Coaching practices for How Do I Know What Career is Good for Me

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How Do I Know What Career is Good for Me, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I feel like I should already know my one thing and lock in, but honestly I’ve barely tried anything
• I’m pulled in a dozen directions and none of them is clearly the thing
• What I believe my work is for and what I believe my life is for seem to be quietly pulling in opposite directions, so every big choice feels like a coin-flip
• I honestly can’t tell whether I’m genuinely exceptional at anything or just decent
• Someone asks "so what are you looking for?" and I ramble out something vague and apologetic

Practices that may help

1. Sample widely before committing to a niche
   Premature specialization forecloses interests you haven’t discovered yet.
   Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love
2. Map your three circles honestly
   Separately answer each circle — passion, best-at, economic engine — before looking for the intersection.
   The Hedgehog Concept
3. Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network
   An informational interview is a low-stakes conversation with someone in a role or field you’re curious about — you ask questions, they share experience, and no job is on the table. Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? popularised this as a career research tool; the evidence is largely observational and practitioner, but it consistently shows that direct conversation with insiders produces better career decisions and unexpected referrals.
4. Write your Workview and Lifeview
   Articulate what work is for and what life is for — then check whether they point the same way.
   Designing Your Life, Made Practical
5. Reality-check the best-at circle with outside input
   Ask credible people who have seen your work directly whether you have genuine advantage — not people who love you.
   The Hedgehog Concept
6. Practise your story before you need it
   Have a clear, genuine two-minute narrative about who you are and where you’re headed.
   Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network
7. Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
   Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
   Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network
8. Prototype with conversations and experiences
   Test a possible path cheaply — talk to someone living it, or try a small slice — before betting on it.
   Designing Your Life, Made Practical
9. Track what makes you ask questions, not what makes you feel good
   Curiosity is a better signal for developing passion than pleasure.
   Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love
10. Take the VIA survey and identify your signature strengths
    Discover your top five to seven character strengths using the validated VIA survey.
    VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.