Mapping My Career (Career Journals #1)

I’m feeling stuck in my career, and I have been for a long time. To be more brutally honest, I’m going through an existential crisis about the meaning of work, but that is a post for another time. Since I graduated from college (which to be clear, it’s been a while), I’ve taken opportunities as they came along. I needed a job, a job was available, and I took it because I had no idea of what I actually wanted to do. I’ve never taken a job because I’ve wanted to do the work, it’s mainly just been moving slowly towards a better work environment. It’s been a while now that I’ve been feeling lost and wandering. I’m looking to focus on exploring specific areas–I just don’t know where to look. I received a suggestion to map out several areas of my career history and experience to help guide me on this journey. I thought I would share the questions I’ll be asking myself and exercises I’ll be undertaking to map out my own personal guide to my ideal career, in case it can help anyone else.

 

Career Map Prompts:

 

List out all of your accomplishments.

 

List anything you have ever enjoyed doing.

 

List everything you’ve ever been complimented on.

 

What are the best jobs for your personality type? 

 

What are careers you dreamed of as a kid?

 

List any career you’ve ever thought of pursuing, even in passing.

 

List every job you’ve ever had. What did you like about each job? What did you dislike?

 

What are your strengths?

 

What are your weaknesses?

 

It doesn’t seem that difficult to do this exercise when you look at the questions, but it is time consuming. The idea is that once the exercises above are completed, looking at the answers will help lead to connections that may point towards certain careers (or away from others). I would suggest taking a break after completing the prompts above. I find when I look at something for too long I can never find what I’m looking for, until I walk away and come back to it with fresh eyes. I hope it will be a good starting point for me to become unstuck from this roadblock of feeling lost and point me towards work I will enjoy doing. I’ve titled this as #1 in a series, because I am sure I’ll be returning to this topic as I go through my career journey. 

Please share in the comments any other suggestions for career prompts!

Until next week,

Livvy