Benjamin Todd

Usually this means starting by speaking to people already working in the job.

Later it could involve applying to jobs or finding ways to do short projects that are similar to actually doing the work.

It can take years to find your fit, and you'll never be certain about it.

So even once you take a job, see it too as an experiment.

Try it for a couple of years, then update your best guesses.

Early in your career, if you have the security, it can be worth planning to try out several career paths, aiming high, and being ready to quit if something is going so-so rather than great.

You can make this easier by carefully considering which order to explore your options, and making good backup plans.

Chapter 9.

How to make your career plan.

People often come to us trying to figure out what they should do over the next 10 or 20 years.

Others say they want to figure out the right career for them.

The problem with all of this is that, as we've seen, your plan is almost certainly going to change.

You'll change, more than you think.

The world will change.

Many industries around today won't even exist in 20 years.

And you'll learn more about what's best for you.

It's very hard to predict what you're going to be good at ahead of time.

In a sense, there is no stable, right career for you.

Rather, the best option will keep changing as the world changes and you learn more.

Many people we've advised would never have predicted the job they've ended up doing.