Answering your questions – Part 3
I am frequently asked this question, especially by young adults. There is no longer a single or simple answer. This question requires a different approach given the changes and uncertainty around the future of work.
Our desire for stability, security, and fulfilment remains a priority in how we frame and make decisions about career development, and this is understandable. Wanting to feel we have made the “right” career decision, to have direction and a degree of certainty in our lives, and to have a place in the world is very human.
But this question assumes we will have one career for life, and this hasn’t been the reality for many years, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the future of work. Perhaps, given the uncertainty and changes in the future job market, there is another question within this question: Is there a particular profession or job immune to uncertainty, or a formula or specific strategy that will circumvent it? The simple answer is no.
Let me suggest replacing the question, “What is the best career path for me?” with the statement: “I am building a career life.”
This statement suggests that you are the active “author” or creative agent of your career life. It also acknowledges (and assumes) the external realities, contexts, changes, and uncertainties that we must always work with while “building out” our careers and that concurrently influence the choices we have, the decisions we grapple with and ultimately make, and the personal character and direction of our career lives.
Our career lives are increasingly navigated and shaped by diverse work experiences, educational and training pursuits, a need for flexibility, and openness to change and upskilling.
This means accepting that a career life (not a single career or career path) will be continually built and rebuilt in response to changes in the world, the job market, education, professions, economies, and the opportunities we actively create through our experiences, personal interests, and life contexts.
Accepting and working with these realities is not always easy, as it raises challenging questions without standard answers: What kind of security and stability can we build from a career life shaped by multiple work experiences? How do we prepare, educationally and through training and skill development, for a career life that will change? How do we learn to describe, articulate, and leverage the value we have gained from a diversity of experiences for future opportunities?
These are questions we must increasingly reflect on.
Consider the following sample questions:
- How does the statement “I am building my career life” feel? What is your first response?
- If you are just starting out, think of your career life as a series of building blocks. What would you like to start now? What would you like to experience, learn about, or get involved in, and why?
- If you have some work experience, what have you already put into your career “building project”? What kinds of experiences have you had? How would you describe your career life so far? Are there common themes that run through these experiences? Are there particular skills that are consistently present?
- How would you describe your current value based on your experiences?
- What would you like to expand, change, or tweak in your career life? What would you like to learn more about, be exposed to, or contribute to at this stage in your life?
- More broadly, what issues, challenges, or new questions in the world or within your community are you drawn to at this stage in your life, and why? How can you get involved? Are there others engaged with these issues? How can you initiate a conversation in these areas?
Start a career conversation. Contact Canvas Career Counselling at [email protected]