Introduction
When you’re kind of broke and also exhausted as a grad student, the light at the end of the tunnel is generally ‘safety’. A higher-paying job that doesn’t require all the late nights, exam cramming, and 200-page theses.
A normal job.
But is it too much to ask for this job to also be fulfilling? To meet all of your needs?
Do you even know what those needs are, beyond just bringing the negative back to a neutral state? Do you know what sits at the very top of the priorities list, and what you’re more likely to have a tradeoff for?
If not, this exercise will help put some labels of different sectors of daily life, and arrange them in an order that spells out what we personally need to feel the happiest. We will:
- Do a quick self-score of general life sectors and project them forward in time
- Have an open-ended discussion with an LLM to set the groundwork
- See what kind of careers fit those priorities, given our field
Exercise: Life Priorities Mapping
Exercise Components:
- Life Domains Assessment What we prioritize For the following domains, rate their current importance to you (1 is not important-10 is most important) and your eventual desired importance (1 is not satisfied-10 is very satisfied), to see how distant you are from your ideal high-quality life, and what may need to be altered for the future:
Category | Current Priority | Desired Priority |
Family Relationships | ||
Social Relationships | ||
Romantic Relationships | ||
Geographic Location | ||
Financial Security | ||
Health & Wellbeing | ||
Work-life Boundaries | ||
Creative Expression | ||
Social Impact | ||
Leisure & Recreation | ||
Personal Growth | ||
Spiritual Fulfillment |
Each desired priority with a score of 7 or higher should be prioritized in your life to have personal high life quality. Anything with a 4 or less is not something you prioritize for a high quality life.
If the current satisfaction for any of these high priorities is currently below where you want it to be, ask yourself what would need to be true for it to get there. Is this temporary, due to current situation? Is there a specific plan to change it eventually? What would it take for you to enact those changes? Write a quick thought about how you can get that priority to be higher in the next 5 years.
- Values Excavation Now that we’ve put some basic thought into this, we can open it up to a conversation. Plus this prompt in to your favorite LLM:
I'm a PhD student/graduate in [specify your field] trying to clarify my personal priorities beyond my academic work.
Please ask me a series of 10 thoughtful questions that will help me uncover my true values and life priorities. Examples of these factors include, but are not limited to, relationships, geographic preferences, lifestyle, work-life boundaries, financial goals, and personal fulfillment, and others.
After each question, wait for my response before asking the next question. Once I've answered all questions, summarize what you've learned about my priorities and suggest 5-7 core values that seem most important to me.
- Career Path Impact Analysis Now that we know what goes at the top of our priority pile, we can see how it fits into jobs we are currently aiming for.
Identify three potential career paths you're considering. Then lets continue in that same thread with the LLM from above and dig in deeper. Use this prompt in the same thread:
I'm considering the following career paths after my PhD: 1. [Career path 1] 2. [Career path 2] 3. [Career path 3] Keep in mind my highest priority life domains from above as we continue. For each career path, help me analyze: - How might this path positively support my priority life domains? - How might this path create challenges for my priority life domains? - What specific strategies could I use to mitigate these challenges?
-What are some red and green flags to look for in interviews when considering my priorities?
External Resources:
- 80,000 Hours Career Planning Tool - Helps analyze career paths against personal values
- The Designing Your Life Workbook - Provides exercises for life-career integration
- Values in Action (VIA) Character Strengths Assessment - Free online tool for identifying core values
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Balance Work-Life Resources - Collection of resources for STEM professionals