The Tourist Approach: 7 Ideas To Make Career Decisions With Confidence

Your career is an important part of your life without a doubt. I’m guessing it’s the reason you’re investing time and money in a master’s degree. As an MBA student at Zicklin, I remember the pressure I felt to get my career right. I had quit my job to return to school so that I could change careers and felt a lot of anxiety navigating the process. In retrospect, I realize I was making a lot of choices out of fear and compromising my values, which had consequences down the line.

If I had the opportunity to go back to that student version of myself, I would approach my career very differently so that fear wasn’t the driving force behind my decisions. An approach that I’ve come to embrace and one you might appreciate is to take on the perspective of a tourist when it comes to the career process. For me, when I’m a tourist, there’s a childlike wonder that gets me energized and makes me feel I can take on the world. Here are seven ways that shows up and how it can apply to the your career as well:

1. Having a natural curiosity. I want to learn as much about a new place I’m in and am curious about everything. I read travel guides and blogs, explore endlessly, and ask lots of questions. In my view, when someone is truly excited about their career path, they’re eager to immerse themselves in the process of learning as much as they can. Do you have a natural curiosity about the path you’re on? Are you excited to put yourself out there and learn all that you can? Where do you hold back? What causes you to hold back?
2. Being Present. As a tourist, I don’t go through the motions. I’m highly attuned to my environment and making choices intentionally. I’m not rushing through my agenda to be done with vacation and check it off a list. When it comes to your career, are you being present and intentional about your choices or going through the motions to get it over with because it feels like a chore? The answer to this question is telling.
3. Not pretending to know everything. When I’m traveling, I’m not the expert and I don’t need to have it all figured out. This is also what makes it fun. It’s okay to mess up if you’re navigating a country which speaks a different language. There’s no shame in that at all. It’s the same with your career, especially when you’re starting out or changing careers. Also, know that being a student works in your favor, as no one is expecting you to be an expert and people are more inclined to help you.
4. Seeking help when needed. As a tourist, I’m never afraid to ask for guidance about places to visit, restaurants to try, and directions to a museum. If I don’t seek out help, I’m most likely going to miss out on great experiences and spend a lot of time figuring out things that could have been easily resolved had I consulted with a local. When it comes to your career, seek out guidance from trusted sources. There’s a high possibility that they can help you navigate the roadblocks you’re facing, so you don’t have to suffer in silence and lose ground.
5. Being okay with making mistakes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken the wrong train in a new city or gotten off at the wrong stop. I even got fined once on the metro in Paris because I threw my ticket out, not realizing there are random checkpoints throughout the system. It’s natural for this kind of thing to happen and you incorporate it as part of the experience. In fact, I budget for this. When it comes to your career, if you’re not willing to make mistakes, chances are you’re going to settle, play it safe, and sell yourself short.
6. Letting go of expectations. Being somewhere new surely puts us out of our comfort zone. While fear of the unknown might be present, if it’s somewhere you really want to be, you’re also going to be open to exploration and unexpected surprises as you let go of the need to control. From my experience, when someone is highly attached to a single outcome and is afraid to leave their comfort zone, they risk the possibility of losing valuable opportunities. This happens because they’re closing themselves off to the other available options they could potentially choose from, which they’re not seeing as a result of forcing things to be a certain way and wanting to control situations outside of their control.
7. Having fun and enjoying the journey. Have you ever noticed when you let your guard down and relax, you feel more confident and trust yourself? Your career is a way for you to express your full self without suppressing who you are. It’s also a journey with many twists and turns. If it constantly feels stressful with very little excitement, you might want to check in with yourself if the path you’re on is the right one for you. The last thing you want to do is go on vacation somewhere that feels suffocating just because it’s where everyone else is going. The same applies to your career. Pick a path where the challenges feel as worthwhile as the rewards that you look forward to taking them on and growing without compromising yourself in the process.

How can you apply the approach of a tourist when it comes to your career? Where are you operating from fear and how is that holding you back? What would it look like if you trusted yourself more in your career and treated it as an adventure? 

Tanuja Ramchal, Career Coach