Photo by Florian Süß on Pexels
Written by Alicia Lee
When I first started university, I thought I needed to figure out my dream career as quickly as possible. I thought having a plan meant knowing what I wanted to do after graduation, what kind of company I wanted to work for, and what steps I needed to take to get there. The more specific the plan, the more confident I felt about the future. But somewhere along the way, I realized that I was spending more time trying to figure out the perfect plan than actually figuring out what I wanted.
As university students, we are constantly asked what comes next. What are you majoring in? What do you want to do after graduation? What kind of job are you looking for? These questions seem simple, but they can feel surprisingly difficult when you are still figuring yourself out.
I have changed my mind about my career more than once throughout university. Some experiences made me more certain about what I wanted, while others made me realize that something I thought I wanted was not actually the right fit for me. I have explored different areas of business, worked in different environments, and had conversations with people whose careers looked nothing like the path I originally imagined for myself.
At first, I saw changing my mind as a sign that I was not making enough progress. If I had already invested time into something, shouldn’t I stick with it? But I have started to realize that changing your mind is not necessarily going backwards. Sometimes, it is the result of learning something new. An experience does not have to confirm what you want to do to be valuable. Sometimes it tells you, “I really enjoy this.” Sometimes it tells you, “This is not for me.” Both answers are useful.
I have started thinking about these experiences less as steps that have to fit into one perfect career story and more as information. What did I enjoy? What did I learn? What skills did I develop? What would I want more of in my next experience? These questions have been much more useful to me than trying to predict exactly where I will be five years from now.
I used to think a career plan needed to look something like: Graduate, get a specific job, earn a specific credential, move into the next position, and eventually arrive at some clearly defined destination.
Now, I think there is a difference between having a plan and having a direction. A plan tells you exactly where you are going. A direction tells you what you are moving toward. Having a direction means knowing the kind of work you want to explore and the skills you want to build, while accepting that the exact role or industry might change along the way. That distinction has made career decisions feel a lot less overwhelming.
The skills you develop in one experience won’t disappear when you move into something else. Learning how to communicate with different people, analyze information, solve problems, work under pressure, or take responsibility for something can be valuable in almost any career. Your experiences do not have to form a perfectly straight line to be connected.
There is so much pressure to build the “right” résumé, choose the “right” major, get the “right” internship, and know what you want to do before you graduate. It can be easy to compare your path to someone else’s and feel like you’re falling behind because theirs seems more certain. But you only see the finished version of someone else’s path. You do not see the opportunities they turned down, the jobs they did not enjoy, the plans they changed, or the uncertainty they felt along the way.
If you are in university and you are unsure about what comes next, you do not necessarily need to figure out your entire career right now. Try something. Talk to someone. Apply for an opportunity that makes you a little nervous. Take a class because you are curious. Give yourself permission to change your mind.
You might not find your career from one experience. But you might find your next step. And sometimes, that is all the direction you need.