A Career GPS: Because Your Next Move Shouldn't Be a Guess

Most people don’t plan their career. They just move.

 

A manager leaves, so they follow. A recruiter calls, so they listen. A better salary appears, so they jump. It feels like progress. And in the short term, it often is.

 

But fast forward a few years, and you hear the same thing again and again: “I’m not sure how I ended up here.” Not unhappy, exactly. But not energised either. Not where they thought they’d be.

 

It’s not that they made one bad choice. It’s that they didn’t have a framework for making the right ones.

 

We’re not saying you need a 20-year plan. Life changes, priorities shift, and sometimes the best moves are the ones you never saw coming.

 

But you do need direction. You need a sense of where you’re trying to get to so you can weigh up whether a job is really a step forward or just something shiny and new.

 

Without that, you’re not making a career move. You’re just making a move.

 

Why Most Career Moves Are Reactive

In the moment, moving jobs can feel like progress. You’re earning more. You’ve got a new title. You’ve left behind the bits that frustrated you. It ticks the boxes, or at least it feels like it does.

 

But without a bigger picture, it’s easy to zigzag. You gain breadth but not depth. Or you go up a level only to realise it’s not what you wanted after all. The job looked better from the outside than it feels on the inside.

 

Sometimes, it’s the culture. Or the pace. Or the lack of development. Sometimes, it’s just that you didn’t stop to ask whether this move actually fits where you want to go.

And when that happens, it’s not just wasted time. It’s missed opportunities. Skills you didn’t build. Networks you didn’t grow. Doors that are now harder to open. Worse still, your confidence might take a hit, and the next move becomes even harder to navigate.

 

That’s why reactive decisions can be so costly. They’re not always wrong. But they’re rarely intentional.

 

Introducing the Career GPS

We use GPS for everything: food deliveries, driving, and finding our way around a new city. But when it comes to careers? Most people are winging it. They rely on gut feeling, instinct, or the appeal of a job title rather than stepping back and plotting a clear path.

 

A GPS doesn’t start with where you are. It starts with where you want to go. Only then does it figure out the best route: fastest, clearest, most scenic, or most efficient, depending on your priorities.

 

So ask yourself: where do you want to end up?

• Leading a team?
• Becoming a technical specialist in your field?
• Moving into a commercial role?
• Working in a specific part of the AM industry?
• Building a better work-life balance?
• Relocating internationally?
• Working for a values-driven company?

 

You don’t need a perfect answer, but you do need a sense of direction. Because once you’ve defined that destination, your next job stops being about escaping what’s frustrating. It starts being about building towards something meaningful.

That shift from reacting to planning is what turns a good opportunity into a smart one.

 

What Does Your Next Move Need to Do?

Once you’ve got a sense of your longer-term direction, the next step is to work out what you need in the short term to help you get there.

 

That’s where most people go wrong. They focus on the surface-level things like salary, title, or location and ignore the deeper stuff that shapes real progress.

 

Here’s how to pressure-test whether an opportunity actually fits your direction:

 

• What do I need to learn next? (And will this role give me that learning curve?)
• What kind of people do I need to learn from? (Are there mentors, leaders, or peers who’ll challenge and support me?)
• Where will I get exposure or autonomy? (Will I get visibility on the right projects? The space to make decisions?)
• Is the culture going to grow me or drain me? (Does it align with how I want to work, or will I constantly be fighting the system?)
• Is this a step forward, or just sideways? (Will this move build something or just fix something?)

 

These aren’t always easy questions. But they’re the ones that matter. They help you look past the short-term appeal and focus on long-term alignment.

You don’t need all the answers. Few people do. But asking these questions is how you shift from reaction to intention. And that’s where real momentum begins.

 

Can a Career Be Planned?

Sort of. Not in the crystal ball sense. Things change. Companies restructure. Lives evolve. And sometimes the job you thought you wanted turns out not to be the right fit after all.

 

But planning isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about setting a direction. It’s about knowing what you value, what you’re curious about, and where you want to grow next.

That way, even if things shift, you’re still anchored. You’re still moving forward, just maybe on a slightly different road than you expected.

 

When you have that sense of direction, you’re far more likely to:

• Recognise the right opportunity when it shows up because you’ll know what ‘right’ looks like to you
• Turn down the wrong one (even if it looks good on paper) because you won’t be swayed by surface appeal
• Stay focused when things get hard because you’ll understand what the challenge is building towards

 

Planning doesn’t guarantee certainty. But it gives your decisions a purpose. And that makes every move count.

 

How Kensington Additive Helps

We don’t just ask what job you want. We ask what you want your next job to do for you.

Do you need more autonomy? Exposure to different technologies? A manager who’ll develop you? A route into leadership?

 

Because when we understand that, we can help you find a role that fits your direction.

 

And that’s what long-term career progress really looks like.

 

Final Thought

You don’t need a five-year plan in bullet points. You don’t need to map out every job title, every promotion, or every milestone.

 

What you need is a direction. A headline that captures where you want to head. And a next step that moves you closer to it. That way, when opportunities come up, you’re not asking, “Is this better than what I have now?” You’re asking, “Does this get me closer to where I want to be?”

 

That small shift changes everything. It gives you a filter. A way to say yes or no with confidence. A way to stop drifting and start deciding.

That’s the difference between having a career and actively building one.