The Career Panic Myth: Why Slowing Down Might Be Your Best Next Move

One of the most difficult questions to answer at university is, “What’s next after I finish my degree?” We like control. We like to feel as though we know what’s coming, almost as if we could step into the DeLorean from Back to the Future and travel forward to see exactly how our lives unfold (Zemeckis, 1985). Careers are no exception to this need for certainty. By third year, those thoughts can become overwhelming, like someone repeatedly banging a drum right in front of you. Nothing seems to quiet the noise. Internships, graduate roles and applications start to feel like everything depends on them, as if it’s this opportunity or nothing at all.

Panic sets in. It can feel like standing in front of a herd of lions with nowhere to run. At first the thoughts are subtle: “What if I don’t land this job?” But they rarely stay subtle for long. One thought triggers another, and before we know it we are catastrophising outcomes that have not even happened. I once worked with a student who was worried about finances and job searching. The only concrete fact in front of us was that they had enough money to pay next month’s rent. Within seconds, though, their mind spiralled: “What if I end up in debt?” “What if I have to drop out?” “What if I become homeless?” One insecure thought created a chain reaction of imagined disasters, none of which had any real evidence behind them.

I share this because I have experienced the same pattern myself, and I would imagine many of you reading this have too. Almost every job I have secured has not come during periods of dread, panic or force. They have arrived when I have been at my calmest. My first job at university happened in the most unexpected way. I was out with friends and ended up talking to someone in a nightclub. There was no strategy, no intention, no sense that I was networking. Two days later I received a message reminding me that my shift started at 11pm that evening. It turned out the person I had been casually speaking to was the manager. I did not even realise I had been offered the job.

When I graduated, things felt very different. I was stressed and worried about what I was going to do next. Life felt like it was shifting beneath my feet and I was not ready for the change. I searched endlessly for jobs, typing the same keywords over and over, hoping something miraculous would appear. It did not. Eventually I decided to go for a walk. While I was out walking, away from the screen and the pressure, my now wife sent me a job advert for a psychology graduate study assistant role at a college. Because I was calmer, I slowed down and actually read it properly. I became curious. I applied, and within a week I had the job.

I can honestly say this pattern has repeated itself throughout my life. Whenever I have tried to force an outcome through stress and pressure, I have either received the familiar “Unfortunately…” email or ended up in a role I did not enjoy. The opportunities that have suited me best have come when there was no desperation attached, only a quiet sense of being drawn toward something. Even writing articles or books has followed this same principle. There has never been force behind them, just interest in the moment.

On a course I attended run by David Key (2025), I once heard a metaphor that has stayed with me since, I've shared it countless times with various mentees I've supported. Imagine sitting in a boat on a vast, tranquil lake, the sun reflecting on the dark blue water. You are holding a fishing rod, ready to cast your line. Yet instead of fishing in the lake, you choose to fish in a small bucket at your feet. It sounds absurd, but that is often what we do mentally. If we replace the fish in that bucket with pressure, expectations, stress, overwhelm and anxiety, it becomes clearer. When these emotions show up, we try to think our way out of them. We analyse, we overthink, we problem-solve frantically. We keep fishing in the bucket of anxious thoughts available in that moment, rather than allowing our minds to settle and opening up to a wider perspective.

There is a book by D. Smythe (2012) that shares a simple message: do nothing. Not in the sense of giving up, but in the sense of recognising insecure thoughts for what they are and allowing them to pass on their own. When we slow down, answers have a way of appearing. Think of an assignment you have been stuck on for hours, writing and deleting the same paragraph. The more you push, the faster your mind races and the more stressed you become. And then, when you step away for a walk, or stand in the shower, or pause for a while, clarity suddenly arrives. The logic is always the same. We do not find clarity by tightening our grip on the future. We find it by loosening it.

References:

Key, D. (2025) Ultimate Coach course. Online professional development course.

Smythe, D. (2012) Do Nothing. London: Hay House.

Zemeckis, R. (1985) Back to the Future. Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures.