Regardless of when you might be reading this section, know that figuring out what to do in life and with your life has no easy answer. Life itself can be unpredictable. On top of that, you will change more than you imagine. Predicting what a future version of you will be happy and fulfilled doing is a challenge. BUT if you keep an open mind, realize you aren’t a fixed entity, and try to be as honest with yourself as possible, you can identify options.

You also might be reading this thinking that we are going to cover different careers in research, but this is a more holistic view of future planning than that. Being a researcher, a scientist, and engineer…whatever you may consider yourself…these are not jobs (though they can be), but at a higher level, they are ways to approach life. A set of lenses through which to view the world. Remember that you can use this foundation along any path you might go down.

Explore your Internal Self

You want to find career paths that fit you—who you are inside—or there will always be a mismatch. Particularly if you are a person who associates purpose with your career (vs working a job for money and getting all of your fulfillment elsewhere in life, which is totally fine if that’s you), it never really works to do something just because someone else wants you to do it.

To start your exploration of your internal self:

Consider your core values & beliefs —> use this list to help guide you

Think about your strengths & weaknesses —> again, list

Define what success means to you —> read about how others view success

Get stuck doing that?

If you looked at those lists and weren’t sure what to pick, you might need to back up and explore the resources below to build some self-awareness. We all have to do it one way or another, so it’s great if you start doing it now.

A word of caution about personality tests: No matter how fancy the website, who you’ve heard touting the benefits of a particular test, or even the credentials of the test’s creator(s), NO ONE TEST CAN PERFECTLY DESCRIBE WHO YOU ARE AS A UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Consider an n-dimensional space with the same number of variables are the test. For example, with MBTI, there are 4 ranges/8 “traits”. Think of yourself as a unique point in that 4-dimensional space. You are likely some amount of each trait. So, when you read descriptions about whatever they bin you into, realize you are not pegged into the exact archetype of that bin. Apply this same logic to any test you might use.

Read summaries. Accept things that resonate with you. Discard stuff that doesn’t. Watch out for the confirmation bias. Be skeptical.

Here are some [free] tests you could consider:

https://www.16personalities.com/

https://high5test.com/

https://www.goodlifeproject.com/sparketypes/

https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test

Explore the Surrounding World

Once you can identify at least some of your core values/beliefs, your strengths & weaknesses, and your definition of success, shift your focus to the world around you and how you interact with it. For each of these categories, think about both your current and desired states.

Interests – what are you currently drawn to? What might you be drawn to at some point?
Hobbies – what do you do now? What might you want in the future?
Relationships – do you need time in your life for current associated peoples? Future peoples?
Perspectives – how has life shaped the way you look at, well, life? And what other experiences do you need?
Knowledge – what do you know? What do you want to know?
Skills – which do you have now? Which do you wish you had?
Passions – what do you want time in your life for?
Places – where have you been? Where do you want to go? Where would you prefer to be?

Take some time and consider the careers that you know about, that you see others do, and that you thought at any point you might do. Do they have common elements or themes? For instance, do they all try to help other people indirectly? Do they all have something to do with making the world better? Hint, hint, if so, that might be a core value or yours.

Through the Wormhole Activity

I want you to imagine looking at your future selves through a wormhole. Basically, you can see where you got to and everywhere in between. If you could actually do this, what do you think you would see? Is your life chill or chaotic? Are you surrounded by humans or more reclusive? Are you rolling in excess wealth (and should consider ways to be generous that align to your core values & beliefs) or are you not limited by societies construct of money?

I want you to consider your day-to-day life, the practical aspects of following a particular career path, those mainstays you MUST have or you aren’t you. Hopefully the previous two sections gave you a good start at that, then use the instructions in the image below to put everything together.

And…now what?

No, that activity doesn’t just spit out the answers. What it does do is give you this concise summary of what you want from life and your career(s). You can take that and do some job/career exploration now. Here are some next steps:

Search for jobs (linked in, indeed, etc.) – you can’t do something you don’t even know exists!

Talk to humans, presumably humans who have jobs that might be interesting to you (just be cautious that the same position can vary widely from company to company or school to school based on culture and the exact people around you at that moment). Check out the Networking section of this guide to help with this part.

Remember that just because you have a degree in something does not mean you must pursue a specific career

ABOVE ALL – accept that there is no one true path. You can do a lot of different things and have the life you want. You can jump from a path you start on when/if you realize it isn’t for you. Regularly step back and look at where you are and if you are meeting the goals you have.

Keep modifying that sheet of paper from your wormhole activity. And know that we are always here to help you however we can!