Test, define, build, impact: The four stages of an enjoyable and impactful career

Our careers present us with one of the biggest challenges we face - to find an external expression for our deepest interests and talents in a form that will be useful to others.

This challenge is not to be underestimated. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of paths on offer. And for most of us, it’s difficult to locate our true interests at the beginning of our careers. The age-old advice to ‘follow your passion’ isn’t all that helpful at a stage in your life where you are quite likely to have no idea what you’re passionate about.

To rise to this challenge, it may be helpful to view your career as four specific stages.

Stage One: Test

Despite what we might like to think, we are all pretty bad predictors of what makes us happy.

So at the beginning of your career, experiment. Say yes to every opportunity, live where opportunities can easily find you, and make lots of mistakes that you can learn from.

As you experiment, pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Since most jobs have bad beginnings, it’s also important to pay attention to what the work looks like for people a few years ahead of you.

The earlier you learn these lessons, the better. It’s bad enough not getting what you want out of your career. But it’s even worse to have an idea of what you want and to find out - all too late - that it isn’t in fact what you wanted all along.

Stage Two: Define

As you experiment, start to define the specific characteristics of work that you enjoy. (My separate blog on the components of good work might help).

Be as specific as you can about what you like and what you don’t. Do you prefer to work inside or outside? Do you prefer to work alone, or in a group? Do you like variety, or do you prefer grappling with the details of one big project? Do you prefer big picture strategy, or delivery?

Once you have defined what good work means to you, you’ll have a much better chance of finding it.

Stage Three: Build

Once you’ve defined what good work means to you, go find it!

Don’t expect the work to be enjoyable right from the outset. Most jobs have bad beginnings, because shit tends to roll downhill.

Before you can expect consistently good work, you need to get good at what you do.

Do this by building your career capital - the skills, networks and experience you will need to succeed.

Examples of transferable, future-proof career capital include creative problem solving, a strong network, public speaking, clear writing, psychology, design, persuasion, programming and concentration.

Focus on the process of building this career capital, rather than the end result. Pick projects which, even if they fail to achieve your desired outcome, will equip you with skills and contacts that will benefit you in the future.

For many careers, you don’t need to obtain mastery in any one discipline. A rare combination of skill sets and experiences is probably more useful to you in the long run, and often easier to achieve.

Once you feel the learning curve slowing in any particular job, move on. Boredom is failure!

Stage Four: Impact

Later in your career, you will hopefully have built the career capital required to really enjoy your working life.

At this point in your career, you can afford to be much more selective about what you choose to do than you could at the beginning of your career.

Now, if an opportunity doesn’t really excite you, or doesn’t provide massive scope for impact, you should feel free say no to it.

In other words, apply the ‘Hell yes or no!’ test. If an opportunity makes you think ‘hell yes, I have to do this!’, then go for it. Otherwise, say no.

When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to completely throw yourself into that rare things that really excite you.

Further reading:

Your Career Can Help Solve the World’s Most Pressing Problems, 80,000 Hours

Career Capital, 80,000 Hours

Key ideas, 80,000 Hours

Hell Yeah or No, Derek Sivers

So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport

On Career Crises, Alain de Botton

The Input / Output Confusion, The Book of Life

How to Pick a Career that Actually Fits You, Tim Urban

The Top Five Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades, Tim Ferriss

Commencement speech at the University of the Arts, 2012, Neil Gaiman