5 questions to create your career blueprint

Are you thinking about changing jobs or taking your career in a new direction?

If you are thinking of a change, it’s really important to get clarity on what career fulfilment looks like for you. Jumping straight into CV prep, a rabbit hole of online job searching or setting up your new business website without clarity could take you to a place where you might not want to end up!

I use a five-point career blueprint approach with my clients when we’re working on getting clarity.

1. What do you enjoy?

This question is number one because often our careers are shaped by what we're good at, not necessarily what we enjoy.

It's important to think about activities that give you energy and which drain your energy: what gives you 'fire in your belly' or makes time whiz by.

And these can be work activities or things you do outside of work. The important thing is to break down the activity so you can pinpoint exactly what creates fulfilment.

2. What are you good at?

With this question, it's important to think not just about your technical skills but also the human qualities that you have and can flourish in the workplace.

Dig deep into your career experience and identify not just what you achieved in your roles but how you achieved it. What specifically did you do to make that task, project or collaboration a success? What strengths are unique to you as a person - we're not all the same.

If you were to ask 10 people who know you to describe your key strengths, what would they say? Try it.

3. How do you want to work?

Think about how you want work to fit into your life. Questions to ask yourself here include the environment you want to work in: home, office, outdoors, on the road?

Do you want fixed hours, shift work or flexible? Do you want to work with people, alone, or a mix?! Do you want to travel - be customer-facing - part of a large organisation or a smaller one?

Being clear on what you want and don't want here is key to designing your career.

4. Who do you want to work with?

This question is often overlooked unless we have a particular passion to say work with children or animals or another strong 'calling'.

It's worth spending some time thinking about the type of people you'd like to surround yourself with as colleagues, customers or end-users.

5. Why do you want to work?

Finally, explore why you want to work. I can hear a lot of people shouting 'to get paid'! Yes, financial stability is the driver for why most people work. However, what is second on your list of why you want to work?

This question aligns closely with our values and our beliefs.

What's important about what you give and get out of work? Are you passionate about problem-solving, helping people, making the complex simple? Do you have a particular cause that you want to support, a change to an industry you want to be part of or a desire to improve our environmental footprint?

What career goals would you love to achieve - this is why you work.

You now have a career blueprint - or an ideal job description... just without the role title. Once you have clarity, you can update your CV, social media profiles and job search to align with your career blueprint.

It might take you a couple of 'stepping stone' job moves to get to a career that feels right for you, but with time invested at the start on being sure you know what you want, you'll have a clearer sense of the direction you're working towards - and what fulfilment looks like for you.