Why Good Career Advice Isn’t Always Good

If you are in the midst of a career transition, one thing that can really interfere with it is an abundance of good advice. And there is no shortage of career advice to be found on the internet. 

 

These days there are so many websites and blogs (including this one) encouraging you to find your passion and offering good advice on how to do it. But good advice isn't always a good thing. And when it comes to career advice, it can be downright bad.

 

It is counter-intuitive for most of us, but if you are searching for meaningful work the first thing you need to do is to stop moving. There is so much noise and activity and movement in our lives these days. In order to mindfully ask and answer the question, "What should I do with the rest of my life?," it is essential to slow down and become still inside and out. 

To hear the still small voice of your calling requires silence and attentive listening within. 

Unfortunately, this can cause anxiety, not only in yourself, but sometimes even more so in those around you who care about you. Everybody wants to see you settled. Of course, this is because they love you, but it is also, in large part, so they don't have to worry about you. Out of this anxiety comes an outpouring of well meaning, but often misguided, career advice.

Soon everyone becomes your career advisor, from your mother to your best friend. Everyone has ideas about who you are and what you should do. As Joseph Campbell once said, "Other people have a lot of plans for you. They want you to go on their trip." 

In this situation, it becomes all too easy to try to please everyone else and forget the reason you began your career change in the first place.

 

 

The problem with good advice -- as I talk about in The Art of Seeing from the Digital Jung Podcast -- is that it doesn't affect us at a deep enough level. 

From a Jungian perspective, good advice only touches the conscious mind, while the much more powerful unconscious remains unchanged. Getting in touch with the unconscious requires looking inside and not listening outside. A great way to start to do this is to pay attention to your dreams.

Is advice always bad? Of course not. Sometimes what someone has to offer you may be just the thing needed to move you in the right direction. I have profited many times from personal and career advice that was as timely as it was wise. But in these cases, it was usually offered by someone making a real effort to understand me and what was right for me. 

The best career advice I have received most often has come from the mentors I have never met in person, like Joseph Campbell, who famously offered this nugget of wisdom: "Follow Your Bliss." I, however, am partial to the way he elaborates on this saying:  

As a career counselor and a psychotherapist, I try not so much to give advice as to help people to find their own answers from within, to learn to recognize their own depth. I have learned the questions to ask when you run out of questions yourself, and I have learned that, most of the time, a good, thoughtful question is better than a hastily offered answer.

Check out The Art of Seeing, episode 2 from my Digital Jung podcast to learn more about the ways that psychotherapy and career counseling can be a valuable support to you during uncertain times.