How to Figure Out What You Want to Do

 

In Silicon Valley, it’s way too common for engineers to lock themselves in their office, build a product they think is awesome, and release it months or even years later. But when they do, nobody uses it!

They never validated their ideas. They never talked to the market first.

Finding the perfect job is very similar. You can’t “figure it out” on your own. You need to talk to people who actually have the jobs you think you want. You need to validate your interests.

Here’s the step by step process I used to narrow down my interests, and figure out exactly what I wanted to do.

First, I wrote down every field I thought I’d like

I listed practically every field that seemed even remotely interesting.

Some of fields I was considering were data science, business development, design, and marketing.

I felt like I had a lot of little things I was good at - like being creative, doing research, writing, analyzing things, and a bunch of other stuff.

But how did ANY of that translate to a real job?

I had no idea. So I was all over the place.

But that’s ok. Start off as broad as you can. You can narrow it down later.

Next, I listed some actual positions in those fields

For example, an actual job in design would be “UX designer”, “Product Designer”, etc. In business development, it could be “account executive”, “inside sales”, or whatever.

In marketing, some interesting ones to me were “growth hacker”, “content marketer”, “product marketer”, etc.

If you absolutely KNOW there are some specific positions you’d hate within these fields, then X them off the list. But it’s ok to start off with a bunch of options that seem kinda interesting.

Then, I found people in those positions to talk to

By talking to people who are already down the path you’re considering taking, you can get a pretty good look at what your future might be like.

LinkedIn is a good tool for finding these people.

Using the “advanced search” feature, you can find people who have the job titles you listed in the previous step.

A lot of people think “why would anyone ever want to talk to ME?!”

But in reality, people LOVE to help. Everyone wants to give advice. Everyone wants to be seen as an “expert” by someone else. Most people would love to talk to you if you’re interested in what they’re doing, and if you’re thinking about doing the same thing.

Make a special note of your University alumni, and people you have a mutual connection with (you can filter for these people specifically in the LinkedIn search). These are the people who would be most likely to talk to you.

When I emailed people to chat / go out to coffee (using [email protected] or a similar email format), I made sure to mention:

1. who I was and our common relationship (i.e. common university, mutual contact, etc)
2. why I was interested in talking to them (i.e. wanting to ask specific questions about their job because I thought it might be a good fit for me)
3. a couple of times I was available to talk while also mentioning that I’d be totally flexible to their schedule if need be.

The right questions to ask

If you ask the right questions, you can understand exactly what you’d do day to day on the job, what sorts of options would still be open to you if you went down that route, how excited they are about the job, and more.

Here are some examples of GOOD questions:

• “I noticed you worked in [X] field a few years before you started your current role. How difficult was that transition between those two different fields?”
• “What are some examples of projects you work on day to day at ?”
• “Do you feel like there’s anything unique about ’s [role] that’s different from similar positions at other companies you’ve had experience with?”
• “What do you think you want to do after working here?”

Basically you want to do your research on the person’s background, and come up with questions that 1) show that you’ve done your research, and 2) allow you to get a glimpse into their life. If you lived their day to day life at work, would you like it?

These are just example questions. You can switch them out with what YOU want to learn. And make it conversational.

 

After you talk to a few people in each job you’re interested in, you’ll know what to expect. You’ll know what options would still be open if you took up that job, you’ll know how fun the job is, and you’ll know if it “clicks” with you.

And most importantly - you won’t waste ANY time going down the wrong path.