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Farah Chowdhury

January 11th, 2017

What to do if you don’t know what to do

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Farah Chowdhury

January 11th, 2017

What to do if you don’t know what to do

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Being unsure about your future career direction can be an uncomfortable place to be. Being surrounded by very career focused classmates only adds to the pressure you can feel. But in our experience being undecided is no big thing. Actually it often results from a student not being prepared to completely compromise who they are and choose a career that is not for them.

That said, if left unattended these nagging questions about your future career tend to grow so here are eight things to consider to get you started:

  1. Acceptance. You are where you are. Don’t be hard on yourself, it uses up lots of creative energy that you need for the task in hand.
  2. Have a plan or rather a plan to get a plan! We have lots of resources on the career planning part of website to help you work out the best career fit for you.
  3. Talk to people but choose wisely! Conduct career conversations with people who will either support you in your career discovery efforts or provide you with key information. This could involve participants at career events, interviewing a LinkedIn alum contact, or booking an appointment with a career consultant.
  4. Conduct experiments. Talking to people, developing a plan are great ideas but if that feels like all theory and no practice then maybe it’s time for some experiments. This might involve organising a work shadowing opportunity with an Alum, organising an employer site visit, or volunteering to gain experience of a particular activity or sector.
  5. Be flexible. In the world of work the one certainty is change. Having a fixed idea may not be the best idea. Being undecided about a career can be a great opportunity to think about the potential customers for the skills, knowledge and experience that you are developing at LSE.
  6. Be creative and curious. As an LSE student your analytical skills and intellectual curiosity are well above the average. Give yourself permission and the space to apply these same skills to your career.
  7. Small simple steps. It doesn’t have to be something big – just commit to one small thing, maybe from the suggestions above. The important thing to is to make a start!
  8. Ask for help. Finding your career is a process and a lifelong process at that – we all need help to make the best decisions. We’re Monday-Friday with late opening on Thursdays so do engage with our resources and our team and you will also being helping us in with our mission:

LSE Careers – facilitating transitions from education to employment and supporting development of the skills required to build, and maintain, fulfilling careers.

We hope to see you soon!

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Farah Chowdhury

Posted In: Career planning | LSE Careers

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