I thought I knew my career path — then Google got involved

I’m in my late twenties and still figuring out what direction my career should take. Basically, what I want to be when I “grow up.” It’s such a strange thing to say.

Culturally and socially, we’re conditioned to have a concrete sense of where we’re headed professionally at this age. But the job market changes so quickly that it’s hard to know which skills will stay relevant.

There’s also constant pressure to be flexible and multi-skilled to increase the odds of success. It’s one major reason I’ve jumped between different courses and roles without direction.

I’d hoped that in the end, I would know what I wanted. But the result was burnout and more confusion.

Discovering Google’s Career Dreamer on my mobile phone has given me a more structured way to filter options and narrow down where I fit. Here’s how I use it to approach opportunities with a clearer head.

Career Dreamer is my new favorite playground

It’s fun figuring out what I’m good at while pretending I know what I’m doing

Google Career Dreamer is an AI-powered tool that helps you map out possible pathway directions. It takes the stress out of work-life planning and makes the process more interactive.

You’ll answer questions about what job you’re currently doing, skills you have, and then browse environments where you might thrive.

My interaction with the tool happened on the website via the Chrome browser. I had been searching for something to collectively make sense of my scattered skills and uncertain direction. I stumbled across it in search results.

I quickly found that it was in the early stages and not available in my region. But I wasn’t deterred so easily. I used my TunnelBear VPN app to access it, eager to see it in action.

I typed my current role and organization or industry into the provided fields. Then it generated a set of statements to describe my responsibilities, such as “craft compelling content” and “communicate ideas effectively.” You can regenerate these assumptions if the phrasing doesn’t sound right.

I selected all of them because the AI guessed my day-to-day tasks accurately, even though I hadn’t described them in detail. Clearly, it builds these profiles by pulling from job description patterns in similar industries.

The next step was adding my skills, with which the tool created a career identity statement. It’s basically a summary of my professional self.

It wasn’t my favorite part because of how generic it sounded when read aloud. But it helped me put things into perspective. It was almost like holding up a mirror to my career so far.

I returned to the profile I’d created and expanded the interests section with graphic design. Even though I haven’t started practicing professionally, and I have basic-level skills, I wanted to exhaust every possibility of what the tool could generate.

So, I wouldn’t recommend jumping into the Explore Paths section until this step feels complete. Few people today follow a single, predictable route from school to retirement. You’ll want to include all that information.

The more detailed your profile is, the better your results will be.

Know which professions suit you best

I could be a sociology professor or a graphic designer

Profession paths that Career Dreamer suggests are based on labor market databases.

You can fine-tune the recommendations by checking or unchecking the education, skills, experiences, and interests filters at the top of the results page, depending on how you want Google to weigh them.

My list included the obvious choices of editor and communications specialist. There was also UI/UX designer, which tapped into my creative interest. Sociology professor popped up from the connection to my academic background.

Tapping these roles expanded them so that I could see the job description, the skills needed, and why the AI thought I might be a match.

I was eager to press the job finding button and get started on my newfound identities. But I was underwhelmed. It opened a Google search results page with the work title as the search keyword, instead of routing me to a proper job board.

It struck me as a shortsighted design that’s now weakened the credibility of the entire pipeline they have built. If typing “graphic design jobs near me” into a search bar were enough to land meaningful employment, most of us would already be hired.

People are struggling because the results pages are noisy and rarely aligned with their qualifications or location.

I expected better from the company that runs Google Jobs. It’s a meta-aggregator that pulls structured listings from job boards like LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Career Dreamer could be integrated into that infrastructure.

Gemini gives you career advice

Although it’s intelligent, take its advice with a grain of salt

The final step in using Career Dreamer is a hand-off to Gemini, which is supposed to act as your guidance counselor.

I received ready-made prompts to help me craft a compelling resume. It’s a useful extension of the process, such that you’re moving from simply considering ideas to actively preparing for them.

I think it’d be genius if Gemini wasn’t so problematic. One fundamental flaw most job seekers have is their approach to planning. We sometimes assume that applications and other factors should happen in a single burst of activity.

It’s understandable why we’ll give in to fatigue and abandon lengthy processes. It’s exhausting moving between endless applications and rejection cycles. Even motivated people can lose that momentum and procrastinate, which I did.

I left the follow-up part of the process halfway, even though the prompts for resume crafting were ready and actionable. I was merely checking out the feature and didn’t expect to get so much reflection out of it.

I later made a conscious decision to revisit it. I set a reminder on my Google Calendar to return when I had the energy and focus.

Unlock your full potential

Career Dreamer is a great sandbox, one I didn’t know I needed. It has encouraged a new mentality of learning the skills I lack and rising to meet them, rather than avoiding a job because I’m not qualified.

That said, let AI surface pathways you’d never have considered. Then map a small, achievable first step toward following them. You could start an online course or follow someone in those stretch roles on LinkedIn or other platforms.

Also, schedule micro-sessions for reflection. I’ve since started spending 20 to 30 minutes daily monitoring the tool since discovery. It’s better than trying to overhaul my career in one sitting.