When thinking about shaping their careers, my clients repeatedly come up against their limits. We can and must think a lot, but at a certain point we can’t get any further. In this situation, a concept from Design Thinking helps: «Prototyping»: Or as described below: Job research.
My client had been working as a manager at a Swiss bank for several years; before that, he had worked in management consultancy for five years since graduating from university. We did a personal and professional assessment to determine his next career steps.
Towards the end of our collaboration, we worked out job opportunities that might be suitable for him. Among other things, he mentioned specialising in venture capital or private equity. Based on the impression I had gained from working with him, I expressed doubts as to whether he was really interested in these business areas.
Recognising your own hypotheses
He was astonished by my objections and assured me that he had been interested in these sectors and tasks since his days as a student. Nevertheless, I was convinced that he had a false idea. I knew from my time as a headhunter that jobseekers tend to romanticise these specialist areas.
I therefore suggested the following procedure to him: He should interview three people each who work in venture capital and private equity about their profession. These are just a few questions that allow interviewers to gain enough information to recognise whether they are really interested enough in the relevant professional field to apply for it.
Trying things out no longer works
By the time of our next appointment two weeks later, my client had actually conducted six interviews and realised that his ideas about job profiles did not correspond to reality. He was able to abandon them, which made room for new ideas. Above all, however, he was so enthusiastic about the job research method that he had already arranged interviews to test new career ideas.
Many people look for a career change without having sufficiently analysed the realities of the new job beforehand. In the early years of a career, this is not a problem; we try out different things due to insufficient knowledge of both our needs and the professional requirements. With increasing seniority, we are no longer hired to try things out, but only to deliver. As a result, we have to find information in other ways in order to make informed decisions.
Nevertheless, regardless of their realism, our own hypotheses are just as valuable for shaping our careers: they provide information about our needs in terms of job content and the job environment. But that’s a topic for another article.