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The hardest thing about figuring out what you want to do is that it does not happen the way most career advice implies. Nobody sits down with a notebook, runs a values exercise, and walks out with a clear answer. It comes from doing things and watching how you react. I moved to France for my master’s at HEC Paris with a rough direction (marketing) and no real specifics. Here is what worked.
The honest premise: thinking will not get you there
Most people in their twenties have the same problem. They want a clear answer about what to do with their life and they try to find it by thinking harder. That does not work. What you want is downstream of what you have actually done. You only learn what energizes you and what drains you by being inside real environments. No amount of journaling beats one real internship.
I knew I wanted to work in marketing. I did not know which kind. Branding, performance, content, brand strategy, product marketing, growth, B2B, B2C. Completely different jobs. The only way to know which fit me was to try a bunch in small doses and pay attention to which ones felt right.
Sample fast and notice the contrast
The most useful thing I did during my master’s was set up two intentionally different internships. One at a B2B startup in Los Angeles. One at MAC Cosmetics in Paris (a corporate role at a big global brand). I picked the two on purpose to maximize the contrast.
The startup taught me an insane amount about B2B marketing. Small team, excellent manager, real ownership. I came out energized. The corporate role at MAC taught me what structure looks like inside a global company. Process. Cycle times. Layered approvals. Useful, and I also realized corporates were not for me.
Putting those next to each other made my direction obvious in a way no career test could have. I cover the full path in my marketing career path post. You do not need ten years of experience to start figuring this out. You need contrast. Two opposite environments in twelve months can do more than five years of muddled middle.
Pay attention to what you keep coming back to
Outside of internships, I noticed which things I would do even when nobody was paying me. I tried Python for data analytics during college. I could do it. I just did not see myself going deeper. I tried theoretical brand strategy. Too abstract. I kept coming back to writing, video, and content creation. That kept being the thing I would do at midnight after a full day. A signal.
The simple rule I now use: notice the things you do voluntarily. Notice the things you procrastinate on. The gap between them is one of the biggest signals about direction. Not perfect (some voluntary things will never pay rent) but as a starting filter it works.
Use other people as a forward telescope
I spent a lot of time at HEC Paris talking to alumni and second-years about what their actual jobs looked like. Not the LinkedIn version. The daily-routine version. What does Tuesday at 3pm look like. What are the boring parts. This is one of the highest-return things you can do in a master’s program, which is also why I lean on the framework in my networking for opportunities post.
Most career labels are misleading. A “consulting” job at one firm is almost a different career from a “consulting” job at another. A growth marketing role at a Series A startup is nothing like growth at a 200-person scaleup. The only way to see through the label is to ask people inside.
Lower the cost of changing your mind
If you have read my 5 career learnings post you have already seen this idea: early career is the cheapest time to change your mind. Take the unusual internship. Move countries. Quit when it is not working. None of those moves are reckless when the downside is small and the upside is decades of compounding.
The opposite move (staying in something that does not fit because pivoting feels expensive) is what costs people years. Staying one or two more years to figure out it is wrong is a fine cost. Staying five extra years is the actual mistake. Quit early. Pivot fast.
Build a project so you have something to react to
Reading career advice gets you almost nowhere. Doing something does. When I started my YouTube channel in earnest during my MiM at HEC, the goal was one video a week. The channel did three things. It taught me marketing on something I owned. It gave me visible work employers could react to. It forced me to notice which kinds of content I actually enjoyed making versus which drained me even though they got views. That last part was the real career signal.
You do not need a YouTube channel. You need a project. A blog. A side business. A newsletter. Something where you ship, get feedback, and notice your own reactions. This is also where the unusual habits I use to stay productive helped me keep shipping when the channel was small.
A simple loop you can run starting today
Pick a direction adjacent to where you already are. Sample two contrasting versions within twelve months. Notice the contrast. Talk to five people doing the actual job. Start one visible project on the side. Iterate. The loop takes a year. Most people spend that year thinking instead of doing. Done the other way, you come out with more clarity than people get in three.
If you want to keep going, natural next reads are starting my MiM at HEC Paris over again and the 9 career tips post.