Last updated 29 October 2026
“What do you want to do instead?”
If you’re considering a career change, that can be a difficult question to answer. You might keep coming back to the jobs you already know about, even when none of them particularly appeals.
Sometimes it helps to ask a different question: “What would I like to find out more about?”
You don’t need to know whether an interest could become a career before you explore it. Being curious gives you somewhere to begin.
When you want a change now
If you’re unhappy at work, being encouraged to go for a walk or explore an interest might feel frustrating. You want change. How is this going to help?
But when you don’t know what you want to do, searching harder can mean looking at the same jobs and reaching the same conclusions. Getting curious gives you new information to work with.
One client began coaching with what he described as a blank canvas. He had no ideas about what he wanted to do. He started talking to people about their careers, finding out what their work involved and what interested him. Within three months, he was in a job he loved.
Another client, unhappy and having left a job before the end of probation, began asking friends and acquaintances about their work. Those conversations led him to helping a stamp dealer, then to a job and eventually a business partnership.
Neither could have identified those jobs at the outset. They needed to discover possibilities before they could choose between them.
There’s no guaranteed timetable. But taking some pressure off finding the answer can help you do something useful towards finding it. A conversation gives you an idea, the idea gives you something to investigate, and you have more to go on than you did before.
Give yourself time to notice
One client described feeling as though she’d been put in a cupboard and brought out when she was useful. During our work together, she began taking thinking walks, giving herself time to notice things and reflect.
She described coaching as taking off blinkers, then needing time to adjust to the light. The walks became part of that process, helping her think about herself and her working life differently.
It can be hard to notice what interests you when your attention is taken up with what needs doing. Even when you have some time to yourself, you might feel you should use it to find a job or make a decision.
Giving yourself time to look around, think and follow a question can be useful too.
Explore what interests you
It’s easy to dismiss something because you can’t immediately see how it relates to work.
Perhaps you enjoy a programme about how buildings are designed, find yourself reading about food production or want to understand why a local project has been successful. You might think, “That’s interesting, but it won’t help me work out my career.”
What exactly interests you about it? What is it that catches your attention?
Is it the subject itself? The way someone solves a problem? The chance to explain an idea, organise something or work with other people?
Understanding what interests you about it can help you identify what you’d enjoy doing more of at work.
Look again at something familiar
In her book On Looking, Alexandra Horowitz describes taking walks with different companions, including people with specialist knowledge and a dog. Each notices things she might otherwise have missed.
You can try a version of this yourself. Walk somewhere familiar with another person and ask what catches their attention. Or take your usual route and look more closely at the buildings, plants, sounds or activity around you.
The same question can be useful at work. Who notices things you tend to overlook? What might you learn by asking how they approach a task or what they find interesting about it?
You don’t have to go somewhere new to discover something you hadn’t considered.
Ask about the parts you don’t understand
Curiosity can be particularly useful in conversations about work.
A job title tells you relatively little about someone’s day. Asking what they spend their time doing, what they enjoy and what they find difficult gives you much more to think about.
You could ask:
- What are you working on at the moment?
- Which part of your work do you most enjoy?
- What surprised you when you started?
- How did you learn to do that?
- What do people tend to misunderstand about your role?
You may hear about work you’d never considered before, or discover that the part which interests you exists in several different roles.
If you’d like some help starting those conversations, my Developing your network resource offers a place to begin.
Choose something you’d like to explore
You don’t need a daily curiosity routine or a long list of activities. Choose something you want to know more about and follow it.
You might:
- Listen to a podcast about a subject you keep coming back to.
- Read a book or article outside your usual choices.
- Attend a talk, exhibition or local event.
- Try a short introductory class.
- Ask someone to show you how they do something.
Choose an activity that fits the time and money you have available.
Afterwards, ask yourself what held your attention. Was there anything you wanted to keep discussing or find out more about? Did you enjoy the activity itself, or the people and setting?
Those details can help you decide what to explore next.
Bring what you notice into your career thinking
As you explore, make a note of the things that interest you. Over time, you can look for connections.
Perhaps you repeatedly enjoy making complicated information easier to understand. You might notice that you’re drawn to practical tasks, or that you miss having time to develop an idea with other people.
These observations give you something specific to investigate. Which roles involve that kind of work? Could you do more of it in your current job? Who could tell you more?
You still need to consider practical questions about pay, working conditions and routes into a role. Curiosity helps you find possibilities worth asking those questions about.
You don’t need the answer before you begin
Following your curiosity is part of how I work with people exploring a career change. Alongside thinking about your experience and what matters to you, we look at what you’d like to discover and how you could find out more.
If you’d like support with that, you can read about my Career change and direction coaching.
