Design the career and future you want with a few simple questions

Deciding what you want to do in the future isn’t easy. There are so many things to consider: what you’ll do with your career, where you’ll live, how you’ll apply your studies, deciding whether to work for yourself or someone else… the list goes on!

Designing your future is an example of a wicked problem. These kind of problems are difficult to explain, let alone solve. They don’t have a simple or final end, and the process of solving them are influenced by external constraints. Wicked problems are a key feature of Stanford University’s innovative concept of “life design”.

Here at UTS, we don’t want you to just have a successful career. We want your career to feed into the bigger picture of you. We want your career to help you have a well-lived and joyful life.

That’s where Career and Life Design gets put to the test. One aspect explored in our Career and Life Design workshops is that of our work and world views. These are the overarching opinions we have of the world and our work.

Although they may change over time, thinking about these two viewpoints, as well as how they either clash or complement each other, can help you figure out a plan for your future career and life. Here are key prompts to help you ascertain your work and world views in order to answer the wicked problem of what you are going to do with your life.

Work view

A work view is essentially what work is and what it means to you. This doesn’t have to be the traditional idea of a job or what you do for money, but rather your definition of what good work represents.

Take a few minutes to complete the sentences below.

• Good or worthwhile work is…
• The reasons I work are…
• I gain fulfilment from my work through…
• My ideal workplace is…
• By the time I retire I want…
• The future of work is…

World view

Your world view is, very simply, how you view the world and your purpose in it. World views are central to understanding how to design a life that is fulfilling, joyful, and impactful.

Take a few minutes to complete the sentences below.

• The most important things in my life are…
• I strive for…
• For me, to live a good life involves…
• My dreams for my future are…
• Others play a role in my life by…

Putting it all together

By now, you should have a few sentences to provide some structure in understanding your world and work views.

First of all, consider what made you most excited when filling out the answers, or which prompt had you writing most. This can help you narrow down what it is that drives you, what your passions are in life.

Next, look at the similarities and differences within your world and work views. Do they complement or clash with each other? Are they able to be integrated, or are they in complete opposition? If your world view is incompatible with what you think you want to do for work in the future, you might want to re-evaluate the industry or organisations you had in mind for work.

Finally, ask yourself whether there’s an opportunity to improve the alignment of your world and work views. This could be still using the skills you already have, just in the not-for-profit space. Or, if community is the most important thing to you in setting up your future, you could consider moving from an office job to one that interacts with lots of different people.

The main thing to remember is that there are endless possibilities. Try to think about dreams as though there are zero barriers in place, then hypothesise how you could get there even with real-world constraints.

If you’re interested in continuing your life design journey, consider coming along to one of our Career and Life Design workshops. Still not convinced? Here’s some feedback from your fellow students:

We covered lots of good and helpful material, which was great.  I really enjoyed networking with fellow students – it was more helpful than I expected.

– Barry, Masters of Intellectual Property

I’m not really sure what the trick was, but the Uncovering the Hidden Job Market workshop was the most concretely helpful. It’s directly applicable and less nebulous. Candy [Careers Consultant] did a great job on that one.

– Callan, Bachelor of Communications and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies

Read more about Career and Life Design at UTS here.

Featured image courtesy of Pexels