Last updated 27 October 2026
You’ve been thinking about changing something at work for a while. Perhaps you’ve looked at a few vacancies, imagined doing something different or promised yourself you’ll give it some proper thought when you have more time.
Then another month passes, and you’re still in the same place.
If you’re feeling stuck in your career, it can be hard to find a starting point. You may want a change without knowing what that change could be. Even finding the time and energy to think about it can feel difficult.
Finding out what another role involves is a much smaller task than deciding whether to change careers.
What are you waiting for?
Sometimes there are good reasons to wait. You may need a steady income, have caring responsibilities or be recovering from an exhausting period at work. The timing of a career move matters.
But it’s worth being specific about what needs to happen first.
‘I’m waiting until I’ve built up some savings’ gives you something to plan around. ‘I’m waiting until I feel confident’ is harder to pin down. What would help you feel more confident, and is there a way to begin working on that now?
Try completing this sentence:
‘I’ll start thinking seriously about a change when…’
Then ask yourself whether you’re waiting for a practical condition you can work towards, or a feeling of certainty that may be difficult to reach without finding out more.
You might decide that changing jobs needs to wait. You can still give yourself a date to revisit it, rather than leaving the question open indefinitely.
Make the question smaller
‘What should I do with the rest of my working life?’ is a lot to ask yourself at the end of a tiring day.
A smaller question is easier to work with. You could start with:
- Which parts of my work give me energy or hold my interest?
- What matters to me at work that I’m not getting enough of?
- What would I like to find out before making a decision?
Be as specific as you can. If you want ‘more meaningful work’, what would make it meaningful to you? Helping someone directly, solving a difficult problem, creating something useful or seeing the results of your efforts?
Your answers may point towards a different career. They might also suggest a change of team, more responsibility or working arrangements that suit you better.
Choose one small experiment
You can learn something useful about a possibility before committing to it.
Suppose you’re interested in moving from an administrative role into project work, but you’re unsure what that would involve. Rather than immediately enrolling on a course, you could ask a project manager for a 20-minute conversation.
You might ask:
- What takes up most of your working week?
- Which parts of the job are satisfying, and which are frustrating?
- What experience helped you get started?
The experiment is small: one conversation and its purpose is to find out whether the everyday work interests you enough to explore further.
Your own experiment could be reading three job descriptions, attending a free introductory event or asking to shadow someone in a role that interests you.
Choose something that answers a question you actually have. Give it a limit in time and money so it fits around your current responsibilities.
Notice what you learn
Afterwards, take a few minutes to reflect:
- What interested me?
- What put me off?
- What surprised me?
- What do I want to find out next?
Discovering that an idea doesn’t appeal is useful too. You’ve learnt something without making a major commitment.
You may also notice that you’re more interested in one part of a role than another. That gives you a more focused question for your next conversation or piece of research.
Confidence can grow as you gather information and try things. You don’t have to feel completely ready before taking a step that is small enough to manage.
Find somewhere to begin
If several things are keeping you stuck and you’re struggling to separate them, try my free Untangling Map. It helps you explore what is making the next step difficult and identify one small thing to try.
Or, if you’d value a conversation and support to work through your options, find out about career change and direction coaching. We can explore what you want from work, what needs to fit around it and how to test realistic possibilities.
