This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I'm your host, Mac Pritchard.

I'm also the founder of Max List. It's a job board in the

Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career. Every Wednesday, I talk to a different

expert about the tools you need to get the work you want. It's time to change your job,

maybe even your career, but you can't decide where you want to go.

Andrea Yacup Masek is here to talk about what to do when you don't know what's next.

She's the founder and CEO of AYM Consulting.

Andrea's company helps professional women show up as themselves and move forward and upward in their careers.

She joins us from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Well, let's jump right into it, Andrea.

Why do people struggle with not knowing what to do next in a career or in making a job change?

What's going on there? Sure. So there's a couple of

things at play. And I will preface that as a career coach for women, I'm speaking mainly from a

female perspective as a woman myself. But typically what happens when someone finds themselves

at this intersection, it's because there's a personal and professional

situation happening. And we can't isolate those two. If you're at a career intersection,

there's something happening in your personal life. So that's one thing. And secondly,

we're socialized to view careers in a linear trajectory. And that's not accurate.

Careers are meant to be up and down, zigzag, going circles and go all over the place.

But we are very socialized from a young age to take a linear path because our education

system is set up in a linear path. So when professionals find themselves at an intersection

...