What is career design?

How can you plan your career during this highly volatile and unpredictable time often depicted as the 4th industrial revolution? You can’t – at least not with traditional tools and mindsets.   

Adapting and experimenting

While traditional career planning focuses on systematic and long-term competence development, career design emphasizes a continuously adapting and experimental approach. It is not about having to find your passion and choosing a prescribed career track but about following your curiosity, prototyping different solutions and crafting your purpose along the way.

You don’t need to have it all figured out at once. Each experience, project, or job builds your portfolio and helps you define where you can make a difference.  

You are an active change agent

As the principal designer of your career, you are an active change agent critically evaluating your options and shaping your next steps. While you are the only one who can decide which path resonates with you, career design is not for lonesome heroes. Best career designs are always achieved in collaboration and with support from peers and mentors.   

Aalto Career Design Lab services are developed using state-of the art approaches to contemporary career planning, drawing on career construction and identity theories, research on wellbeing and meaningful work and Stanford University’s Life Design concept. 

Our services combine elements of design thinking, such as ideation, collaboration, and prototyping with the tools of career coaching. Career design is a practical, inclusive and impactful approach to crafting sustainable careers where meaningful work, wellbeing and continuous learning intersect. 

Key guidelines

Create meaning in your work. Meaningful work shows up as one of the core needs across all generations.  Career design helps you craft your purpose and navigate towards the future of work.  

Engage in life-wide learning. Learning does not happen only in classrooms or stop upon graduation. Life-wide learning includes all settings and opportunities to learn career-relevant skills across different spheres of life.   

Foster holistic wellbeing. Taking care of yourself and your community helps you not only to enhance your wellbeing but also makes your life meaningful. 

Let’s co-create a sustainable and meaningful future of work!