Change careers well
How to change careers, with the doubts and the practical side covered. Google's Career Dreamer suggests paths from your skills, and one speaker describes starting over after 30 as messy and humbling. A Harvard Business Review article by Timothy Yen offers a way to weigh big decisions. 9 picks from the Bez Tytułu newsletter, in reading order.
The picks
Career Dreamer by Google
Tool · grow.google · Issue #195
Career Dreamer is an AI-powered tool from Grow with Google that analyzes your skills to suggest career paths and help you uncover your potential.
Pay cannot cover a job's hidden costs
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #225
The speaker says a job's pay cannot cover its hidden costs, such as burnout spending on decompression, shopping and vacations.
The speaker argues that a job can pay well and still carry hidden costs, such as spending on decompression weekends, shopping, and vacations that do not fix burnout. Pay matters but cannot compensate for everything. The speaker suggests writing down what motivates you and what you want from your career, so you can judge what you are willing to put up with.
Key points- Hidden costs include decompression spending, shopping sprees and vacations meant to fix everything
- Pay is critical but cannot compensate for a job you absolutely hate
- Write down what motivates you to judge what you'll put up with at work
Changing careers at 30 is humbling
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #214
Changing careers at 30 is messy and humbling, especially when you realize you chased a parent's goals.
The speaker describes changing careers at 30 as messy and humbling, including returning to entry-level work while friends are being promoted. The hardest part, he says, is realizing you chased something your parents wanted rather than what you wanted. He suggests two options: make peace with it and find meaning elsewhere, such as volunteering, or restart entirely, which he says he did.
Key points- The hardest part is realizing you chased what your parents wanted
- Options: make peace and find meaning outside the 9 to 5, or start again
- The speaker started again and says others are not alone in it
Learn skills by starting and shipping projects
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #183
Learn skills fast by starting a project first, learning on the way, and shipping it publicly.
The speaker argues that learning skills quickly matters most as AI and automation spread, since relying on one skill makes you easier to replace. He offers three steps: learn what serves your own vision instead of what school or status assigns, start a project before studying it in depth to avoid endless tutorials, and publish the work so real users can show whether it is valuable.
Key points- Learn what moves you toward your vision, not status others assigned
- Start the project first and learn only when you hit a roadblock
- Ship it even when embarrassed, because real users decide its value
What If Curiosity Is a Skill, Not a Trait?
Read · bigthinkbusiness.substack.com · 6 min · Issue #230
Anne-Laure Le Cunff argues that curiosity is a learnable cognitive skill, not a fixed trait, and that it helps people handle change. She links curiosity to the brain's dopamine reward system and hippocampal memory activity, and says it turns uncertainty into an invitation. Five practices are offered: asking 'what if?', keeping field notes, running small time-limited experiments, saying 'I don't know yet', and treating setbacks as data.
How to Make Better Decisions About Your Career
Read · hbr.org · 5 min · Issue #118
A 2021 Harvard Business Review article by clinical psychologist Timothy Yen on making big career decisions. It proposes a five-step framework: examine your feelings about possible careers, identify your values, consider how loved ones are affected, assess your options realistically, then put it together and revisit earlier steps if needed.
Credibility comes from public curiosity
Short · instagram.com · Issue #245
Anna Mackenzie argues you don't need expertise to build credibility, only public curiosity that compounds into results.
Anna Mackenzie describes a three-phase credibility curve for entering a new field without formal qualifications. It starts with curiosity, showing interest rather than expertise, as she did with portfolio careers and the future of work while saying 'I'm no economist'. Exploring that curiosity in public attracts paid work and opportunities, and talking about the results builds a flywheel of credibility.
Key points- Show curiosity about the field first, not expertise you lack
- Her 'I'm no economist' start led to columns and a Substack
- Public exploration attracts opportunities, paid work and more credibility
Generalists, Assemble
Read · linkedin.com · 24 min · Issue #199
Dave Mence describes building a career by moving between design, strategy, operations, and other fields, which he calls his personal spice shop. He writes for people who do not fit the pick one thing and go deep mold, and about finding a community among others like him.
Life rarely follows the plan you made
Short · tiktok.com · Issue #8
Life rarely goes as planned, and the speaker, who once planned to be a creative executive by 35, says no one could have predicted it.
The speaker, who says they are 24 with no college degree and four part-time jobs, once planned to be a creative executive at a Fortune 100 company by 35. At 43, they say that plan did not come true and that life was impossible to predict. They offer their view on finding a balance of success and happiness.
Key points- At 24, with no degree and four part-time jobs, he planned his path to 35
- At 43, he says none of what happened could have been predicted
- His series aims to help people feel less afraid of where they might be headed