Negative experiences in the workplace can be more instructive than positive ones. An internship Professor Koenen hated taught her the crucial lesson that her work needed personal meaning. Learning what you don't want to do is a highly efficient way to narrow down your true career interests, making such experiences valuable, not a waste of time.

Don't commit to a rigid career plan. Instead, treat your career like a product. Run small-scale experiments or 'MVPs'—like a 20% project, a volunteer role, or a teaching gig—to test your interest and aptitude for new skills before making a full commitment, then iterate based on the results.

Many seemingly irreversible life and career decisions can be de-risked through small-scale trials. Before committing, you can test a new neighborhood with a two-week Airbnb stay, test a new car on Turo, or shadow a professional for a day. This reduces uncertainty and prevents costly mistakes.

Pursuing a more fulfilling career doesn't require risking financial ruin. Instead of taking a blind leap, you can vet a new direction by "trying it on"—shadowing professionals, conducting informational interviews, and testing the work in small ways to understand its reality before making a full transition.

Instead of "burning the ships," treat potential career changes as experiments. By starting a new venture as a side hustle without financial pressure, you can explore your curiosity, confirm it's a good fit, and build a "safety net" of confidence and proof before making a full leap.

To gauge if you're on the right career track, find someone in your organization who has been in a similar role for 30 years—a 'lifer.' Ask yourself honestly if you want their life and job in the future. If the answer is a clear no, it's a strong signal that the path isn't for you, regardless of how good it looks on paper.

To avoid hypothetical interview questions, Zipline makes its hiring process as applied as possible. This includes pair programming, collaborative design sessions, and even offering paid 1-2 week work trials. This "work together" approach quickly reveals a candidate's true fit and capabilities.

To explore a potential life path, move beyond transactional data (e.g., salary, credentials). Instead, have 'prototyping conversations' to immerse yourself in the narrative story of someone already living that life. This provides a deeper, experiential understanding that data alone cannot offer.

The belief that you need a gatekeeper (like a hiring manager) to allow you to experience a potential career is outdated. With zero-cost content creation tools, you can start a podcast, blog, or video series in any field today to see if it truly interests you.