Science-based lessons for a successful professional reinvention.

BY FAST COMPANY

Credit: Freepik

Most people never change careers, which is remarkable when you consider how little evidence most of us had when we chose our first one.

For many professionals, early career decisions are shaped less by talent or long-term fit than by convenience and coincidence. We follow friends into certain degrees, accept the first decent offer, listen to family advice, or pursue interests that feel meaningful at 18 but prove less durable at 38. These choices are understandable, but they are weak predictors of where our strengths will compound over time, or of what will sustain both performance and satisfaction across decades of work. In essence, we follow our own or other people’s 

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