Getting stuck or stalled on one thought happens quite a lot in careers. When it’s groundhog day in your head and it starts to drive you a bit mad. Often the thought circling will be something like ‘I’m stuck in my career. I don’t know what to do next, but this isn’t working for me’. It won’t go away, because it’s important. But you’re not getting anywhere with it either, no matter how many times you think about it.
On one hand ‘what do I do next?’ feels like something you should be able to figure out. On the other hand, you’re coming up blank, or everything seems too hazy to feel helpful. When you can’t see the answer, nor where the answers are going to come from, frustration and concern start getting added to the mix. It just feels like a lot. And all this goes on behind closed doors, so it can feel like you’re the only one wrestling with it. But you’re not.
Why ‘what do I do next?’ might be the wrong question to ask
‘What do I do next in my career?’ is a big question and it matters a lot. It normally comes up when we’re feeling unsettled where we are – when we most want a neat solution to change how we feel. On the surface it’s a question that looks and sounds simple, but we all sort of know it’s not. There’s a lot tied up in it! And there isn’t just one good answer anyway. If you’re finding it impossible to answer, it’s probably not that you can’t do this. It might be that you’re trying to jump to a solution before you’ve gathered what you need to answer it. You’ve just skipped a step. What if you’re just not able to answer the question yet?
Work on what you do know
If it feels true that you’re not yet ready to answer that question, you could try a different approach. One that takes you out of ‘I don’t know’ into digging into what you do know and using it to help you. Away from ‘I’m stuck in my career’ to ‘I’m working on what’s next’. I think this is more like a design challenge – the best solutions come out of a really good understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve. Here, that could mean getting clarity and insight on what you want to be different for your next move. Things like:
- Mapping out the things that are important to you.
- Getting clearer on what’s missing that you’d like to find.
- Knowing specifically what you’re trying to move away from.
- Naming what you already have that you want to keep.
- Revisiting work you’ve done to think about what you’ve enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy.
- Naming what you’d like to do more and what you’d like to do less.
What you’re building towards
Considering these things helps you to start building a picture in your blank or hazy space. Not a picture in the form of a specific job or label. More a picture of what ‘better’ would look like. The aim isn’t to use this picture to find the next step that is a perfect match. It’s to give you better information to use and something intentional to head towards:
- Building blocks that help your own ideas and solutions take shape.
- Things to look for (and steer clear of) if you’re searching for jobs.
- Insights that might give you a fresh perspective on where you are now.
- Awareness to recognise what’s likely to fit you well and the compromises.
People mostly try to skip straight past this bit. It can feel a bit navel-gazey. Too slow. And sitting with the uncertainty while you work out what you’ve actually got to go on isn’t necessarily what you want to do. But although when you’re feeling a bit clueless it seems like a lot of work, people tend to make surprisingly quick progress. Because it’s all in there somewhere – it just needs to be let out.
Take the pause
If you keep banging your head against the same impossible question, maybe take a pause. Stop pushing harder for the answer and start getting clearer on how you’ll recognise or design a good solution. On the surface you’ll be in the same situation, considering the same big question, but in this version of it you’re moving and you’re back in charge. If that sounds good, maybe give it a go – what do you know, so far?
Hi, I’m Helen. I’m a qualified careers coach based in Godalming, Surrey. I support clients across the UK to get unstuck, through bespoke careers conversations. Find out more about me and how I can help.
Be the first to comment