Some Careers Advice

I do not know anybody who has successfully planned their career. I know plenty of people who might claim to have done so, but I don't believe them. We are swept along by the rapid current of our lives, applying a few judicious corrections to our course when we can. Sometimes we can give an account of why we are where we are, but this is retrospective justification. The finer the decision we have to make, this job - that job, this university - that university, the more time we spend contemplating it, but actually, the less it matters. I was initially tempted to direct my advice to aspiring academics but, on consideration, my opinions are framed more widely. It may also be that some of what follows could be useful as a basis for advising students.

So, it seems to me then that there are three critical questions to answer. What do you want to be? Who are you? What do you want to do? In that order. The rest, while it cannot be left entirely to the operation of chance, should cause fewer sleepless nights.

What do you want to be? This first question is not really about jobs and careers at all, though it manifests as such. It is a question ultimately about values. What is it that you value? What do you believe in? Perhaps, and this is a more complicated way of asking the same thing, what constitutes for you 'the good life'? Nobody, I think, is so lacking a compass that they can be happy and satisfied doing something that is fundamentally out of kilter with their values. I am not a moral relativist, I think however this is a personal question and being true to yourself is what is of importance.

Who are you? This may be the easiest or the most difficult of the three questions depending on your capacity for self-reflection. It asks essentially what your skills and capacities are. What do you do uniquely well, and conversely what are your weaknesses? I suggest focussing specifically on the broad 'transferrable skills' and on those capacities that stem from your character and personality. The working assumption is that you will be more successful in careers and roles which play to your strengths, and on the whole success and enjoyment of work go together. I do not assume that skills and capacities are fixed, indeed you can overcome your weaknesses and there can be a profound satisfaction in confronting them and doing this, but the decision to do so entails risks that will have to be offset against other considerations.

What do you want to do? This may seem in some way to beg the question but I have in mind a much broader interpretation. Project yourself forwards, what is the texture of your life like? Conjure an image, what are you wearing, where are you living, are you in a office ... of what sort, are you working on your own, are you directing others? Do not think about jobs specifically nor about what you want to achieve, think instead about what you enjoy and imagine yourself doing day by day. Visualise this, as carefully as you can, do not edit the details, they matter.

If you have managed to answer these questions it should plot the route ahead or at least set the direction. There are plenty of people to help with the precise steps. If you cannot answer the questions, ask your close friends and family. People who know you well and  ideally who can help you build a picture of yourself. Set aside their specific career advice, instead use their personal insights and life experiences. What could be easier?