This question often is completely ignored when it comes to career pathing. Most people think you’ll just figure out whether you like it once you get there and that the worst thing that could happen is that you learn about what you don’t like. Unfortunately, that is the status quo. But what if you could flip this on its head and proactively identify which path is right for you before you land that job? What if you could feel certain that you know which role and industry is the best match for you? Wouldn’t you want to do it?

At WOKEN, we’re flipping your current protocols and assumptions on its head. We believe it is of utmost importance to do career exploration as a thorough process before you begin applying to any job. This process of exploration can get you to a point where you feel clear and confident in which role, industry and company environment is right for you, before you touch even one online job application. …

A plethora of people simply say that their goal or passion is to “help people.” However, every single job helps…someone….to do something. The real question is — who exactly do you want to help? With what? Why? Where? How? These are questions that may take some time to clarify, but once you do, then you can figure out a career path that is specific and fitting to you, rather than quoting your passion in a broad and generic fashion. By answering these questions, you can then figure out what exact role should you play in this world!

So how do you get more specific with identifying your ideal career path? …

Society has never been able to answer the age-old question “how do I figure out what to do with my life?” and oftentimes people roam through life never having answered it. Through personal job search experience, hundreds of referrals to coach professionals struggling to navigate their career journeys, an understanding of the limitations and best practices of today’s job search ecosystem, and my coaching training, I have developed a process that individuals can use to finally, effectively, confidently answer that daunting question.

Why is this the best time for career exploration?

The world is in a volatile place, and while there are many things outside of our control, this is also an opportunity to focus inward on what you can control. It’s an opportune moment to think about your role in society and whether your work is challenging you, fulfilling you, and energizing you? When nothing else seems to be going right, you should at least feel certain that you are intentionally tapping into your skills and interests and making an impact you believe in. This is the perfect time to take stock of your current choices, achievements, and most of all, your future potential. On a scale of 0–10, how clear do you feel that you know which career path is best for you? We’re here to tell you that there are steps you can take to ensure you feel confident and clear in your path forward, and we’ll tell you how to get there. …

The coronavirus pandemic has created a tough job landscape, but it has also created an opportunity for career “rethinking” as well. Many people are considering pivots and turning towards skill development and learning opportunities like graduate school. But how do you decide what’s next? How do you think about what you want, and also, how to get there? Below, we’ll take you through a step-by-step guide to answer these (and other) questions.

What is career exploration?

Career exploration is a process that is separate and preliminary to the job search, including a series of steps of practical learning about potential career paths of interest as well as self-reflection. The goals and outcome of the process are to learn, compare, contrast, and narrow in on your options until you reach a point of clarity and confidence about which career path is best for you. …

There are various intriguing similarities between dating and your career in terms of the process, your mindset, approach, as well as how it impacts your life more broadly. First, let’s think about the stages of the process.

• Learn what you want first — With time, you learn more about what you want, but there are ways to learn about what you want BEFORE you get into your next “relationship.” The more you figure out what you want, the easier it is to narrow your search, assess options, accept sacrifices that aren’t crucial, and confidently identify when you found something that fits. …

Some of you may be spiritual buffs and others may be ultra realists. I’m here to tell you that after 7+ years of personal experience as well as coaching others with career exploration, I have honed both practical steps you can take as well as a broader concept for how to figure out your purpose. If you’re at all interested in figuring out a career path that aligns with you, consider the concept below.

You may have read “The Secret” which ultimately shares that wherever your energy goes, you will ultimately reach that outcome. …

I want to share with you all my reflections, lessons learned, and experiences as a nontechnical founder building software for those of you in a similar boat to learn from.

After ~2 years and several early startup programs, I learned about how to get a business off the ground. But, after that early stage, I found myself yet again like a skydiver without a parachute. I was continuing on my startup without any structure, program, or the right advisors. Hence, I made some mistakes and I now have some important lessons learned…see below.

In these early programs, all I kept hearing was “don’t code until…” and then some variation of describing “readiness” to code. Usually, people would talk about doing a proof of concept, a no-code prototype, gaining users, gaining early revenue/traction, proving out key value metrics, etc. …

I don’t believe all job searching is a lost hope during these volatile times, BUT, if you think that based on your current target direction (ideal role, companies, and industries), that you may struggle to land a new job in the next few weeks, there may be a better way to spend your time. In fact, I believe that this is the BEST time for career exploration.

I’ve been career coaching hundreds of professionals for 7+ years. In doing so, folks have come to me for help with job search support but in fact, they were struggling with their search because they didn’t know what path they truly wanted. Over time, I came up with several tools, frameworks, and processes to help individuals gain career clarity. To give you some extra trust in me, my professional background is at the following institutions: Goldman Sachs, Bridgewater Associates, WeWork/Flatiron School, Aon Hewitt, Binghamton University Professor, and the Columbia University Career Design Lab. …