How to think about your career when you don’t know where to start

1. Dream

Being in a dream state is really good when you don’t know what to do. It allows you to think about things that you’ve done or you know of and you can remember them in a really fond light. This includes the stuff you’ve done both when you were little and more recently. How could these things apply to the world of work? Follow your instincts a bit to understand and learn more about those creative thoughts.

2. Narrow down your focus

Compress your dreams about what you might do into a smaller number of things you want to get more serious about. Find out what skills are required for what you want to do and see how you can develop those skills.

3. Experiment

As you identify the options you’re more serious about, try and experience them for yourself. You don’t want to go into anything without any understanding of what’s involved. How can you gain that experience? Get to know the good and the not so good aspects of the areas you’re interested in.

4. Speak to other people

Bounce ideas off other people and ask what they think. Get input from family, friends, teachers, a career adviser or anyone else who knows you well. Doing this sort of stuff alone can be so difficult so don’t feel you have to.

5. Be patient

Finding out what to do when you don’t know what you want to do can be one of the most wonderful and also one of the most frustrating things. Give time to the process and work at it over a period of time. Don’t expect it to suddenly come at you like a meteor out of the sky.

Simon North is the founder of Position Ignition, one of the UK’s leading career development and career planning companies. Follow Simon North and his team @PosIgnition and get more advice from him on their Career Advice Blog.