Many of us completed school with a career decision made. Some of us did not. Neither path is right or wrong. Career decisions seem like they would come very early on during middle school, high school, or early adulthood. Then, maybe a few times over while accepting or declining a job offer or seeking a new role or promotion.
What no one ever told us, is that career decisions need to come in the middle - not the beginning or end. You are 10+ or more into your work life and it is imperative that you address career decisions before you apply to another job using that blue ‘easy apply’ button on LinkedIn.
Typically in mid-career, the first thing we do when we want to change our work in some way, is hop on LinkedIn or Indeed and start scrolling through posted jobs. Some like it broad and don’t use filters and some like it narrow and use the salary filter first among others. It’s exciting, enticing, and it feels so productive so you keep doing it. This works well, if you know exactly what you want, you narrow your search parameters, and you have your story and documents in order.
For example, a corporate project manager is ready to become a senior corporate project manager in the same industry. This person isn’t sure if they are planning to do that through a promotion at their current company or if they want to cash out on a pay bump by leaving for a competitor. Or, let’s say, an employee in management is over being a people leader and wants to go back to being an individual contributor. This person loves their work, their organization, and their colleagues. However, they dislike their boss so much that they just need a slight shift… maybe even a lateral or strategic side step. This person knows exactly what they want to do next and they are just waiting for it to be posted on the internal job board.
The key with these examples is that these folks have absolute certainty.
Do you know what you need out of your next career decision and job search?
Applying before you are ready is a recipe for spinning your wheels. But, what does “ready” mean in this context? Readiness is more than an updated resume, refreshed LinkedIn profile, and a new headshot. While these are all very important assets for your next job search, there are some important things to consider before you are “open to work” (regardless of whether or not you choose to turn on the green banner).
Emotion-based decisionmaking on something like where you will spend 40+ hours a week is a risky business.
Not knowing what you need out of your next role, before you get to the offer stage sets you up for poor negotiation (or worse yet no negotiation). In case no one told you, in many cases, the first offer is rarely the final offer.
You don’t necessarily need someone else’s framework or decision tool. You need one based on what you need, want, and desire for your next. That is the single most important career decision you’ll make as you decide what is next for your career. It is more important than the font on your resume, the about section on your LinkedIn profile, and whether or not you take the next offer that lands on your desk.
This career decision contains the factors you need in your next role for it to be a “yes” and knowledge of what makes it a “no”. It includes your timeline, goal, knowledge of what you are seeking, and decisions on where it is aligned with your values, strengths, abilities, and interests. This may sound like a lot of career decisions, but it all comes together to create a clear picture of how you will filter for jobs, evaluate a salary offer, and know when your search is over.
Deciding in advance on the above factors in a thoughtful way will ensure you don’t stay somewhere too long or too short. It will also help you avoid making decisions based on logical fallacies like the ones below:
Affective Forecasting Error (aka “grass is greener”)
Overestimating how much happier a new boss, job, or company will make you because you project an idealized scenario onto the unknown option while minimizing downsides.Sunk-Cost Fallacy
Investing more and more time, money, or effort into a bad-fit or losing career, business, or job because you have already invested so much, rather than evaluating whether continuings makes sense going forward.Status Quo Bias
The preference of what is over changes due to avoidance of discomfort or fear.Novelty Bias (aka “shiny object syndrome”)
Overvaluing a new job or career over what you have now because it is fresh, exciting, and mistake-free so far.Opportunity Cost Neglect
Not accounting for the better alternatives you miss out on while sticking with a suboptimal choice.Hyperbolic Discounting (aka “present bias”)
Putting immediate gratification over quick relief from a problem over the long-term rewards that may come from staying the course or pushing through a difficult phase.Base-Rate Neglect
Ignoring the statistical realities of a new venture or a change.Loss Aversion
Avoiding quitting because walking away means admitting or materializing a loss.Cherry-Picking
Looking at a new opportunity and focusing only on its best elements while ignoring the flaws that exist beneath the surface.The Endowment Effect
Overvaluing a project, goal, or path just because it is yours.Regret Aversion
Fearing the possibility of "missing out" on a seemingly better path so intensely that you jump ship early just to avoid the pain of future regret.Omission-Commission Bias
Judging yourself more harshly for the active mistake of quitting and switching (commission) than for the passive mistake of continuing to fail by staying put (omission).
If you see yourself in any of these, it is perfectly normal. Before you jump into a job search or decide to plant yourself, keep reading for a roadmap making your next career decision.
Job Searches
Have you ever had this experience?
You decide it is finally time to change your work and you finally sit down to update your resume. After fidgeting with the formatting to get it just right, you open up Indeed or LinkedIn and navigate to the job search field. You find some roles and before you know it you’ve scrolled through so many the details run together. Finally, you find one to apply to. Ugh, of course, it makes you create a new Workday account.
This job posting names a few skills you have that aren’t on your resume yet, ok great.
Pause the application, update the resume to align it and ensure your keywords are accurate, truthful, and aligned.
The resume has now been updated again, but it is done. You are ready to be done with this application. You just need to get this done, so you skip the cover letter while telling yourself “who reads cover letters anyway?”
Whether it took you twenty minutes or three hours, it all feels too long. You wait for a response… days go by… Then, nothing.
A week goes by, still nothing. It feels like your time went into the endless job application void. You think to yourself, “maybe it was because I didn’t include a cover letter?”
During your next job searching session you decide to begrudgingly submit a cover letter. After staring at the blank page for what seems like forever, you go to your favorite AI tool and have it do a first pass or grab your university’s generic template. You update a few details and call it “good enough” and end up submitting a cover letter that looks like everyone else’s cover letter.
Then, you keep applying.
It’s a grind, but you keep going.
Then finally, one day, you open your email and see a request for an interview! You have to go through your files because you don’t completely remember the job and you were so burnt out on searching you didn’t log this one in your tracker. That doesn’t matter because the excitement from getting an interview overrides your confusion and frustration.
The recruiter phone screen interview goes well, whew! You are invited in for a second and a third interview all of the way through the final.
You keep applying even though you want to put all of your eggs in this one basket, but you’ve been burned before after not getting the offer in the final stage. You're smart and you know better.
Then, you get the call with an offer. You are so excited you ignore the yellow and red flags. You may negotiate the offer, but in most cases decide to just take it. You just want the job search to be over.
Then the first day of your new role comes and you feel nervous, but on top of the world because you are ready for this next chapter. You are managing your learning curve well and that ends. You feel like you really know what you are doing.
Then, the honeymoon period ends.
One day, an inkling of dread sets in. You quietly hope it goes away, but it gets louder until you can’t ignore it.
Then, whether your cycle is 6 months or 6 years, you repeat the process.
Career Decisions
Putting career decisions ahead of job searching simplifies everything. You’ll know what to look for, where to find it, and that your efforts are meaningfully working toward your goal. When you spend an hour on a cover letter and you pour your heart into it, the hiring manager will read it (yes, that still happens) and they will pull you in for an interview because they see that you know your story, you’ve communicated it effectively, and you are ready to help contribute to a problem at the organization that you understand. This is very different from a cover letter written by AI or barely edited from your career services team at your university. Generic cover letters typically don’t get first interviews.
First, you must know why you are making a change.
Did you get laid off? Are you annoyed that the same lady in HR keeps spelling your name wrong? Are you on a PIP? Have you wanted to change your career for two years and know that your current approach isn’t producing results? Are you applying for roles that are exciting and getting interviews, but never making it to the offer stage? Are you a serial job hopper? Have you been at the same company for 10-15 years and you want to make a change, but are stuck on the details?
Then, you need to identify who this and why now.
Do you work to live? Live to work? Or are you somewhere in between? Did you start your work life off answering this one way and now you aren’t sure if that fits anymore?
Finally, you must write down what you need and want out of your next position, company, and leader.
What do you need out of your work? If you don’t know this up front, it is hard to ensure you get it once an offer is in your inbox. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a woman not negotiate the offer because she was either too excited about the offer or she forgot or she feared it would be rescinded if she asked for what she deserved (aka market rate). If you don’t complete this step, there may be some uncertainty that impacts your search at every stage from applications to negotiation. Or worse yet, you may get stuck in one of the logical fallacies we reviewed earlier.
Career decisions should always come before job searching. My process for career decisions that lead to successful job searches has four steps:
Your Values
We clearly articulate your self-knowledge through careful questioning and assessments. Your efforts in every step that follows are more impactful and help you reach your goal faster. This becomes your decision making filter and it is personalized to you. Negotiation is much easier because most details are decided in advance. You can start this work by identifying your core values, knowing yourself, writing down your goal, and narrowing your focus because exploring every opportunity is a method of avoidance and distraction even though it feels really good in the moment.
Your Story
Knowing your story is important for communicating it and authentically aligning it to the job you are interviewing for. Before you touch your resume or cover letter, we think through your story, your skills, and what you bring to the table. This results in clarity, effective communication, and confidence. You can start this work by trying reviewing your career history from an objective place.Your Options
We explore as wide or narrow as we need to in order to create your clarity. Then, we refine and decide. These are essential steps to ensure your job search is focused and you end up with a result you want. You can begin this work by writing down a finite list of options and conducting your own research.Your Plan
We craft your plan and we test it. This isn’t a static report, but it is carefully aligned to you. I train you on how to engage and experiment in a way that aligns with your goals and preferences. We identify the tools, support, and resources to ensure you are successful. We even define what ongoing career development looks like so that you have a roadmap for the future. Then, finally, it is time to refresh your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile. It’s easy for you to do with or without my support because of everything we have done up to this point. You can begin this work by writing down a goal for your job search based on the three prior steps and taking off a small part to research, test, or implement, then updating your career documents and moving toward your job search or career change.
A career decision should always come in the middle before job searching. The ones we made when we were young were well-informed based on what we knew then, but they don’t fit us now and they definitely won’t set us up for the future.
