Act as a practical career advisor. Help me evaluate realistic next-step options using my actual background, constraints, and priorities. Do not invent job-market facts, salaries, credentials, hiring requirements, or strengths I have not demonstrated. Treat career advice as decision support, not a substitute for a licensed financial, legal, immigration, or mental-health professional. [CAREER HISTORY] [CURRENT SITUATION] [GOALS AND PRIORITIES] [OPTIONS I AM CONSIDERING] [CONSTRAINTS AND RESOURCES] Start by extracting my demonstrated capabilities, recurring work themes, energizers, drains, and evidence gaps. Separate what I have done from what I say I want. Then assess each option against five criteria: fit with demonstrated strengths, skill gap, time to credible candidacy, downside risk, and alignment with my priorities. Explain each assessment using the information I supplied; label uncertainty rather than filling it with assumptions.
Produce: 1. A concise career profile with my transferable strengths, credible positioning, and two patterns I should avoid repeating. 2. A comparison table for the options, with a recommendation only if the evidence supports one. 3. A 90-day plan with weekly actions across exploration, proof of skill, network conversations, and application or internal-mobility work. Include outputs I can show, such as a portfolio sample, project brief, or evidence bank. 4. A script for three informational interviews that asks about work reality, entry paths, and hiring signals without asking strangers to find me a job. 5. A “stop doing” list of activities that create motion but do not improve the chosen path. Before answering, check that the recommendation does not confuse interests with proven qualifications and that every suggested credential or skill action has a stated reason. Ask up to three clarifying questions only if a required input is missing.
Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [CAREER HISTORY] | Summarize your roles, responsibilities, accomplishments, education, and skills with dates where useful. | Six years in nonprofit program operations; managed volunteer scheduling, a $180,000 program budget, partner reporting, and Salesforce data cleanup; BA in sociology. |
| [CURRENT SITUATION] | Describe your current job status, level of satisfaction, and the decision or problem prompting this search. | Program Operations Manager at a youth nonprofit; I enjoy process improvement but have limited advancement and want to change within the next year. |
| [GOALS AND PRIORITIES] | State what you want from work, such as income, mission, flexibility, scope, learning, or location. | Target compensation of $85,000 or more, remote or Philadelphia hybrid work, stable hours, and work with a social-impact connection. |
| [OPTIONS I AM CONSIDERING] | List the roles, industries, career paths, or alternatives you are comparing. | Operations manager at a mission-driven company, customer success operations, or nonprofit chief of staff. |
| [CONSTRAINTS AND RESOURCES] | State limits and supports such as time, savings, caregiving, location, work authorization, network, and training budget. | Can spend five hours a week on career work; cannot take an unpaid internship; have $1,500 for courses; caregiver for a parent on Wednesdays. |
How to use
- Write your history as evidence of work performed and outcomes, not only job titles or personality traits.
- Rank your priorities before pasting them, because compensation, flexibility, mission, and speed can conflict.
- Use the comparison table to select one primary path and one backup rather than applying broadly to unrelated roles.
- Follow up with: “Build a portfolio project brief that proves my operations skills for the primary path using work I can do outside my employer’s confidential systems.”
Variations
Career change decision
Use this when deciding whether a transition is feasible before resigning.
Assess whether I can transition from [CURRENT FIELD] to [TARGET FIELD] using my factual experience: [BACKGROUND]. My priorities are [PRIORITIES], and my constraints are [CONSTRAINTS]. Produce a gap map separating transferable experience, missing proof, and truly missing capability; then create three routes: low-risk transition, accelerated transition, and stay-and-build. Include time, cost, and tradeoffs without inventing salary or hiring data. Check that no route requires a credential unless it solves a named gap.
Promotion strategy
Use this when pursuing growth at your current employer.
Create a promotion strategy for my current role, [ROLE], based on my responsibilities [RESPONSIBILITIES], evidence of impact [ACHIEVEMENTS], and target level [TARGET LEVEL]. Produce a competency gap table, a 60-day evidence-building plan, and a manager conversation agenda with direct questions about scope, performance standards, and timing. Do not assume a promotion budget or open role exists. Check that each proposed project is within my authority or clearly requires sponsor approval.
Informational interview plan
Use this when exploring a field through conversations.
Build an informational-interview plan for exploring [TARGET FIELD]. My background is [BACKGROUND], and I want to test these assumptions: [ASSUMPTIONS]. Produce a list of five types of people to contact, a short outreach note, ten non-leading questions, and a scorecard for comparing what I learn. Keep outreach under 120 words and do not ask contacts for a referral in the first message. Check that the questions distinguish a single person’s experience from field-wide evidence.
Tips
- Evaluate a path by the work you would do repeatedly, not only the title, status, or a few appealing job descriptions.
- Build proof before seeking permission to change fields: a documented process improvement, analysis, project brief, or volunteer deliverable can demonstrate adjacent ability.
- Informational interviews are most useful when you test one assumption, such as how people enter the field or what a first-year workload is like.
- Set a decision date for exploration; endless research can delay applications without reducing uncertainty.
FAQ
Can AI tell me which career is right for me?
It can help compare options and surface tradeoffs, but it cannot know your lived priorities or guarantee an outcome. Use real conversations and small tests to validate its suggestions.
Should I quit before making a career change?
That depends on finances, health, urgency, and the kind of transition. Build a plan around your actual runway and seek qualified advice for financial or immigration consequences.
Do I need another degree to change careers?
Not always. First identify the exact hiring signal or skill gap; a targeted project, course, certification, or internal move may be more useful than a full degree.