Laid off? What to do in the first 30 days
Protect your finances, organise your job search and explore options after a layoff.
I want out, or I’m already out.
Layoffs, burnout, retraining, pay, age and the practical route from the work you know to the work you want.
Every guide in Make a change
62 guidesAfter a layoff
The first month, the stay-or-switch question, and how to explain the gap without a rehearsed speech.
6 guidesRead the guide
Laid off: should you change careers or find the same job?
Compare returning to familiar work with changing fields through a realistic two-track test.
My job was cut because of AI. What can I do next?
Map the tasks automation removed and identify roles where your experience still matters.
Laid off from tech? Do you have to leave tech?
Test roles that use your tech experience before deciding to leave the field.
How to explain a layoff and career pivot without sounding rehearsed
Explain a layoff and career pivot with specific evidence instead of rehearsed passion statements.
Laid off after 50: where your experience still counts
Use your experience, relationships and a focused market test to plan your next move.
Leaving a specific field
Nursing, retail, hospitality, sales and academia: what carries over, and what to check first.
5 guidesLeaving bedside nursing: do you need a new setting or a new career?
Compare changing wards, leaving bedside care and moving outside nursing before choosing a route.
What can a retail manager do outside retail?
Translate retail-management tasks into credible alternatives and test the gaps honestly.
Leaving hospitality without throwing away your experience
Compare routes that use hospitality experience without recreating the pressures you want to leave.
How to leave sales without ending up in another sales job
Spot hidden sales targets and test work that genuinely differs from selling.
Leaving academia: what is your PhD useful for outside a university?
Translate your PhD experience into practical evidence for work beyond academia.
Actually changing
The method, the timelines, and the two questions everyone asks: no experience, and no degree.
3 guidesHow do I change careers?
Pick a direction, try a small piece of work and use the result to adjust.
How do I switch careers with no experience?
Build experience through small real tasks and outcomes another person can judge.
Can I change careers without going back to school?
Check actual hiring requirements before assuming a career change needs another degree.
Before you pay to retrain
Master’s degrees, bootcamps, apprenticeships, portfolios and freelancing, with the checks worth doing first.
4 guidesIs a master’s degree worth it for a career change?
Compare routes, costs and practical work before paying for a master’s degree.
Is a coding bootcamp worth it? What to check before paying
Check bootcamp teaching, costs and outcomes before trying a small coding task.
How to build a career-change portfolio when you have no clients
Build honest portfolio evidence using practice briefs, even before you have clients.
Should I freelance? Test more than the part you enjoy
Test finding clients, agreeing scope and handling revisions alongside the work you enjoy.
Work that fits your life
Career breaks, caring, stress and changing while you still have a full-time job.
5 guidesReturning to work after a career break, but not to your old career
Compare three return-to-work routes and refresh the skills that fit your life now.
How to change careers while working full time
Test a new direction alongside full-time work using a six-week plan with smaller fallback steps.
Which careers can fit around caring responsibilities?
Check schedules, workload and control when looking for work that fits caring responsibilities.
How to find a lower-stress career without trusting “low-stress jobs” lists
Compare working conditions and ask employers specific questions instead of trusting low-stress job lists.
Leaving corporate work for something hands-on: what to test before you resign
Test a practical career’s working day, training, physical demands and economics before resigning.
Change without erasing your past
Pay, age, burnout and transferable skills, with the statistics people quote checked against the source.
6 guidesBurned out, or ready for a change?
Separate exhaustion from working conditions and the work itself before planning a career change.
Can you change careers without taking a pay cut?
Identify bridge roles, calculate the downside and test demand before assuming a pay cut.
Career change at 40: you are not starting from nothing
Use your existing experience to test a different kind of work at 40.
What are my transferable skills? Stop writing 'communication'
Identify transferable strengths through real tasks and outcomes rather than generic skill labels.
Is 45 too old to change careers? Start by retiring a bad statistic
Test the work and price the transition instead of relying on career-change statistics.
How many jobs will you have in your life? What BLS actually knows
Understand what US lifetime-job and tenure figures can and cannot tell you about career planning.
Changing later
The same method, run against a mortgage and twenty years of working history.
1 guideOther ways to build a working life
Too many interests, stepping back from management, climate work and helping people outside healthcare.
2 guidesI do not want to manage people anymore. What are my options?
Compare specialist, practitioner and advisory routes before leaving people management.
How to move into climate work without a science or engineering background
Find where your current skills fit climate work and test a practical sector-learning exercise.
When AI changes your job
Role by role: what changes when software does the first draft, and which judgement still carries over.
9 guidesIf AI can write the first draft, what is a copywriter for?
Explore writing work beyond first drafts and test adjacent roles before retraining.
Translators and AI: where language judgement still matters
Test language work where meaning, context and responsibility still need human judgement.
Customer service and AI: what happens when the easy tickets disappear?
Explore service design, operations and escalation roles built on your support experience.
Graphic designers and AI: when making an image is no longer the whole job
Examine design work beyond image generation, including users, decisions and practical testing.
Recruiters and AI: the skills your old job title hides
Identify how your assessment, persuasion and decision-making skills travel beyond recruitment.
Administrative assistants and AI: you did more than manage calendars
Show how coordinating people, priorities and exceptions prepares you for other roles.
Accountants, bookkeepers and AI: the difference between recording and judging
Explore finance work that requires explaining, verifying and improving the numbers.
Leaving teaching? Start with the work you already do well
Test learning-design, training and support work before deciding to leave teaching.
Paralegals and AI: the new value of checking the answer
Explore legal operations, compliance and review work that depends on checking AI-generated answers.
Try before committing
The small experiments, conversations and days that produce real evidence.
1 guideWhen you feel stuck
Hating the job, boredom, regret and the crisis years: what each feeling points at, and the first small test.
10 guidesI hate my job but don't know what else to do
Split job misery into five sources, keep a ten-day diary and test one alternative before resigning.
I feel stuck in my career. How do I get unstuck?
Name which of four kinds of stuck you are in and run a two-week plan of conversations and one real task.
Am I having a quarter-life crisis about my career?
Turn doubt in your twenties into a three-month season of six small experiments.
Midlife career crisis: how to change direction without blowing up your life
Sort your experience into three piles and trial an adjacent move for twelve weeks before leaving.
Bored at work: should I quit or change something smaller?
Tell which kind of boredom you have, then test one fix inside your job and one outside it.
I don't have a passion. How do I choose a career?
Choose by curiosity, capability and constraints, then let doing build the interest.
How do I figure out what I'm good at?
Collect strengths from other people, speed and feedback, then test which ones you enjoy using.
I regret my career choice. What now?
Name exactly what you regret, count what the path gave you and test the smallest correction.
Does ikigai work for choosing a career?
Use the four circles to generate candidate directions, then test them with small real work.
Should I quit my job without another one lined up?
Check runway, direction, plan and story with a four-row test before resigning without an offer.
AI and your next move
Role-by-role task audits, getting into AI without code, the prompts worth using and when a coach is worth paying for.
10 guidesWill AI replace marketers? What changes and what to do about it
Audit a marketing week task by task and move time towards customer insight and measurement.
Will AI replace data analysts? What the work is becoming
Compare an AI answer with your own on a small dataset and explain every difference.
Will AI replace journalists? What reporting still needs people for
Separate reporting from writing, audit your week and test one adjacent research or verification role.
Will AI replace financial analysts? Where the judgement stays
Audit an FP&A week and practise challenging the assumptions AI-built models take for granted.
How do I get into AI without coding?
Six non-coding routes into AI work, each with a small test you can run in your current job.
Is prompt engineering a real career?
Treat prompting as a skill inside other roles and test evaluation work with a five-sample scorecard.
What skills should I learn for the future of work?
Six durable skills, how to practise each on real tasks and a ninety-day learning plan.
The best ChatGPT prompts for figuring out a career change
Twelve prompts for understanding your skills, widening options, designing tests and stress-testing a plan.
Should my teenager learn to code now that AI can write code?
Help a teen run a four-week build of something they care about and read what they enjoyed.
Is a career coach worth it? When to pay and when to start alone
Match coaching to your stage, ask six questions before hiring and try two weeks alone first.
145 guides. Many ways forward.
How we write & check our guides