Step 1: Get clear on direction · topic 1 of 2

Choose a direction to test

Most people I coach arrive wanting help with their resume. Often the resume is fine. What's missing is a decision about what the resume is for. When the target is vague, every document turns into a list of everything you've done, and every application feels like a coin toss.

If you can't name a role yet

That's common, especially after many years in one field. For two weeks, jot down the moments, at work or outside it, when you lost track of time, and the moments that drained you. Then look for the pattern: what were you doing, with whom, and for what?

The US Department of Labor's free ONET tools can help turn that into options. The ONET Interest Profiler on My Next Move suggests occupations based on your interests, and O*NET OnLine describes each occupation by its tasks and skills ^[1]. Pick two from the list to test.

Write your direction as one sentence

Fill in this line and keep it somewhere you'll see it:

I'm looking for a [role] at [kind of organization], where I can use [two strengths] to help with [a problem they have].

Here's a generic example: "I'm looking for an operations manager role at a mid-sized software company, where I can use my scheduling and vendor experience to help them scale customer onboarding."

It doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be specific enough that a friend could say "my cousin's company might fit that."

Treat your direction as a test

Herminia Ibarra, a business school professor who researches career change, found that people who change careers well tend to try things out before they're sure. She writes that "doing comes first, knowing second," and that the biggest mistake is delaying the first step until you've settled on a destination ^[2].

In practice, that means:

1. Pick one or two directions that seem plausible today.
2. Talk to two or three people already doing that work. An informational conversation is a request for advice and information, not for a job, and usually lasts 20 to 30 minutes ^[3].
3. Read 10 job postings for the role and notice what excites you and what makes your heart sink.
4. After two or three weeks, check in: keep the direction, adjust it, or swap it. That's a checkpoint, and a full career change usually takes much longer than a few weeks.

Going broad is still a choice

When a search runs long, it's tempting to apply to anything that moves. I understand the pull. Hiring is crowded right now: Greenhouse, a recruiting software company, reports that the number of applications per job on its platform roughly doubled from 116 in 2022 to 244 in 2025 ^[4]. Sending more generic applications into that pile rarely helps, in my experience. Some of that growth comes from tools that apply automatically, and I'd assume a recruiter can see every role you've applied for at their company. Thirty unrelated applications to one employer don't read well.

If you decide to widen your search, make it a deliberate widening. "Operations roles in software or logistics" is a direction. "Whatever will have me" is usually a feeling, and a heavy one to carry into interviews.

If money is the pressure, that's real, and a bridge job is a legitimate choice. Name it as one: "I'm taking steady work in X for now while I keep building toward Y." A chosen bridge feels very different from a search with no shape.

Let your direction shape the rest of your search

Once you have your sentence, the rest of this guide gets easier. Your resume summary speaks to that role. Your LinkedIn headline uses its language. Your target company list fits it. If you're coming from a narrow industry, the next page covers how to translate your experience.