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What if career exploration began not with “What occupation should I choose?” but with a more compelling question: “What problems in the world would I most like to help solve?”
I recently had the privilege of presenting Career Callings – in two sessions – to leaders and members of a working group of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA). The thoughtful discussion and enthusiastic response reinforced my belief that this approach has relevance across countries, cultures, education systems and labour markets.
One participant wrote afterward that she was so “pumped up” by the presentation that she found it difficult to think about anything else. Others expressed interest in exploring the tool further, sharing it with their networks and discussing possible next steps. That response was deeply encouraging because Career Callings is more than another career information website. It represents one practical piece of a much larger vision described in my forthcoming book, The Missing Bridge: Why So Many Young People Can’t Find a Path from School to Meaningful Work.
The bridge too many people are missing
Across the Asia-Pacific region and around the world, young people are being asked to make increasingly consequential education and career decisions while work, technology, communities and the planet itself are changing around them. They have unprecedented access to information. They can search thousands of occupations, compare programs, examine labour-market projections and ask artificial intelligence almost any career-related question. Yet access to more information has not necessarily produced greater direction, confidence, or hope. Many young people still struggle to connect:
- what they are learning with why it matters;
- their interests and values with the needs of their communities;
- possible occupations with the problems they want to help solve; and
- education with meaningful contribution and work.
This is the missing bridge. My book argues that career development should be regarded as essential public infrastructure—the human infrastructure connecting education, employment, community well-being, social mobility and economic prosperity. Roads move people and goods. Electrical grids move energy. Digital networks move information. Career development moves human potential.
However, that infrastructure must do more than help people select an occupation. It must help them develop the curiosity, confidence, relationships, experiences and career agency needed to navigate change throughout life.
Beginning with purpose
Traditional career exploration often begins with the individual:
- What are your interests?
- What are your abilities?
- What subjects do you enjoy?
- Which occupations appear to suit you?
These remain useful questions, but Career Callings adds another dimension:
What does the world need that you might care enough to do something about?
Career Callings is a free online resource that uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for exploring purpose, contribution and possible futures. The 17 Global Goals address challenges that touch every country and community: poverty, hunger, health, education, equality, clean energy, decent work, sustainable communities, responsible consumption, climate action, peace, justice and environmental protection. Users can explore the goals and identify those that speak most strongly to them. They can then examine specific targets, organizations working toward them, occupations within those organizations and education or training pathways that might help them contribute. The sequence is intentionally different:
Purpose → challenges and goals → organizations → occupations → learning pathways → action
Instead of asking young people to choose from an overwhelming catalogue of job titles, Career Callings invites them to begin with something personally meaningful. A young person concerned about clean water might discover opportunities in science, engineering, public policy, communications, community development, education, technology, skilled trades, or entrepreneurship. Someone drawn to reducing inequality might contribute through law, health care, finance, social enterprise, teaching, advocacy, data analysis, or public administration.
The same calling can be expressed through many occupations. The same occupation can serve many callings. This matters because occupations, technologies and labour markets will continue to change. A durable sense of purpose can help people adapt without losing their direction.
From exploration to encounter
A digital resource alone cannot bridge the distance between education and meaningful work. Career Callings is intended to stimulate action and conversation, not replace them.
After identifying goals, organizations and occupations of interest, users are encouraged to:
- speak with people doing work that interests them;
- visit workplaces and community organizations;
- volunteer or participate in service learning;
- seek mentors;
- explore internships, work experience and apprenticeships;
- investigate education and training options;
- undertake small projects related to a chosen goal; and
- use artificial intelligence to deepen their research and prepare thoughtful questions.
These encounters allow people to test possibilities before making major commitments. They also help employers, educators, families, community organizations and career practitioners share responsibility for supporting career development. This is central to The Missing Bridge. Career development should not be a brief intervention offered only when someone must choose a course, find a job, or recover from unemployment. It should be an early, repeated, experiential and lifelong process.
A tool for practitioners, not a substitute for them
Artificial intelligence can locate information, identify patterns, compare pathways and suggest questions in seconds. What it cannot replace is the human relationship at the heart of good career development. Career development practitioners help people make meaning from information. They listen for what matters beneath the first answer. They encourage exploration, challenge limiting assumptions, help clients recognize strengths and connect aspirations with realistic opportunities. Career Callings gives practitioners another starting point for these conversations:
- Which global or community challenges matter most to you?
- Why do they matter?
- Who is already working on them?
- What roles exist within those organizations?
- What could you do this month to learn more?
- Who might help you take the first step?
These questions shift career development from choosing something on a list to discovering how and where a person might contribute.
Local adaptation, shared purpose
The enthusiastic APCDA response also highlighted an important opportunity. The framework is global, but its expression should always be local. Each country and community has its own cultures, priorities, employers, education systems, labour-market realities and ways of understanding purpose and contribution. Career practitioners throughout the Asia-Pacific region could help identify locally relevant organizations, occupations, learning pathways, stories and community challenges. Career Callings should therefore be seen not as a finished prescription, but as an invitation to collaborate, adapt, test and improve. I hope it can become one of many practical resources within a stronger international career-development infrastructure—one that helps every person answer three essential questions:
- Who am I becoming?
- Where am I needed?
- What can I do next?
The greatest natural resource of any nation is not found beneath its soil. It resides in the imagination, character, talents and aspirations of its people. Our shared challenge is to ensure that none of that potential remains undiscovered, undeveloped or unused.
