Last fall, I read I Who Have Never Known Men – a post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel inspired by the author’s experience growing up in a concentration camp (stay with me). While her writing transported me to a world I definitely don’t want to live in, it actually reminded me a lot of the world I am living in: one where things we used to take for granted are no longer a given, and where many people are struggling to adapt to this new reality. Some of my fellow book club members found the book dispiriting, but I found it inspiring – it really demonstrated the characters’ desire to learn, make meaning, build community, and adapt, even when stripped of every external structure that normally gives life shape.
I read a lot about how generative AI is re-shaping the future of work. While the technology is new, the questions it raises are similar to those humans have always faced: how can we survive and thrive in a world that’s constantly changing and largely out of our control? That's what this issue is about.
While the future has never been knowable, what is new is the volume of information we're consuming about how much is changing and how quickly. You and I are overloaded with information every day – we hear the buzz of change around the world, and we feel it viscerally. You might assume more information = better decisions. You'd be wrong.
Most career decision-making frameworks assume more certainty than actually exists – they ask people to identify their passion or skills, research their “options,” and commit to a path, as if the variables will remain constant long enough for that plan to pay off. These frameworks don’t account for the fact that passions change, skills develop, there is no finite list of jobs to choose from, jobs with the same titles often look similar but feel different, and paths are eliminated and created all the time.
The evidence suggests that building our tolerance for uncertainty is more valuable than seeking certainty.
Choosing the “best” option implies there is a way for us to know all the options. If we’re uncertain about a career decision, we have to learn more about what’s “out there.” This feeds a maximizer style of decision-making: trying to make the best decision possible among all theoretical options. However,
research on decision-making teaches us a different approach that is actually more beneficial.
Satisficer, a combination of “satisfy” and “suffice”: a decision-maker who evaluates options until they find one that meets their threshold of what’s "good enough," rather than spend excessive time and energy searching for the perfect choice.Satisficers typically end up more satisfied with their decisions than maximizers. The value of satisficing becomes even more apparent when we consider that many career decisions are highly personal (so there is no objective “best”) and temporary. While the past is unchangeable, when it comes to the future… we can choose again and again and again.
Most of us don’t realize this when we're young. I see this when I facilitate workshops for high school students: students as young as grade 10 carry a lot of pressure to make the "right” decision about what to do after grade 12. Some of this pressure is self-imposed and some is absorbed from the adults around them, but most of it stems from the belief that whatever they choose will define them forever. They’re reassured when I share my own path and data showing that our choices are rarely as permanent as they feel at sixteen.
One reason people change their career paths is that we learn and grow as we gain life experience.
Consider the case of a five-year-old who is a picky eater: their favourite food may be peanut butter. When they expand their palate as an adult and decide they like salmon better, that’s evidence of growth, not failure. They might still enjoy peanut butter. In many arenas of life, expanding our tastes, our palate, our range is rewarded. In careers, it’s often a source of shame. Why is that?
Most of us overestimate how well we know our future selves. We try things expecting to like them, and learn through experience that we're not always right. Sometimes, when taking big leaps (like having a child or moving to another country), our identities and lifestyles are so fundamentally changed that what made us content earlier doesn’t produce the same reaction. I see this a lot with my mid-career clients.
This non-linear reality is reflected in Canadian labour market data, too. About 12% of adults aged 25-29
enrol in post-secondary education, as do about 6% of adults between 30-34 years old – suggesting that returning to education later in life is far from unusual. And, with
significant regional variation, 27-51% of post-secondary graduates work in jobs that are not closely related to their field of study. These numbers tend to be highest for social science and humanities graduates as well as
recent immigrants who studied outside of an OECD country. This is a reminder that labour market mismatch reflects not only individuals’ changing interests and evolving goals, but also structural barriers that make non-linearity less of a choice and more of a circumstance. Whether you’re navigating non-linearity by design or by necessity, it’s worth understanding that you’re in good company.
When (not if) you’re feeling overwhelmed about the ways work is shifting beneath our feet, remember: you don't need to know all the options, and you can handle whatever comes. Here are some questions to steady yourself in those moments:
- What are the top 1-3 things I need in the next chapter of my career?
- What does “good enough” look and feel like at this stage of my career?
- What expectations am I placing on myself out of anxiety rather than need?
- When have I adapted to an unexpected change in plans? What strategies were most helpful then? Could I use them again if I need to?
While some of us are naturally more adaptable than others, adaptability is a skill you can develop with thoughtful practice and discipline. If characters in dystopian novels can keep learning and building community in truly horrific circumstances – and if many of our own, very real ancestors could adapt to the wheel, the printing press, and the internet – who’s to say we can’t thrive in a world with a little more uncertainty than we find comfortable?
History suggests we can — but that it won't be painless, and preparation matters.
