The overwhelm is a clarity problem
March 27th, 2026
I just got back from touring colleges with my daughter. The overwhelm is very real.
When you don't have clear criteria for what you actually want, every option feels equally overwhelming. You can't compare things that don't have a filter. So you just spin.
She has one month to decide where she's going to spend the next four years. And the parallels between watching her go through it and what I see every day in my work are not lost on me.
This school has a great campus. That one has a better program. This one feels right, but I can't explain why. That one looks good on paper, but something's off.
Sound familiar?
The same thing happens in job search. When you don't know what you're actually looking for not the job title, but the real criteria, every opportunity looks like a maybe. You apply broadly. You say yes to interviews you're not excited about. You wait to feel something definitive and it never quite comes.
The overwhelm is a clarity problem.
The fix isn't more options. It's fewer, better questions.
Try these three:
1. What would make me say no to an otherwise good offer? Your dealbreakers tell you more about what you want than your wish list ever will.
2. What does Monday morning feel like in the role I actually want? Not the title. Not the salary. The actual feeling of showing up. If you can't picture it, you're not clear yet.
3. What have I consistently been drawn to across every job I've loved even a little? The thread is usually there. Most people just haven't stopped to look for it.
Answer those honestly, and you'll have a filter. A filter makes every decision easier for college and for careers.
The irony of doing what I do for a living is that I am brought in from the outside to help solve the exact problem my own daughter won't let me help her with. Such is life.
I'm Sam Glatzer — ICF-certified career coach and founder of YourCareerCompass. I work with people at every stage of their career, including recent grads who are figuring out what's next. If you'd like to talk about your grads situation, I'm happy to have that conversation.
You can reach me at sam@yourcareercompass.com or through yourcareercompass.com.
Sam Glatzer is the founder of YourCareerCompass and ICF Certified Coach ACC, LPCC though ACT Brown University and a former advertising recruiter with 25 years of experience placing creative, strategy, and design talent at agencies and companies including Wieden+Kennedy, Droga5, Apple, and Google. She is based in the New York area.
