Creating a Flexible Career Path When You’re Not Sure What’s Next

Very few of us know exactly what we’re going to do with our careers. And not only is that okay, it’s actually for the best! If you’re too locked into one career path, you can miss out on all kinds of opportunities that might fit you even better.

Even if you have no idea where you want to take your career next, don’t beat yourself up—and definitely don’t feel like you need to rush into a plan. Career flexibility is a good thing, and thanks to all the resources and ways to connect in today's world, it’s also easier to pull off than ever. 

To help you take advantage of the career path wisdom on LinkedIn Learning, we pulled together some quick hit tips on creating a flexible career path when uncertainty may be clouding your sense of direction. 

Creating a flexible career path in 4 steps

When you’re considering your next move, keep an open mind and try following this process. With any luck, you’ll discover a career path that you may have been overlooking all this time. If not, you can always start again from the top:

Step 1: Identify your energizers

Founder of Career Revolution Christine DiDonato pointed out a funny pattern in her LinkedIn Learning course on Taking Charge of Your Career.

 “On too many occasions people I’m coaching will start the dialogue with a laundry list of everything they’re bad at,” she realized. “So instead, I started asking people to start by telling me about a time in their career when they felt most energized. Without even knowing it they begin to share their strengths.”

When have you been “in the zone” at work, and why? Don’t think of it in terms of just your role, either – dig deeper to find the skills and strengths you most appreciated applying. You can use these skills and strengths to develop a career portfolio, rather than just a résuméor cover letter.

A career portfolio includes your job and role history, but it also includes information on experiences and skills that wouldn’t be on a typical resume—including your energizers and why they matter to you. 

Step 2: Assess work/life values

Ironically, one of the most important steps in creating a flexible career path involves thinking outside of your career entirely. “Sometimes we get caught up in the prestige of a role or company and we forget to ask ourselves what personal needs these goals will fulfill,” DiDonato explained.

It’s an easy question to forget to ask yourself: what are you really working towards? What do you want out of not just your career, but the life that career will make possible? 

Do you want to do work you’re passionate about? Do you want a high-paying job that gives you the resources to pursue your passions elsewhere? Or do you want a career that gives you plenty of time to spend on other things?

Whatever you want, make sure you identify it accurately at this point in the process. “It’s important to be honest with yourself about what motivates you and what types of environments are best suited for you,” DiDonato reasoned. “If you’re not honest about what you value most, your career vision will be difficult to achieve.”

Once you know what you want out of your job and your life, you’ll have a list of goals. Now, it’s time to prioritize those goals.

Step 3: Create short-term and long-term career goals 

It may seem like very few job opportunities can satisfy both your career and life goals. But that’s alright! A career is long. You may not find your dream role right away, but you don’t have to—you need only find a role that will help you start to work your way toward that role.

In his course on Creating a Career Plan, Dr. Chaz Austin explained further: “Long-term goals are the fulfillment of a dream and will take many steps to achieve. Short-term goals are the milestones you need to hit in order to get there.”

Your long-term goal may be something like, “support myself and my family through a career in the visual arts.” That goal might take years and several roles to accomplish. Meanwhile, you’ll have other, more immediate personal and professional goals, such as “enter the visual arts industry” or “make enough money at my job to pay rent without freelancing.”

Break your long-term goal down into small milestones and then prioritize those milestones. Where do you want or need to start and why? Your next role should be a role that helps you achieve this short term goal. Don’t worry if it isn’t the dream job yet; it could be instrumental in getting you that job.

Step 4: Build a brand designed to help you achieve these goals

Once you know what you want, it’s time to make the case for why you’re right for it. Developing a skills-based personal brand is how you get professional peers (and employers) to stop defining you by your previous roles and start defining you by your skills and passions. 

Dr. Austin developed a three-step process for learning how to market yourself:

1. “Define your brand. What is it you do exactly? What is it that’s special or unique about you? What combination of skills and experience do you have that would make an employer want to work with you?”
2. “Practice how to articulate your brand message. This is your soundbite or elevator pitch, a description of about 30 seconds that encapsulates the main skills you offer.”
3. “Practice networking, marketing, and selling your brand until the entire process becomes second nature.”

Though you will very likely use this personal brand to achieve short-term goals, it’s even more effective to base it around your long-term goal. Your brand is not your role, after all; it’s why you’re right for your role. Build your personal brand around your skills instead of your role, and you’ll find it continues to be of great use throughout your flexible career.

Following this four-pronged plan isn’t just a good way to figure out what you want to do next. It’s also an important way to train yourself not to see your career as a fixed path, but rather as a vast network of flexible opportunities and possibilities. Where you go is up to you – this only helps you get there.

For more insights on how to build the flexible career path that’s right for you, check out some of LinkedIn Learning’s many career development courses.