Are you feeling lost in your career journey? Whether you’re a college student uncertain about your future path or a seasoned professional feeling unfulfilled in your current job, you’re not alone. Studies have shown that a significant portion of both college students and the full-time workforce struggle with career uncertainty and dissatisfaction. But, there’s a way out of the maze and it’s right at your fingertips.

For college seniors on the brink of entering the job market, the pressure to choose the right career path can be overwhelming. It’s common to feel paralyzed by the myriad of options and unsure about where to begin. But here’s the secret: the key to a successful job search is FOCUS.

Start by identifying your favorite skills, interests, and major. By homing in on these aspects, you can generate specific job titles that align with your strengths and passions. Plug the following into ChatGPT (only include the information that you want ChatGPT to consider):

Generate 10 specific job titles that could be a good fit for me based on My Favorite Skills: (list them), My Interests: (list them), and My Major: (specify)

ChatGPT will give you 10 specific job titles that could be a good fit for you.

The goal is to immediately break through analysis paralysis and start thinking about concrete job titles which is exactly how recruiters see the world. There’s no point in focusing on abstract job categories (“I want to work in tech”) when you can immediately focus on the language of your target audience.

Once you’ve developed a list of potential jobs it can be excruciating to choose a specific path (after all, they all seem so tempting). Start by choosing 3 job titles that seems most appealing to you and give ChatGPT the following prompt:

Please tell me about a typical day for each of the following job titles and the kinds of people who tend to enjoy them (list the 3 job titles).

This prompt eliminates your lack of insider knowledge that makes every job look glamorous from the outside. Once you know what a job is really like, it can be easier to rule out if the work doesn’t sound appealing or if it’s not a good fit for your personality.

To break ties for any jobs that still seem like a good fit, use the following prompt:

Rank these jobs (insert job titles) based upon my Career Goals (list them) and Qualifications (list skills and credentials)

ChatGPT will rank them and tell you why.

Moving one step beyond personal preference, we now get down to the crucial questions of whether the job is right for your goals and whether you’re right for the job. Next feed ChatGPT the following prompt:

What are three specific ways I can test my fit with each of the following roles (insert roles)

You will get some career homework, both online and offline, that’s highly actionable-whether it’s reading specific resources or trying out specific experiences. Alternatively, you can turn to LinkedIn to get someone on the inside to refer you (one of the most powerful techniques for applying to jobs). An ideal way is to reach out to alumni from your alma mater:

• Search for your university on LinkedIn
• Click the alumni tab
• Filter for alumni who work in your field of interest (and maybe companies and locations that interest you, too).

Send a personalized connection request to the resulting alumni along the following lines:

Hi (name),

I’m a fellow IONA/Gael and I’m at a career crossroads. Specifically, I’m trying to decide whether to pursue your path. Would you be open to a 10-minute Zoom or phone chat so I can learn from your journey?

Once you have a conversation, you can then ask her or him questions we’ve already explored with ChatGPT:

• What’s a typical day like for you?
• What kind of person tends to be really happy in this role?
• Does it give you a chance to leverage X skills or achieve Y goals?

You can get specific insider information to better shape your decision.

Ideally, you now have just a single job title to focus on. This will not only come in handy with your LinkedIn Profile but will also make your job search much easier because you won’t have to constantly switch back-and-forth between different stories and skills as you tailor resumes and prepare for interviews.