Research your way to your next role with these 7 tips
Why research
When you’re looking to make a change, most of us want to feel 100% confident in our decision.
Unfortunately that would require having 100% of the information. Which, is simply put, never going to happen.
We’re never going to know every single thing about the future. Even if you think you found the perfect company, you won’t always know the undercurrent of politics. Thought you found the perfect job? You don’t know how great your manager is when they’re stressed. Coming into a huge new opportunity to lead a massive team? You won’t always know how many were planning to resign in the next three months.
That doesn’t mean that we should flip to the other side and choose things blindly.
We have to find the balance between the discomfort of the unknown and the comfort of the known.
The best way to do that is to research and learn.
How to research productively
There are lots of ways that you can try to gain a, let’s say, 70% knowledge base. Here are just a few ways to get more information to make a (more) confident decision.
Take notes. If you’re someone who loves to keep track of things in 17 different places, with crappy handwriting. This isn’t the time. Make sure that you have one clear spot that you’re keeping track of everything.
Read your notes. We forget how important it is to return to things. So, once you’ve taken your notes - review them, synthesize them and hold them somewhere. I personally recommend keeping a google folder that’s just called “Of Interest - ‘Year’”. This can contain your resumes, cover letters, portfolio materials, and a spreadsheet of roles you’re interested in, companies you like, and people you’ve talked to
Scour the job boards. This isn’t for application purposes. Nope. Generally you’ll realize that once a job is on a job board... it’s practically spoken for. Instead, this is so that you can start seeing a pattern on: expected responsibilities, common language, titles, salary, and organizational differences. A role at one place may be something totally different somewhere else.
Talk the talk. Find out where the folks you’re interested in working for hang out. I’m not talking about hanging out in a bar on wall street with the hopes of getting a finance job. It might work, but, rather, what podcasts are they listening to? What books are recommended for them? Are there online courses that are geared towards them? By immersing yourself in the reality of their everyday you’ll get better at having a pulse on the reality of their world. It’ll help you come up with novel ideas of how you can help them.
Get realistic. As you’re learning more about roles, industries, people... make sure you know the real details. You can do this through informational interviews to hear what’s happening behind the scenes, salary calculators to ensure you’ll be able to afford a change, and education requirements to make sure that you can truly talk your way in.
Get going. After you’ve done the research it might be time to take action. Update your resume, schedule some informational calls, tap your network.
Re-evaluate. Once you’ve taken action on your research, you may learn more about where you’re at. You might discover that you like where you are more than you realized. Or, you might learn that you need to have more years-of-experience or education. Or, you may have figured out how you can carve something out for yourself in your own new career path.
Struggling to do the research because you don’t know what to search for? Reach out.