4 Practical Tools to Guide Tough Career Decisions
Have you been wondering if you need a career shift? Or perhaps there is a new job opportunity but you're unsure if you should take it.
Early this year, I quit a stable full-time job to pursue an unconventional career path. Some friends and family questioned if I was making a spontaneous decision, but in reality, it took months of careful thought and planning.
In today's article, I'd like to share some tools that I found useful in making a major career shift.
1) Traffic Light Test 🚥
Imagine that you have to make a career decision. When you think about the new opportunity, do you feel...:
- Mostly excited & a bit scared? That is your green light to take the new job.
- Mostly scared? This is a yellow light. You need to pause and gather more information.
- Dread? A red light telling you not to take the new job.
Thinking of an unconventional opportunity in rural Manitoba excited me. In contrast, continuing my current job filled me with dread.
Traffic light test is a simple tool to help you tap into your intuition and "gut" feeling.
2) Theory of Worker's Motivation 🧑⚕️
Using the two-factor theory of work motivation can help you see what's good and what's missing in your current job.
Seeing what each option offered and lacked side-by-side helped me understand why I felt so excited about the new Manitoba opportunity:
3) Prototype 🧪
Imagine you are a lawyer who has always dreamed of opening a cafe. ☕ After months of careful planning, you quit your job to open the store.
You love it initially, but quickly realize that you don't like many parts of running a cafe (hiring and training staff, managing inventory, accounting, etc).
Once again, you're left with a job that makes you unhappy (in addition to financial stress).
This costly mistake could have been avoided by prototyping:
- Work one day a week at a coffee shop
- Connect with coffee shop owners and ask them questions
- Work at a catering company to learn about the food industry
Before I quit my full-time job, I went to Manitoba for 2 weeks to experience the locum work first-hand. Prototyping gave me the confidence to make a major career shift.
4) Question Assumptions 🙋
Following three successful amusement parks, Disney launched their fourth park in Paris. Unfortunately, the revenue was significantly lower than expected.
The issue? Their projections assumed a visitor would stay an average of three days, but in reality, most visitors only stayed for one day. Unlike the other three parks with 45 rides, Paris only had 15 – enough for just a one-day visit.
Someone far down the decision chain forgot to ask, "What has to prove true for this to work?" This simple oversight caused Paris Disneyland years of financial struggle.
For major decisions, question the assumptions in this order:
- Most important & least certain assumptions
- Less important, but still uncertain
- Least important, most certain
❓ "What assumptions must hold for this to work?"
❓ "What must hold true for me to be happy?"
❓ "What evidence supports these assumptions, and can I test them quickly and inexpensively?"
Move Forward with Confidence
Big career decisions can be overwhelming, but using the right tools can help you make the choice with confidence.
"Traffic Light Test" is credited to this book. Check it out!
Join me on a journey to redesign life, one step at a time! 👊
Member discussion