I’m not passionate about anything, so how do I pick a career?

What to do when you don’t know what to do.

Please do not ask me what I want to be when I grow up. When I was six I had dreams of becoming an airline pilot. Then I turned seven and I wanted to be a doctor, the next year I wanted to be a lawyer and the next a fashion designer. At 10, I settled on princess for a while (blame the royal wedding) until I realised it wasn’t as feasible as I thought. 

However, by the time I turned 15 and the once far-off dreams hurtled closer to reality, I realised I didn’t really want to be a pilot or a doctor or a lawyer. I didn’t want to be anything. At school, I hadn’t particularly excelled in any subjects, I also didn’t have the resources to participate in many hobbies. I was absolutely clueless; what was I supposed to do with my life?

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I believe that some people are built to have an undying love for their passions. I am not one of these people. I have never felt particularly stirred or inspired to carve out my own niche. Yet, like many other young people in their late teens or early twenties, I was forced to pick a path at a crossroads – even when I didn’t have the answers. 

So, I’ve enlisted the expertise of Leah Lambert, a career coach from Relaunch Me, to get some answers and advice for those of us suffering from a lack of passion. The persistent solution online to our predicament seems to be to ‘find a passion’ with no further instruction. But are we supposed to magically stumble upon our life calling and have it miraculously align with viable employment? The short answer is no. 

You don’t need to be passionate about your career

The importance of our careers can often be overinflated. Hustle culture is at an all-time high and our capitalistic values may lead us to think we need to be ‘productive’ to be ‘purposeful’. So, you might as well choose work you love to make things more bearable. 

It’s true; if you’re passionate about your work, you’re more likely to feel personal fulfilment and satisfaction. But our occupations shouldn’t be central to our identities and our passions can be pursued outside of paid work. 

Leah explains to me that there can actually be disadvantages to pursuing things you’re passionate about as careers. Firstly, she says that passions sparked when you’re young can lead to careers that you end up falling out of love with, once you inevitably change your mind. 

Secondly, you might discover that working 40 to 50 hours a week often turns your passion into a chore. You may love to cook or play the piano but once the pressures and expectations of employment become factors, your love for your passion may wane. Remember, not all hobbies need to be monetised! 

You need to do some self-assessment

The most important thing in determining where you want to take your future is self-assessment. Self-assessment is about you. This means focusing your energy inwards and blocking out all external influences, including any ‘friendly advice’ from parents, siblings or friends. Below are a few areas you should consider when dreaming up your ideal job. 

Interest

Firstly, passion isn’t a necessary prerequisite for your career path but interest is. “It doesn’t have to be something you’re absolutely mad about, because the passion can grow as you get into that industry and learn,” Leah explains. 

Figuring out an interest is much less daunting than finding a passion. You don’t need to be obsessed with your interest, you only require a bit of curiosity or intrigue. If you’re struggling to pin down your interests you can ask yourself these questions: What do I enjoy talking with my friends about? What do I like to read or watch videos about? Or for the TikTok girlies, what shows up on my For You Page?

Leah says a good sign of interest is whether you feel ‘in flow’ when doing certain tasks. That’s the feeling of losing track of time or not wanting to be interrupted as you plunge yourself into work. This feeling can arise even when doing the simplest of tasks like designing a Canva invitation or whipping up an Excel spreadsheet for your vacation.  

Natural strengths

Secondly, you should consider your own natural strengths. According to Leah, it’s really important to “choose a career that comes naturally to you”. 

“For example, if you are an extrovert and you’re great at… getting to know people and building relationships…but you end up in a job where you’re sitting at a computer and you don’t get to talk to people… you’re not using those strengths.”

Here, you should be thinking about the things that you’re good at. Leah suggests assessing the activities you enjoy the most or perhaps the tasks that get you excited and energised. 

The logistics

Finally, you need to consider the logistics of the job. It might pop your bubble of ambition to think about the practicalities of an occupation, but it’s equally as important as passion. 

There is a horde of factors that can be deal breakers for particular jobs. For example, meeting your financial goals. “You can definitely follow something that you’re passionate about, but if you are not getting paid to do it, or paid enough to live the life you want to live then you’re not going to be in your career sweet spot,” Leah says. 

Work/life balance is another crucial consideration. Unfortunately, not every industry abides by the 38-hour work week. If you’re interested in pursuing a demanding career like being a lawyer or doctor, you should first ask yourself whether you’re comfortable with potentially logging 60 to 70-hour work weeks.  

Most obviously, you also need to look at the labour market. Put simply, this is researching whether there are actually any available jobs out there in the profession you’re interested in. To assist you with this, check out the Your Career website, where you can search for any occupation in Australia to find out its estimated pay and future growth. 

Your next steps

Online quizzes

To guide you along in your self-assessment, there’s a wide array of online tools out there. If you would like to quickly identify your personality type, Leah recommends the 16Personalities quiz. 

This can give you insight into whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert or whether you’re more of a thinker or feeler. In the workplace, this might help you determine whether you’re more suitable for a client-facing role vs a behind-the-scenes position or if you think more analytically or intuitively.

Leah additionally suggests doing character strength assessments and career quizzes to better understand your workplace priorities. “It’s a good place to start just to get some ideas of… what your preferences are in the workplace, what energises you, where your natural strengths are, but also what sort of work environment will suit you.”

Research and experiment

Once you get an idea of the industry you’d like to enter, you can begin to narrow down your choices. Then it’s time to research your options. According to Leah, a common mistake people make is jumping into courses without first doing some investigation into the career outcomes.

Free online courses, workshops, volunteer work or even job shadowing are great ‘career experiments’ you can do to test the waters. “Putting yourself out there and… actually test[ing] things out is what will really help you get clarity around what you enjoy,” Leah says. 

Although the whole process of job hunting itself can feel like a rat race, if you’re currently employed there’s no need to rush into it. If you’re still unsure, it’s better to wait it out in your current role, think about what you’re looking for and go back to the drawing board. Don’t worry – if all else fails, ‘princess’ is still a viable career option if you ask me. 

For more on finding a job you love, head here.