialist (assistant, coordinator, etc.), director of training, training coordinator (manager, instructor, etc.), learning & development consultant (director, manager, etc.)
- Population: Internal employees of organizations, K-12 students, secondary education students, etc.
- Strengths/Skills: Project management, change management, leadership, management development, data-driven decision-making, communication, strategic thinking, marketing skills, relationship building, and teamwork and collaboration skills.
My Career Goal: I’m seeking a position as Director of Learning & Development at a global technology company working with internal teams using my leadership, change management, and relationship-building skills.
If you try out these activities, let me know how they helped you get closer to being able to answer the question, “What are you seeking in your next position?” I’d love to hear your feedback.
This post is part of a ten-part series on Mastering Your Job Search in Ten Essential Steps. You can find the initial post with an overview, along with each of the ten steps here.
Step Two: Research Your Career Field
Prefer to watch or listen? Head on over to the Authentic Career + Life Design YouTube Channel.
- Spiky AI. “How Flow Theory Unleashes High Performance in Your Career.” Spiky AI Blog, Spiky AI, Ocotber 2023, https://spiky.ai/blog/how-flow-theory-unleashes-high-performance-in-your-career. ↩︎
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