Better to make career mistakes than have career regrets
What if your biggest career regret isn’t quitting—it’s staying?
Everyone knows that person—the one who hates their job but deals with it by planning the next big trip. They distract themselves with vacations and leisure activities, easing the emotional burden of career regret. It might be the role they didn’t leave, the raise they didn’t ask for, or the passion they put aside. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
Sadness is something that many of us deal with. A recent survey by Continue now found that 66% of workers report career regrets, including not asking for raises, neglecting work-life balance, and staying in one job too long. While this may suggest that sadness grows over time, research from VU Amsterdam reveals an unexpected twist: 18- to 25-year-olds report the highest levels of career regret. This finding underscores the importance of dealing with regret early—whether due to inexperience or missed opportunities—before it escalates into something more difficult to overcome.
But sadness itself is not the point. the real question is whether you are going to do anything about it. Research published in 2022 on career choice and professional regret shows that people respond to career regret in different ways. Some deal with their grief directly by changing careers or pursuing education to enable a transition. Others, however, try to reduce the emotional burden through distractions such as vacations or recreational activities. While distractions may provide temporary relief, they fail to address the root cause and can trap you in a cycle of regret.
As we enter a new year—a season of possibility—it’s the perfect time to face those regrets, learn from them, and turn them into action. Because it’s better to make mistakes—to take action that may not produce the intended result—than to live with regret, which is the sense of missing out on what could have been. Although painful in the short term, mistakes often lead to better decision-making and more proactive career planning, as they provide clear learning opportunities. For example, staying too long in a stagnant role is a common regret, but attempting a career change that doesn’t work out would be considered a mistake. And interestingly enough, Resume Now’s research found that more people regret staying in a job than leaving one.
Framework for Action: From Grief to Resilience
Sadness is not inherently negative. It is an invitation to reflection, prioritization and action. To turn sadness into growth, you can focus on three actionable strategies:
1. Address the root cause
Start by identifying the root cause of the sadness. Are you unhappy because you stayed in one role too long? Or because you chose a career path that doesn’t align with your values? A finance professional who felt stuck in her role realized that her unhappiness came from neglecting her passion for sustainability. The reflection helped her clarify what needed to change, turning regret into a driver for action and laying the foundation for what would later become a transformative career pivot.
2. Redefine success
Success is not static – it evolves alongside your career and personal priorities. The transforming world of work now offers more freedom to define success in ways that go beyond the traditional corporate scale of the past. Today, success may involve prioritizing what matters most to you—flexibility, fulfillment, learning opportunities, or the ability to integrate personal passions into your professional life. For someone who regrets neglecting work-life balance, success may now mean embracing roles with flexible schedules or remote work options. For someone who has stayed in one job for a long time, it may mean exploring opportunities for growth and development in emerging areas. For the finance professional, redefining success meant recognizing that incorporating her passion into her life was essential, even if it started as a volunteer effort.
3. Take small, intentional steps
After identifying the root cause and redefining success, the next step is to act. But taking action doesn’t mean you have to take bold steps like quitting your job. Small, intentional actions can break the cycle of regret and create momentum for meaningful change. Start by exploring new ways of working, such as portfolio careers, freelance roles or flexible schedules. Whether enrolling in a course, expanding your network, or volunteering in a new field, incremental progress can lead to significant transformation. For the finance professional, small but intentional steps—like volunteering for a nonprofit in her spare time—ultimately led to a transition to a finance job at an organization aligned with the nonprofit’s mission. This allowed her to merge her financial expertise with meaningful work that fulfilled her values and aspirations.
The best time to start is now
The start of a new year is the perfect opportunity for a career self-assessment. The changing world of work offers more tools than ever to deal with past regrets and make bold new choices. Flexible work opportunities, such as freelance work or portfolio careers, provide ways to diversify income and pursue passions. Flexible schedules accommodate different needs, while platforms for continuous learning allow for skill development without relying on a single employer. By acting on reflection, you can overcome your regret and build a career aligned with your values.
Regret may be inevitable, but dwelling on it serves no purpose. Use sadness as the spark to rewrite your story. Dream big, take bold steps and create a future that aligns with your aspirations. This new year is the perfect time to start.
