In my work, I obviously talk to a lot of people with a lot of different fears.

One of the recurring fears that I hear a lot of, especially during career changes or when someone is looking for a new job, is: "I'm afraid I'll choose the wrong thing."

So I'm here today to tell you what to do when you choose the wrong job, and more importantly, why the entire premise of your fear is flawed.

First: There Is No Wrong Job

First of all, you need to take a breather and realize there is no wrong thing. There is no wrong job.

If you're interested in something enough, right now, to have chosen it at all, then it's not the wrong thing. It can't be. If it's something that interests you enough that you are making any sort of life decision based on it, it's definitely not the wrong thing.

Just take a step back and let it sink in: there is no wrong thing.

Whatever you choose next will be the right thing, right now. It's, you know, not Mr. Right, it's Mr. Right Now. Same idea. Clearly, this doesn't mean that this is your forever thing, but it's the right thing right now.

Roll with it. Go feed your interests. Go grow your knowledge base. Go collect some more skills, and then if you decide to pivot into something else? Great.

But yes, a lot of people do feel that whatever they choose next has to be the forever thing, which is a strange concept to me because if you look back, very few people will look back in their job history or their life path and see that they've done the same thing all the time.

There are those few, you know, child prodigies that at three years old decided they wanted to be a lawyer, became a lawyer, and have never done anything but lawyering. But that's rare.

Most of us worked at the ice cream shop in high school, then we got a communications degree, and we worked at an ad agency, and then we decided to go into the restaurant biz, or whatever. Most people have meandering paths, so the idea that your next thing has to be THE thing is not true and actually a strange concept if you look at your past.

So I'm here to tell you again: there is no wrong thing.

Why This Fear Is Really Just Procrastination

I know that this fear is real and I'm not saying that the fear isn't valid. I'm just asking you to not let that fear keep you from choosing anything because you're afraid of choosing the wrong thing.

In a lot of ways, it's just procrastination. "Well, I don't want to take the wrong thing, so I'm going to keep researching. I'm going to keep applying and I'm going to keep interviewing until I find the perfect right thing."

Nine times out of ten, for most people, again except for that weird three-year-old lawyer, there's never going to be a perfect position. There is never going to be the perfect role.

There's always going to be something else better somewhere down the road, so just choose your next thing. That's all you need to do.

It doesn't have to be that forever thing. You're not marrying the next thing that comes along. And even if you do marry it, divorce is a thing. You can quit a job.

People act as if quitting a job is one of life's major moral failings. It's not.

Don't let this fear hold you back from learning, from growing, from making connections, from trying something out that, yeah, maybe it's not the right thing, but it doesn't mean it's the wrong thing. So go for it. If there's something you're interested in enough right now to choose it at all, even consider choosing it, then it's not the wrong thing.

So go for it.

What If You Actually Do End Up in a Terrible Job?

Okay, but let's say you do choose something and it turns out to be, objectively, a bad situation. A terrible boss. Toxic coworkers. Dysfunctional organization. What then?

Stop wasting time typing "I hate my job" into Google.

Most of us have had at least one. That terrible job. The one that makes you dread Mondays, count the clock on Fridays, and cringe the rest of the time.

It could be terrible management, overly competitive coworkers, a wrong role fit, one bad boss, or a completely disorganized organization.

It goes without saying that if you're dealing with abuse or harassment, escape ASAP. If you're just miserable but not in danger, be proactive and move on to a gig you actually want, not just one that isn't your current situation.

It may take you a bit of time to find your next right thing, so while you're there, make your terrible job a chance to learn.

My Terrible Job Stories (Yes, Really)

I once had a boss who used to have me make her an iced almond milk chai every morning. And no, I wasn't her assistant.

I also had one who looked at me square in the face and said, "I'd rather be dead than fat."

I had another who would have me wake him from under his desk as he "jokingly" asked me to make him a Bloody Mary and to file his expenses, which included strip club receipts. No, I'm absolutely not kidding, and no, that definitely wasn't in my job description.

These jobs were objectively terrible. But you know what? They weren't wrong jobs. They were learning experiences. And I'm going to show you how to treat any "bad" job the same way.

Five Things to Learn from Every Job (Even the Terrible Ones)

No matter how awful, every gig is a chance to learn in-demand job skills. So what do you do to set yourself up for a much better job moving forward?

1. Learn What You Really Want to Do

As long as you don't get bogged down in the negativity cesspool, you can use a terrible job to clarify your career path.

Once you have identified WHY you hate this job, you can define what job would be a better fit and go after it specifically. On a broader level, use this job not to just define aspects that you don't like but WHY you don't like those things.

Do you dislike your boss because she's "mean," or is it that she is truly a poor communicator? Is your boss being unreasonable with 7 a.m. conference call requests, or is it that you actually hate the role of Social Marketing Coordinator?

This level of specificity is gold. Most people never get this clear on what they don't want, which means they can't get clear on what they do want.

A "wrong" job teaches you exactly what your non-negotiables are. Maybe it's autonomy. Maybe it's work-life balance. Maybe it's collaborative culture. Maybe it's creative freedom. You won't know until you experience the absence of these things.

2. Learn How to Network

Most of the time, you are not alone in a "bad job." There are others in those trenches with you, and those types of bonds tend to be strong.

In a few months, after you've all moved on, you'll have a nifty network to build on. Clients you worked well with, the understanding HR director, even the "bad" boss or overly competitive coworker may be useful connections in the future. So try not to burn bridges on exit.

I know it's tempting to go out in a blaze of glory, telling everyone exactly what you think of them. Don't. The world is smaller than you think, and industries are even smaller. That terrible boss might end up at your dream company. That toxic coworker might be hiring for a role you want in five years.

Stay professional. Be gracious. Build relationships where you can. You never know when those connections will matter.

3. Learn How to Beef Up Your Resume

A future boss won't know that your poorly trained manager screamed at the intern in every meeting or, like one friend of mine, whose boss was a well-known phone thrower.

What they will know is your title, responsibilities, wins, and company name. Assuming you have stuck it out longer than a few weeks, more experience on your resume always looks great.

Just be sure to not badmouth the screamer or thrower in a future job interview. That makes you, not them, look bad.

Even in a dysfunctional environment, you accomplished things. You solved problems. You learned systems. You developed skills. Document those. Quantify your wins. Build your case for the next opportunity.

Every job, even the terrible ones, gives you material for your professional story. Use it.

4. Learn How to Manage (By Learning What NOT to Do)

Let's face it. In most cases, a "bad job" is a bad boss.

Stay professional, be as effective as you can, watch them, and learn what not to do. What do they do that rubs employees the wrong way? How do they treat their peers versus their direct reports? When you work your way up to a leadership position elsewhere, be sure to not emulate their actions.

Be the boss you wish you had.

I learned more about good management from bad bosses than I ever learned from good ones. The good ones made it look easy. The bad ones showed me exactly where things fall apart.

The boss who made me get her chai every morning? She taught me that respect isn't automatic with a title. You earn it through how you treat people.

The one who made the "dead than fat" comment? She taught me that your personal issues don't belong in the workplace and that creating a safe, professional environment is a manager's responsibility.

The one passed out under his desk? He taught me that you can't lead if you can't show up, literally and figuratively.

These are valuable lessons. Painful, but valuable.

5. Learn How to Communicate

This is the ultimate chance to hone your communication skills.

When you have shoddy management, you were hired for a job they're not having you do, or downsizing has left you insanely overloaded, you will spend time having uncomfortable conversations.

This is your chance to learn how to handle these situations professionally. Be calm, rational, proactive, not defensive, and go into each interaction with facts and a cool head. You may not "win" every discussion, but you'll certainly have taken the high road and gained an incredibly useful skill.

Learning to communicate effectively in a dysfunctional environment is like training at high altitude. When you get to a healthy workplace, everything feels easier.

You learn to document everything. You learn to manage up. You learn to set boundaries. You learn to advocate for yourself. You learn to navigate difficult personalities. These are career-long skills that will serve you everywhere you go.

The Truth About "Wrong" Jobs

So instead of sitting around all day asking "Should I get a new job?" take this layover in job hell as a HUGE chance to learn. There is value in every experience and personal connection.

Get creative on the job. The trick is to see the positive aspects of even the most terrible gig. As long as you don't wallow in the backbiting, negative, borderline abusive, catty, or just plain "bad" culture, you're in the winning seat.

Treat it as a not-so-pleasant but still professional learning experience, and before you know it, you'll be moving on to a much better job with a boatload of new skills under your hat.

Here's what I want you to understand: even if you choose a job that turns out to be objectively terrible, it's not the "wrong" job. It's a learning experience. It's a stepping stone. It's clarification about what you want and don't want. It's skill building. It's network expansion.

The only truly wrong job is one you stay in forever despite being miserable, learning nothing, and taking no action to change your situation.

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Choice

The fear of choosing the wrong job keeps people stuck in analysis paralysis for months, sometimes years. They turn down opportunities because they're not 100 percent sure. They endlessly research and interview and contemplate, waiting for some mythical perfect role that checks every box.

Meanwhile, they're not learning. They're not growing. They're not building connections. They're not collecting experiences that clarify what they actually want.

You know what clarifies what you want? Doing things. Trying things. Even things that don't work out.

Your career is not a straight line to a predetermined destination. It's an exploration. It's a series of experiments. It's a collection of experiences that build on each other in ways you can't predict.

The ice cream shop job taught you customer service. The ad agency gig taught you deadlines and collaboration. The restaurant job taught you operations and crisis management. The terrible boss taught you resilience and what kind of leader you want to be.

None of these were wrong. They were all necessary to get you where you're going, even if you didn't know where that was at the time.

Your Next Right Thing

So here's what I want you to do: Stop agonizing over whether your next job will be the perfect, forever, right thing.

Choose something that interests you right now. Take the opportunity that excites you, even if it scares you. Try the thing that makes you curious, even if you're not sure it's "the one."

Work there. Learn everything you can. Build relationships. Develop skills. Get clear on what you love and what you hate. Then, when you're ready, make your next move.

There is no wrong job. There are only experiences. Some are better than others, sure. But all of them teach you something if you're paying attention.

And if you end up in a truly terrible situation? Use the five strategies above to extract every bit of value from it while you plan your escape. You're not stuck. You're learning. You're building your resume, your skills, your network, and your clarity about what you want.

Then you move on, wiser and more equipped for the next thing.

Your career is long. You have time to try different things. You have permission to pivot. You have the right to change your mind.