5 ways to make better career decisions

Lately I’ve been talking with a young-professional friend in DC who is making some important career decisions, including whether to quit an unengaging job in a down economy, and whether to move to Europe to study international relations. Having given her all the advice I can from my own professional background, I put together this list to help people in her position to get a wider perspective:

1. Know your passions and talents.  It does absolutely no good to try to make yourself an interchangeable commodity in the job market.  Even if the hiring process (or academic admissions process) sometimes treats you this way, your long-term success will be driven by what you truly enjoy and what are exceptionally good at.  Look back at what you have liked in past work and forward at what you dream about. 

2. Connect who you are with whom you want to serve.  Suppose you are fascinated with international economics.  In the abstract, this passion might mean you read The Economist a lot or take a lot of graduate classes on the subject.  But to make a career out of it, you need to think in terms of the impact you want to have.  Do you want to work in an international export business?  Conduct trade negotiations?  Be a think-tank analyst?  Teach classes?  Figure out how you might find joy in giving a specific kind of value to specific kinds of people.

3.  Ask people who know the answers.  Most people are lazy about getting advice.  They tend ask whoever happens to be around instead of the farther-off and more-intimidating people who might actually have been the places we want to go and have done the things we want to do.  You probably already know someone who knows the answers–it’s time to track them down.

4.  Ask people who know you.  As important as it is to reach out to distant experts who have been where you want to go and can tell you the technical details of their own career paths, it is equally important to discuss your decisions with people close to you who understand you emotionally.  Unlike the distant experts, they know your own history and are more sensitive to the signals you send about whether you are truly glad about the direction the experts are pointing you in.

5. Get all the options on the table and have an abundance mentality for all of them.   One of the biggest obstacles to making a good decision is the fear you’re making the wrong decision.  Therefore, make sure you consider all the good possibilities, giving a fair chance to each.  At the same time, overcome your fear of making the wrong decision by realizing that any of the options offers great things for you, and will probably lead to about the same place anyway.  In addition, keep in mind that the failures you fear will most likely be averted by your ongoing internal growth, more than by any one external career choice you make.