3 Reasons You’re Confused About Your Next Career Move

Are you currently in a career that feels like it’s sucking the life out of you? Or in a job that causes you to doubt yourself, your abilities, and your purpose? 😰 In this blog post, I share the 3 reasons you’re confused about your next career move.  

3 Reasons You’re Confused About Your Next Career Move

A lot of women are unhappy at work, and they feel stuck, stagnant, and undervalued. And the main reason they feel stuck is that they don’t know what to do next in their career. Does that sound like you? If yes, continue reading to find out the 3 reasons that are most likely causing you to be confused about your next career move.

Reason #1: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Like.

The first reason that you’re likely confused about your next career move is that you don’t know what exactly you don’t like. Yes, you know that you’re unhappy at work – but what is the problem? It’s not enough to simple know that you don’t like your job, it’s important that you know why!

Take some time to carefully determine what is it about your current career that you dislike.

• Is it the environment?
• The people?
• The work that you’re doing?
• The commute?
• The working hours?
• The compensation?

If you don’t know exactly what it is that you don’t like, you’re always going to have a hard time finding a fulfilling career or next career move.

Furthermore, when you don’t know what you don’t like, you end up making a career move without clarity. You’re transitioning into something else out of desperation. And what usually happens here is that you end up in a cycle of being in another job that you dislike because you didn’t take the time to get clear about what you don’t like initially.  

To navigate this cause of confusion about your next career move, pause and take some time to reflect on your current career. Get super clear about what you dislike because that will help you figure out what you need to be looking for in your next career move.

Reason #2: You Don’t Know Yourself Well Enough.

When you don’t know who you are, finding a career that you love is pretty much impossible. Seriously-– because if you don’t know who you are, how will you know what you enjoy doing? What is important to you? What are the skills you want to spend your time using and developing and nurturing?

You have to get clear about who you are before you can find work that you love.

After doing the self-work to figure out who you are, you have to then research to see what fulfilling career options are out there for you.

You’re going to be confused by the next career move if you don’t know who you are. Why? Because every time you’re out there looking for jobs, new opportunities, you’re probably asking yourself questions like: is this it? Is this right? Is this what I should be doing? But you’ll discover that answering those questions will always be difficult because you haven’t figured out who you are yet. And who you are is the evaluation metric for every role.

Reason #3: You Don’t Know How to Move Past What Other People Think.

The third and final reason you’re confused about your next career move is that you don’t know how to get over the opinions of other people.

Honestly, this is sort of a hard one to navigate. A lot of us in our careers are conditioned to do what people have. Especially us women, we’re conditioned to do what other people have said we should do.

More often than not, we make real decisions about our lives based on hypothetical reactions from those around us.⁠

There are some careers that people think you shouldn’t be in because you’re a “woman” or because you’re a woman of color – especially for Black women. Additionally, there are some career spaces that if you want to enter them, people are going to question you and ask, do you know what you’re doing?

There are also times when you’re leaving one career to go into another, but people might not understand because the career you’re in right now seems “prestigious”. So, when you’re pivoting to something else, you might get questions like, you’re leaving that good job? Really? Are you sure?

As a result, these voices can keep you stuck in a role you hate. You’re always going to be confused about your next career move when you don’t know how to not let the opinions of other people dictate your thoughts and your actions. Every time you talk to someone or every time you reflect on what your next career move should be, you’re going to hear those voices telling you it’s a bad decision.

So what’s next for you?

Well, it’s time to shed the expectations society has for you and start investing in your own satisfaction by doing the self-work you need to unlock your fulfilling career options.⁠ Release yourself and your career from the expectations of other people.

So, those are the three reasons why you’re probably confused about your next career move!