When we face a big, ambiguous challenge like “planning a career,” our brains can freeze. We ask dead-end questions like, “What’s the perfect job for me?” or make limiting statements like, “I don’t have the right experience for that.”  To break out of this ‘freeze’, we want to turn our ideas into action.

Career exploration isn’t just about thinking and gathering information, it’s about doing and taking action.  After you’ve done some research on different career paths, you need to test out these career ideas.  This means getting some actual hands on experiences in those fields.  We call these ‘felt experiences’ – meaning you actually do something related to that field, not just read about it. You can generate ‘felt experiences’ through low-commitment activities called, prototypes.

Prototype Your Career Ideas

Prototypes are quick, easy and low commitment ways to try out a career idea. The goal is to gather data about what you like and dislike, form professional relationships and get advice to inform your next steps. Examples of prototype experiences:

Remember, your career journey is a series of experiments. Stay curious and stay open to change!

Start By Asking Better Questions

A “How Might I” statement is a simple trick to turn a problem or a “stuck” feeling into an open-ended question that encourages ideas. Instead of saying “I can’t,” you ask “How might I?”.

This little phrase works because:

• How assumes it’s possible.
• Might takes the pressure off; there’s no single right answer.
• I puts you in control of your actions.

Here’s how it works in practice. Notice how each “How Might I” question naturally leads to ideas for prototypes.

Quick Chapter Recap

• Test out your career ideas with ‘prototype’ experiences – quick, fast and easy ways to get information about a career of interest
• After your prototype, reflect on what you did and didn’t like about the experience to inform your decision making
• Cultivate your curiosity – ask yourself “How might I…”