One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about my role here at Careers is the intersection of what I enjoy and what I’m experienced in. When these two things overlap, you’re one step closer to career fulfilment. When there’s little to no crossover, you could consider ways to bridge this gap – gaining experience doing something you enjoy, or ruling out things you hate. In my view, there’s really no such thing as ‘bad’ experience if it helps you narrow down your options. I’ve created a simple matrix to help differentiate between these concepts.
Grab a sheet of paper and a pen. Draw a big plus (+). The horizontal line is your experience axis and the vertical line is your enjoyment axis. Now let’s think about what belongs in each quadrant.
High enjoyment, low experience
(Top left)
Simply put, this could be your dream job. You know you’d love it even if you haven’t experienced it professionally. Perhaps you know your strengths and recognise how much you’d enjoy using them in the workplace. Think about what you enjoy and want to do more, and write those ideas in the top left quadrant.
How do you build relevant experience? Depending on your field of interest, you could consider one or more of these options:
- Summer internships
- Insight days/weeks
- Industrial placement
- Volunteering
- Joining professional bodies
- Self-study courses (MOOCs)
- Graduate schemes/jobs
- Positions of leadership or responsibility at university (societies and clubs)
It’s never too late to discover new interests and gain experience. If you’re considering a career pivot, you might have high experience in your current role but low experience in the one you want.
High enjoyment, high experience
(Top right)
Very few of us achieve this straight out of university, because ‘high experience’ usually means you’ve been working for a while. That being said, you might have more experience than you realise, so don’t overlook or downplay this. If you’ve been playing football most of your life, or writing since you could pick up a pen, I’d say this counts as high experience. Write these down in the top right quadrant. You may continue to build experience in this area throughout your working life.
Keep in mind that high experience doesn’t have to mean high enjoyment, as we’ll see later on.
Low enjoyment, low experience
(Bottom left)
These are things you never or no longer want to do, no matter how much money or prestige is in question! Perhaps these roles conflict with your values, or maybe you just know you don’t enjoy them. You don’t need tons of experience to come to this conclusion. Pop these things in the bottom left quadrant.
You might wonder how this is relevant to your career plans. I think it’s good to consider what we don’t enjoy, have no interest in pursuing, or the things that don’t align with our strengths. This helps us narrow down what we do enjoy, what we can pursue, and what we’re good at.
Low enjoyment, high experience
(Bottom right)
These are roles you can do but you want to move on. You might gain lots of experience working a weekend job while you’re at university, but know this isn’t a long-term solution for you. If you’re an experienced hire, you might have been working in the same role or sector for a while and feel it’s time to move on. These things would go in the bottom right quadrant.
Why consider these experiences if you no longer enjoy them? Transferable skills, that’s why! Communication, teamwork, organisation, attention to detail, time management – these will all serve you in your next job, even if the sector is completely different.
I’ve used weekend work as an example, but it’s worth remembering that even your first ‘proper’ job might not be your forever job. It’s fine to try different things, build experience, and move on when you’re ready for a change.
Summary
High enjoyment/Low experience: This is what I want to do. How can I gain experience to make this a reality?
High enjoyment/High experience: I love this and have lots of experience to show for it!
Low enjoyment/Low experience: I have no interest in this. I tried this once or twice and I know it’s not for me.
Low enjoyment/High experience: I want to move on from this. How can I use experience to make this a reality?
For more ideas on how to narrow down your options, check out our Get Started guide.
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