01 Introdicution
“Enough is enough, I can’t take this job for one more day. Maybe it’s time to quit.”
Have you ever had a thought like this cross your mind? Don’t worry; there’s no shame in admitting it—at least, be honest with yourself. You’re certainly not alone. Studies show that 85% of people worldwide are dissatisfied with their current jobs.
Let’s put that into perspective. If your company has more than ten employees, the chances of everyone being satisfied with their work are less than 1 in 100 million.
But why is workplace dissatisfaction so widespread? Shouldn’t we, living in a world of developed market economies and endless industry options, find it easier to land our ideal job? It’s like how choosing a life partner in the age of modern dating should, theoretically, be easier than during the era of arranged marriages—but still, most people struggle to find “the one.”
So, what’s going wrong here? Why are most people unhappy with their work? And how can you find a career path that truly suits you?
The answer lies in one critical aspect: career planning. Studies reveal that many people who report being happy at work didn’t just stumble into job satisfaction—they found it through deliberate and informed career planning.
The truth is, everyone has heard the term “career planning,” especially young graduates. But for most people, “career planning” amounts to little more than listening to a career counselor’s PowerPoint presentation during senior year or seeking vague advice from an older sibling or classmate. Unfortunately, many career advisors lack firsthand experience in the job market, and while alumni stories can be helpful, they’re often limited by individual perspectives.
Without a scientific and structured approach to career planning, it’s easy to veer off the right path—and years of your professional life can slip away. That’s why understanding systematic and evidence-based career planning is the key to unlocking your full potential and creating a fulfilling career.
02 Plan Your Career with an “End-in-Mind” Perspective
Why Are So Many People Unhappy with Their Jobs?
The truth is, most people don’t even realize their career can be planned. When it’s left to chance, it’s no surprise that so many find themselves unsatisfied. Worse, many drift between different roles or even industries without a clear direction. The root cause? A lack of long-term career planning—a mindset of "starting with the end in mind."
This might sound abstract at first, so let’s break it down.
What Is "Starting with the End in Mind"?
Most people approach their careers with a "forward-thinking" mindset. Here's how it usually goes:
- After graduating high school, they choose a college major based on what their peers or family think is a "good fit" for the job market.
- After college, they look for roles that align with their degree.
- Once hired, they focus solely on their job responsibilities in the moment, without considering the bigger picture.
- A few years later, they get frustrated, argue with a boss, and quit—only to repeat this cycle at a new workplace.
Does this sound familiar? It’s like slipping on a banana peel and just seeing where you land.
What’s wrong with this approach? The biggest issue is that it leaves you prone to taking “detours.”
Why Career “Detours” Are Riskier Than Ever
A career spans 30-40 years, and for most of us, it may stretch even longer due to rising retirement ages. Combine that with the fast-paced changes in today’s world, and you’ll see how easy it is to slip into a detour that wastes years of effort.
Let’s look at two examples:
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Choosing the Wrong Major:
Think back to your college application days. What was the “hottest” major that everyone was clamoring for? By the time you graduated four years later, was it still in demand? Probably not. In fact, some majors that were once prestigious may now be nearly obsolete. Those four years could easily become a dead end. -
Focusing Only on Assigned Tasks at Work:
Imagine you’re at a company doing what your boss asks but ignoring broader trends or future-proofing your skills. A few years pass, and suddenly advanced AI automation disrupts your industry. Overnight, your work experience could become irrelevant—a hard-earned skillset reduced to zero value.
Without long-term planning, these “detours” add up. But the good news? There’s a better way.
Plan Your Career Like a Maze: Reverse Engineering Your Goals
The key difference between aimless wandering and purposeful planning lies in adopting a "start with the end in mind" approach. Here’s how this mindset works:
-
Imagine Your Career at Retirement:
Picture yourself at age 60. Where are you? What kind of work are you doing—or are you retired? What kind of person have you become? -
Work Backward from Your Vision:
Once you know the end goal, you can map out the steps to reach it, just like plotting a route in a maze. Instead of wandering around looking for the exit, you “fly a drone” above the maze, identify your destination, and calculate the optimal path to get there.
When you follow a reverse-engineered plan, your steps are deliberate and focused—like running on a clear track rather than dodging obstacles.
Finding Your “Track”
You might say: "I get the theory, but how do I actually figure out what my 'track' is?"
Don’t worry! The process is a lot like playing a strategic game of cards. And in the next section, we’ll dive deeper into actionable methods to redefine and plan your professional path.
03 The PVS Competency Model: Your Career Is Like a Game of Cards
Careers and Card Games—What’s the Connection?
Have you ever played a card game like Poker, Texas Hold’em, or any other variation? Think back to what’s essential for winning a round of cards. Typically, your success depends on three key elements:
1. Your Starting Hand
If your starting hand is packed with strong cards—like four aces—it’s almost impossible to lose. On the other hand, if your hand is full of mismatched cards, you’re probably out of luck.
2. Choosing the Right Opponents (or Table)
In games like Texas Hold’em, skilled players understand that “choosing your table” and evaluating opponents is often more important than raw card-playing skill. After all, profits in poker come from playing against those with weaker skills—a perfect example of why “choosing wisely” beats effort alone.
3. Your Skill as a Player
Over time, everyone gets the same mix of good and bad hands. The difference between winners and losers lies in the player’s ability to consistently turn average hands into winning hands through technique, insight, and strategy.
The PVS Model: A Winning Strategy for Your Career
Career planning works almost exactly like a card game. According to Mr. Lu Feng, a career consultant, career success depends on three interconnected factors, much like the hand, table, and skill aspects of poker. Over years of consulting practice, he developed the PVS Competency Model, which evaluates a person’s career potential across three dimensions:
- P: Personal Potential
- V: Work Values
- S: Skills
What’s intriguing is that successful career trajectories often involve individuals who achieve strong alignment with all three parts of this model. Let’s break it down.
1. P: Personal Potential – Your “Starting Hand”
Your personal potential represents the natural abilities or traits you’re born with—it’s like your starting hand in a card game. This includes:
- Natural talents: Intelligence, physical traits, or specific abilities.
- Personality: For example, whether you’re naturally introverted or extroverted (think MBTI personality types).
- Dreams and personal mission: What drives and excites you on a deeper level.
Here’s the thing: your starting hand is largely determined at birth. Just like how Usain Bolt was born with exceptional sprinting genes or how Yao Ming’s height gave him an edge in basketball, your natural abilities are mostly fixed.
While significant change is possible (say, moving from being an introvert to an extrovert), the effort it takes can be enormous. Instead of worrying about what you don’t have, it’s far better to recognize and fully understand your inherent potential—your “starting hand”—and use it to your advantage by choosing the right table.
2. V: Work Values – Choosing the Right “Table”
Your work values are essentially about alignment—figuring out which “table” to sit at. This is arguably the most important step in career planning.
Before making any moves, ask yourself these questions:
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What are my career options (tables)?
Understand the different career paths and opportunities available, along with their characteristics. -
Which table suits me best?
Evaluate which career matches your skills, potential, and aspirations. For example, do you thrive in a fast-paced corporate environment, or are you better suited to creative entrepreneurship?
By connecting this step to the mindset of “starting with the end in mind,” you can reverse-engineer your career path. Picture where you want to be later in life, and use that vision to choose the “right table” that aligns with your values and long-term ambitions.
3. S: Skills – Your “Card-Playing Technique”
Skills are the tools and techniques you use to play the cards you’ve been dealt. Just like how poker skills can turn a weak hand into a winning one, your career success will depend on building and refining your professional skills.
There are two types of skills to focus on:
- Hard skills: Tangible technical abilities like coding, video editing, public speaking, or data analysis.
- Soft skills: Insight into your industry, client relationships, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking.
To maximize success, your goal is to sharpen these skills continually. Every opportunity to upgrade your “card-playing technique” helps in bringing your potential (P) to life.
The Three-Step Formula for Career Success
According to the PVS model, successful career planning is as simple as following these three steps:
-
Identify Your Personal Potential (P)
Understand your natural talents, personality, and unique strengths—your starting hand. -
Choose the Right Career Path (V)
Align your work values with a career that suits your long-term goals. Selecting the wrong path will almost always lead to wasted years. -
Build In-Demand Skills (S)
Continuously refine your technical and professional abilities to stay ahead of industry changes.
Why Choosing the Right Path is Mission-Critical
If there’s one takeaway from this model, it’s the importance of V: Work Values. Your ability to align your values and goals with the right career “track” makes all the difference.
As Mr. Lu Feng says, “Choose the wrong path, and every effort feels like a detour. But choose the right path, and the road ahead becomes clear and direct.”
What’s Next? Understanding Career “Tracks”
Now that you’ve got the framework, the next step is diving deeper into the available career tracks and understanding which one is right for you. Stay tuned for more insights on how to evaluate your options and chart your professional journey!
04 Seven Career Paths: Which One is Right for You?
Finding the Right Path for Your Unique Potential
Did you know that Liu Cixin, the celebrated Chinese sci-fi author of The Three-Body Problem, originally worked as an engineer at a power plant?
It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? If Liu had never changed his career path, the world might have one more average engineer—but it would have lost one of the greatest sci-fi authors of our time. His decision to leave his job and become a full-time writer illustrates one of the seven career paths we’ll explore today: the freelance route.
The 7 Career Paths
According to career strategist Lu Feng, there are seven major career paths that almost everyone’s professional journey falls into. Each of these “tracks” is suited to different strengths, goals, and values. Let’s dive into some examples to help you identify yours!
1. Become an Expert
Every company has experts—people who specialize in solving specific problems, like:
- Sales geniuses who excel in closing tough deals
- Marketing pros, supply chain specialists, research and development experts, and more
These individuals don’t necessarily want, or need, to take on a leadership role. Instead, their goal is to become the best in their field—masters of their craft.
Real-Life Example: Sales Genius Turned Superstar
Let’s look at the story of Sarah, a sales professional at a major tech company in Silicon Valley. Sarah was known for her ability to crush her sales goals year after year. One time, during the early 2000s, she came up with a creative idea to send personalized, hand-written thank-you notes to potential clients at a time when everyone else was relying on cold calls and email blasts. Her personal touch resulted in a significant boost in customer response rates, setting her apart from her peers.
Thanks to her success, Sarah was quickly promoted into a management role—overseeing a team of rookie sales reps. But after a few months, Sarah realized she wasn’t cut out for management. She missed the thrill of customer interaction, the strategy of closing big deals, and the ability to directly impact results. She also found that the skills she excelled in, like reading subtle customer cues and crafting innovative pitches, weren’t easily teachable to others.
In the end, Sarah stepped back into an individual contributor role as a senior sales specialist. This move allowed her to focus on what she did best—selling. By leveraging her unique abilities, Sarah not only thrived but also gained the respect of her peers and company leadership for staying true to her strengths.
Why This Path Works
If you find yourself excelling in a specific skill, easily entering a “flow state,” and enjoying meticulous practice, becoming a top expert in your field might be your ideal path. In large companies, true experts bring immense value—because real expertise is difficult for AI or automation to replace.
2. Climb the Management Ladder
Some people excel at leading others—they’re gifted at guiding teams, making decisions, and motivating groups toward a common goal.
These individuals thrive on coordination, strategy, and big-picture thinking. If you prefer creating systems and helping others achieve results, the management track might be your calling.
3. Lead a Large Organization
Have you imagined becoming the CEO of a major organization? This path is for those who dream of leading at the top—taking the reins of a global corporation or a large-scale venture.
While this path often involves high levels of stress and responsibility, it’s ideal for people who possess relentless ambition, strong leadership instincts, and a vision for large-scale innovation.
4. Become a Freelancer
This career path is for those who value freedom and independence over stability. Freelancers have a unique skill or craft that enables them to operate without being tied to a specific company.
The “USB Lifestyle”
Think of freelancers as living a “USB-like existence,” as described by Chinese author Luo Zhenyu. They carry their knowledge and skills with them wherever they go—plugging into projects as needed—without “downloading” themselves into a traditional 9-to-5 job.
Freelancers can be writers, graphic designers, consultants, photographers, or anything else that allows them to earn independently while flexing their creativity.
5. Start a Small but Beautiful Business
This path is for those who dream of building a boutique business—one that’s “small but beautiful” in its unique way.
This might include:
- A cozy coffee shop in your local neighborhood
- A niche online store with a dedicated following
- A content creation business that serves your area of expertise
These entrepreneurs prioritize quality, passion, and purpose over the size of their enterprises.
6. Create a Large-Scale Enterprise
For the bold and daring, creating a large-scale company—like Tesla, Apple, or Alibaba—is the ultimate path.
Real-Life Examples
Visionaries like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and their counterparts in China, such as Jack Ma and Lei Jun, chose this track. They didn’t just create businesses—they revolutionized the way people live.
What It Takes
This path is challenging, risky, and full of ups and downs. But for people with a world-changing vision, immense resilience, and the ability to inspire others, the rewards are unparalleled.
7. Become a Savvy Businessperson
This track is for those who prioritize making money from smart, low-stress ventures.
These individuals are often skilled traders, investors, or small business operators who excel at identifying opportunities, minimizing risks, and maximizing returns. It’s a practical, no-nonsense approach to building wealth while maintaining a work-life balance.
Choosing Your Path
Not everyone is destined for the same journey. So how can you determine your ideal career path?
- Reflect on your strengths: What are you naturally good at?
- Understand your values: Do you prioritize freedom, recognition, stability, or innovation?
- Experiment: Don’t be afraid to try different roles until you find your fit.
“If you choose the wrong path, every step feels like a detour. When you choose the right path, the road is clear and full of possibility.”
05 Final Thoughts
Life in the workplace often feels like a game of endless “what-ifs.” At every stage, you might find yourself second-guessing past decisions and wondering what could have been.
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At 25, you read stories about Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of college to create billion-dollar startups. Your heart races with ambition as you think, “Why didn’t I take that risk back then? If I had, I might be ringing the bell on the Nasdaq by now.”
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At 35, years of toil leave you mentally and physically exhausted. You sign up at a gym to regain your energy, only to find that the gold-medal-winning personal trainer—who left school to train full-time—earns more than you, a college graduate from a prestigious university. And then it hits you: “Why didn’t I quit my job sooner and enjoy the freedom of being a freelancer?”
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At 45, you finally make it to management. But instead of enjoying the perks, you’re caught in a daily tug-of-war: constantly pressured to deliver results by upper management, while your direct reports look to you for direction. As the shadow of a “midlife crisis” begins to creep up on you, you think, “Maybe I should’ve stayed in my lane and become a top-notch specialist instead of a manager.”
In every stage of life, we take wrong turns. But often, it’s only after experiencing these detours that we see the destination we truly want. You may have finally found the shortcut, but you’re no longer standing at the starting line.
May you discover your own life path, bravely explore your passions, and forge ahead toward your goals. And as you do, remember the heartwarming words of Gaode Maps (China’s equivalent to Google Maps):
"After every wrong turn, the road ahead becomes clear—a life full of smooth sailing."
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