Deciding on a career is one of the most important decisions one makes in life. It informs not only your job trajectory, but also your enjoyment in your life (both at work and outside of work), as well as your contribution and influence in the world. Moreover, everyone's paths are unique, and there is no standardized process to follow. Traditional approaches to career advice tend to explore one's skills and match them to job descriptions and economies, while pragmatic suggestions for high-demand jobs in the market usually involve testing some waters based on established routes for high-demand employment opportunities. However, starting instead with the problems you enjoy solving can lead to a more thoughtful and inventive exploration of careers that align not only with your personal goals but also provide value at work and socially beyond that. Ultimately, exploring the issues you get curious about or care about can lead to fulfilling careers oriented toward your personal and professional growth aspirations.
The Power of Problem-Driven Career Discovery
At the centre of problem-driven career discovery is the idea that many, large and small, problems in the world need creative solutions. Problems exist in every domain: climate change, healthcare, education, technology, social justice, etc. When you centre your career exploration around problems that matter to you most, you connect with an intrinsic motivator that can sustain you through the inevitable slugging through the ups and downs of working life. Instead of searching for jobs that fit within existing boxes, problem-driven career discovery is about doing things that make you feel purposeful and curious!
Understanding Your Motivations
The first part of this journey is self-reflection. Think about the issues that consistently come to your attention in your life. What news stories or documentaries do you find yourself following or enjoying? What types of conversations energize you, make you frustrated or irritated? Are there continual themes in your life you'd like to change? These emotions can provide helpful hints to the problems that are important to you. For some, it might be environmental sustainability, for others it might be access to high-quality education, mental health awareness, or using and developing technology.
Writing can be a powerful component of this process. Document your actions, including when you volunteered in your community or began a project, as well as when your emotions got the best of you in a discussion about social change. Over time, you will start to see a pattern related to the core problems that are significant to you. Awareness is the first step to creating a career that is meaningful to you, as well as beneficial to others.
Researching the Problem Landscape
After you have identified the problems you care about, the next step is to conduct research on them in a broader context. What is the breadth of the issue? Who are the actors involved? What current solutions are being implemented? You may find it useful to look at academic articles, industry reports, and thought leadership articles to get a holistic view of the issue. You should also participate in conferences, webinars, and community events to connect with experts and practitioners addressing these issues and challenges.
As you are researching these issues, look for gaps in current solutions. Where are the pain points? What is not being addressed or served to its fullest potential? This type of exploratory mindset will enhance your strategy and how you think about the issue, as well as help you find openings that you may be able to contribute to with your own unique skill set, experience, and lens of the world. Remember, many of the most impactful careers result from the overlap of personal passion and an unaddressed societal need.
Mapping Problems to Career Paths
Once you are clear on the problems you are looking to solve, you can start to brainstorm pathways towards possible careers. This is a process that requires creativity and an open mind, since it is very unlikely that any complicated problem will fit into its original and clear form into a job title. For example, if you have a passion for solving climate change, your job paths could include something like renewable energy engineer, environmental policy maker, sustainable business consultant, or climate change writer.
To expand your depth of understanding, look into people who have taken unconventional paths surrounding similar problems. Read about their stories, watch interviews, and do outreach for an informational interview. These role models can introduce you to many ways in which people can contribute to solving the same problem or a switch to a field or hybrid jobs that did occurr [not] on your radar.
Developing Relevant Skills and Experience
Once you've narrowed down your lists of potential career options, shift your focus to skill-building and gaining the experience to make that impact. Some of this learning may involve formal education (degrees and certificates), but a lot of it is competing in online and workshop courses with self-directed learning. Equally as vital is the real-world experience. It's important to seek out as many internships, volunteer opportunities, or side projects as you can find. The beauty of hands-on experiences is that they help you test your assumptions, refine your interests and skills, and produce a portfolio on what you have done to demonstrate you care.
Networking is critical! Join professional associations, communities online, and local organizations involved with the issue you want to pursue. Your network can provide mentorship, involve you in job leads, and build opportunities to work collaboratively with one another. Career paths are rarely linear, and it is important to continuously learn and pivot with new ideas and experiences.
Overcoming Challenges and Staying Motivated
There may be squabbles in your overall pursuit of a problem-driven career, maybe from people in a more conventional way, or a situation where it’s not so clear as you are navigating something that hasn’t been mapped out yet. One thing to invest in is resilience and a growth mindset to have to set of orientation in challenges. Reframing setbacks as information rather than failures is the first step, and having supportive colleagues with you in the journey is a good way to manage, reflect on your growth, and learn from your trial and error.
I also think it is important to remain connected to my “why” to stay motivated. This is to always remind myself of the betterment I am trying to create or the people/community that I serve. I think it is essential to take the opportunity to celebrate successes or wins along the way, too. Celebrate every time you close an assignment, or you have received positive feedback, or progress has been made because of what it is you did!
The Broader Impact: Careers as Vehicles for Change
When you pick a career that aligns with the problems you want to solve, work can become more than a paycheck. It can become a means of making change. People who have a purpose in their work can lead to more job satisfaction, engagement, and legacy. Often, problem-oriented professionals can lead and inspire others to engage and use their creativity to contribute in novel ways that reach beyond the person.
An increasing number of jobs and employers are actively searching for candidates who exhibit a genuine desire to find solutions to real-world problems. Candidates who pursue jobs for the purposes of changing or improving processes to have a direct impact on businesses are often someone who have demonstrated passion, creativity, and a sense of purpose to an employer. These types of employees are positively disruptive, and they can show both organizational goals and facilitate innovation. You are now in a leadership role and an agent of change when your career is now aligned with your values.
Practical Steps to Get Started
Let's get started. Begin by assessing the priority challenges that are focused on the problems you wish to tackle. Then, you need to ascertain what exists already in the field and note any gaps, and then create potential career personas. Seek out mentors and role models, engage in opportunities to maximise you’re learning and experience development, and engage to the extent you can contribute significantly. Develop and engage your networks and create your unplanned opportunities.
Remember, discovering that meaningful career is a process, not a decision, meaning finding the path to finding the meaning you seek can be a process over time. As you grow and evolve into one career path, your interests will also evolve, addressing a whole new set of problems, and that is ok! Embrace it! You cannot will yourself to care about something. However, if you truly engage with what you care about, you will serendipitously find your way to a meaningful career.
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