Raffi Simonian / Career Plan

Steps to a Successful Career

The framework I use in career counseling, made interactive. It starts with Ikigai — a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being,” the sweet spot where passion, mission, vocation, and profession align. Reflect on the four questions below, then let AI turn your answers into personalized career recommendations.

What you LOVE What theworld NEEDS What you can bePAID FOR What you areGOOD AT Passion Mission Vocation Profession IKIGAI
💡 Ikigai is a framework for finding purpose and fulfillment. The four questions map your passions, strengths, the world's needs, and the market — your target roles and industries live where the answers overlap. The more specific your answers, the more personalized the recommendations.

Step 1 · Self-Awareness: discover your reason for being

Self-awareness precedes job titles, salaries, or degrees. The more detail you give, the better the recommendations.

1. What do you love?

What activities or hobbies bring you happiness in your life?

💭 Prompts
  • What activities make you feel most alive and fulfilled?
  • What are the things you could spend hours doing without feeling drained?
  • When do you feel a sense of joy, excitement, or deep satisfaction?

2. What are you good at?

What skills or talents come naturally to you?

💭 Prompts
  • What are your strengths?
  • What do you excel at?
  • What skills or abilities come naturally to you?

3. What does the world need?

What societal challenges, causes, or needs resonate with you and inspire a desire to contribute positively to the world?

💭 Prompts
  • What problems or issues in your community or globally do you feel passionate about solving?
  • How can you contribute to making a positive impact on society or the lives of others?
  • What skills or expertise do you possess that could address a societal or global need?

4. What can you be paid for?

What skills, services, or expertise can you offer that others find valuable enough to compensate you for?

💭 Prompts
  • What skills, services, or products can you offer that people are willing to pay for?
  • How can you leverage your abilities to create a source of income?

Step 2 · Career Exploration: generate recommendations

There are over 900 careers in 14 industry clusters — most people never see the full menu. Your answers above become an expert career-counseling prompt; open it in the AI assistant you already use.

💭 Follow-up questions to ask the AI afterwards
  • Can you provide sample companies or startups in the industries you recommended?
  • What is an ideal company size for me if I want to make an impact, value personal growth, or need work-life balance?
  • Who should I try to meet for informational interviews, and how do I find them?

Step 3 · Career Planning: set a direction

Career planning does not require a perfect or permanent decision. Set an initial direction that aligns your natural abilities with the realities of the labor market — projected wages, demand, and where your skills can develop enough to excel.

  1. Choose a career direction. From your AI recommendations above, pick 1–2 target roles that fit your strengths, interests, and labor-market realities (pay, demand, growth).
  2. Identify required skills. For each role, list the academic, technical, and employability skills (communication, teamwork, leadership) employers expect.
  3. Map your gaps. Compare those lists to your current skills and highlight what to close in the next 1–3 years.

Step 4 · Skills-Based Education: build the plan and work it

More than an education plan — a roadmap based on skills and competencies. Education is no longer a single track: degrees, industry certifications, work-based learning, entrepreneurship, and employability skills all work together.

  1. Design a skills-based learning path. For each gap, pick a route: university courses or minors, certificates and bootcamps, internships and research, volunteering and leadership roles, online courses and self-study projects.
  2. Map out a networking plan. Tools like Connect The Dots (maps your network from your email conversations) and Nira (conversational search over your LinkedIn network) keep your relationships working for you.
  3. Get ready for interviews. Use the PAR method on your resume to show impact with metrics, and practice behavioral interviews.
  4. Follow creative job-search tactics. See how to get a job anywhere with no connections and how one job-seeker beat 2,000+ applicants.
  5. Build a simple timeline. Decide what you will do this quarter, this year, and next year — then review and adjust each term, keeping the plan focused on transferable skills, not checking boxes.