Design a Meaningful Career (external link)
In this self-paced online course you will learn how to shape your career as you go in the radically changing world of work.
Career Design Lab
Design your career
Career design is a creative approach to careers that emphasizes lifewide learning, experimentation and meaningful work. It is also a research-based set of tools to help you create your path as you go at every twist and turn of your life.
You can’t control the future of work, but you can prepare for it. Career design offers a creative approach for figuring out your next steps and adjust for the inevitable changes.
There is no “correct” career design. There are multiple options that could work for you. By testing and experimenting, you can figure out what is the best way to go forward – for now.
Career design is always a work in progress.
Competencies for a sustainable career
- Self-leadership to proactively shape your career path as you go and adapt to changes
- Ability to foster meaningful work and wellbeing based on your strengths, values and aspirations
- Mindset for lifewide learning and creative experimentation of different options
Envision your future
It can feel daunting to begin designing your career if you are unsure of what you want to do. Engaging your imagination and intuition is key to identifying sources of personal fulfillment and dealing with an unpredictable future. Approaching career decision-making only as a logical process or following the expectations of others can be at the detriment of fulfilling your own potential. That is why it is important connect with your own voice amidst all the facts and fictions you may hear and tell yourself about the working world.
Reflection
Imagining possible futures is a good way to engage your intuition and emotions and come up with engaging ideas for your career. The following exercise can help you trick your rational mind and let imagination take over.
Travel to the future and imagine how your daily life will look like when your life has taken the desired course. Forget about all the obstacles and describe your life as accurately as you can.
- What will you be doing?
- Where will you live?
- Who will you be with?
- What is your lifestyle like?
- What are the things that you value?
Generate an image as vivid and powerful as possible. The image should have an audible and visible content, smells and tastes.
Once you have created a picture of your imagined future, consider how this vision makes you feel now.
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