Better to make career mistakes than career regrets
What if your biggest career regret isn’t quitting — but 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 could be the role they didn’t leave, the growth they didn’t ask for, or the passion they left aside. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
Repentance is something many of us face. A recent survey by Resume 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 might suggest that regret increases over time, research from VU Amsterdam reveals an unexpected twist: 18-25 year olds report the highest levels of career regret. This finding highlights the importance of dealing with regret early – whether it’s due to inexperience or missed opportunities – before it turns into something more difficult to overcome.
But regret itself is not the point; the real question is whether you will 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 face their regret head-on by changing careers or attending training to enable a transition. Others, however, try to ease the emotional burden through distractions such as vacations or leisure 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 opportunity—it’s the perfect time to face those regrets, learn from them, and turn them into action. Because it is better to make mistakes – taking actions that may not produce the intended result – than to live with regret, which is the sense of loss over 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 path that doesn’t work out would be considered a mistake. And interestingly enough, the Resume Now survey showed that more people regret staying in a job than leaving one.
Action framework: From pity to resilience
Repentance is not inherently negative. It is an invitation to reflect, prioritize and act. To transform growing regret, you can focus on three actionable strategies:
1. Address the root cause
Start by identifying the root cause of the regret. Are you unhappy because you stayed in one role too long? Or because you chose a career path that didn’t match your values? A finance professional who felt stuck in her role realized that her unhappiness came from neglecting her passion for sustainability. Her reflection helped clarify what needed to change, turning regret into a guide to action and laying the groundwork for what would later become a transformative career pivot.
2. Redefine Success
Success is not static – it evolves along with 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 scales 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 stayed in one job too long, it may mean exploring opportunities for growth and development in emerging areas. For the finance professional, redefining success meant acknowledging that incorporating her passion into her life was essential, even if it began as a voluntary endeavor.
3. Take small, deliberate steps
Once you’ve identified the root cause and redefined success, the next step is to take action. But action doesn’t mean you have to take bold steps like quitting your job. Small, intentional actions can break the cycle of regret and build momentum for meaningful change. Start by exploring new ways of working, such as portfolio careers, freelance roles or flexible hours. Whether it’s 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—eventually led to a transition to a finance job at an organization aligned with the nonprofit’s mission. This allowed her to combine 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 address past regrets and make bold new choices. Flexible work opportunities, such as freelancing or portfolio careers, offer ways to diversify income and pursue passions. Flexible schedules meet different needs, while platforms for continuous learning enable skills development without relying on a single employer. By acting on reflection, you can move past regret and build a career aligned with your values.
Repentance may be inevitable, but dwelling on it serves no purpose. Use regret as a spark to rewrite your story. Dream big, take bold steps and create a future that matches your aspirations. This new year is the perfect time to start.
