The Key to Navigating Career Decisions with Confidence

When I found myself at a career crossroads two years ago, I polled about 85 people for their opinions on what I should do. I had been climbing the ladder in my organization for seven years—through five job titles—and had reached the point where something needed to shift. The problem was, I wasn’t sure what to shift: Do I scale back my hours? Advocate to reshape my role? Find another role in a larger nonprofit? Finally launch my own business?

I asked friend after mentor after trusted colleague for their guidance. Since I was feeling so wobbly about the decision within myself, I was stuck in a spin of wanting someone to tell me exactly what to do. But after the 85th conversation, I realized: no one could make this decision except for me. And I had no idea of how to do that.

Decision-making is central to the modern career landscape. Back when my mother graduated from high school, she was presented with three career options: nurse, teacher, or secretary. Today, the options available are endless and can be downright overwhelming. (Did you know that being a Professional Cuddler is a real job? So is a Corporate Poet.)

Not only that—the clear, linear paths through one company or industry have become a thing of the past. Now, we don’t choose one track to follow over the course of our lives. Instead, we are creating our own custom career paths, navigating twists and turns and pivoting onto new roads as we please.

That means that we’re in the driver’s seat; we are the decider of where we’re going. That gives us a lot of freedom to explore, follow our interests and talents, and grow in exciting ways. But it’s also a huge responsibility to be in control of our own paths. It means that we’re making more decisions than ever before—and we need to get better at making those choices.

Here’s the fact I was missing as I endlessly polled others about my professional path: Decision-making requires criteria. When you’re forging your own career path, you’re the driver and the navigator, and you need a navigation system to guide you forward.

I didn't know my criteria. I needed to take the time to take the pieces of self-knowledge that I’ve been cultivating over the course of my career thus far—who I am, what I stand for, and what I bring to the table—and translate them into a set of simple touchstones, in writing, that I could use as a practical tool to evaluate my options.

These touchstones are the points on my career compass—my personal mission, the core values I express through my work, the toolbox of strengths and experience that I carry with me, my vision for the kind of impact I want to have on the world, and my personal definition of success.

Now, when I’m faced with a career-related decision point, I can hold up each opportunity to this set of five clear criteria and evaluate how it aligns with my career compass. As a result, I’m choosing not just the next opportunities, but the next opportunities that are right for me.

When you are clear on your criteria, your career compass, you can put your finger on what’s missing where you are and why—so that you can make intentional choices about where you move next.

You can bring focus your search amidst endless opportunities, and filter out the ones that do not align.

And you have a whole bank of language about what makes you tick, so you can confidently articulate why choices you’re making are the right fit.

As we navigate our career paths, too often we're focused on the destination—the next job—but it's the compass that really matters.

Defining my career compass has made me more purposeful and more resilient as I navigate my career path. Now, when I meet with friends and colleagues, I listen to their guidance and take it into account rather than hoping they’ll make the decisions for me. I’m in the driver’s seat. And the view from here is great.