Career Prototyping and exploring the world of work

Last night I went to a party. A hotbed of new interesting people to talk to.

And a whole host of new conversations about peoples’ lives and different careers I can feast on.

I continue to find it fascinating not just what people do, but their decisions and their current thinking.

How are they deciding between two different jobs? How is their stage of life and personal preferences playing into things? How do they feel about making transitions? What are they learning about themselves and their personal fulfilment?

I know it sounds heavy for party small talk - so I do take the hint if it’s not being received well and swap to the latest Netflix series (Our Planet anyone!?).

Career prototyping in a new world

Reflecting as I came home, I realised that with this insatiable social curiosity I’ve always had, I’m in a way ‘career prototyping’ – exploring without judgement, what has led people to where they are and how they feel about it, whilst often testing some of my own assumptions about things.

I’m digging deep to understand what different people do for work, what motivates them and how they make decisions. Where do fears hold them back and what have they learnt recently? This all feeds into uncovering more insights that might help me and others navigate in a world of work that’s rapidly changing around us.

Especially as we find ourselves in a new construct of work - where technology has expanded the options and opportunities available to us. Add this to the fact that traditional forms of ‘success’ (i.e. money and success) are being questioned and social media paints every picture imaginable to consume.

My unconventional CV of experience

I’m both fortunate and mentally conflicted by having a huge range of work experiences in the past decade.

I’ve worked in a big consultancy with hundreds of thousands of people and a small consultancy with ten people. I’ve set up my own health coaching business, just got it off the ground and then closed it.  

I’ve worked as a ‘digital-nomad’ in Bali and run an entrepreneurial co-working group.

I’ve made some unconventional decisions like to returning to a 9-5 job in 2016 and more recently decided to end self-employment again and work for a small company. I’ve worked for a gritty tech start-up (that didn’t fly to success), set myself up as a freelance marketing consultant and now find myself in a learning design agency.  

Along my adventures, I’ve amassed quite a knowledge of different types of work, industries, jobs and lifestyles.

But the most valuable part? Discovering more about who I am and who I want to become.

The second most valuable part of all of it? Amassing a huge range of people in my circle of friends and acquaintances that have opened my eyes up to different ways of being around work and life. Seeing the different values that people hold and how this shapes their choices.

And so I’ve decided to start writing about things.

A source of inspiration

Last year I read Designing You Life: Build The Perfect Career Step by Step by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

In my opinion it’s a brilliant book and one I want to dive deeper into. I’ve bought it for others and recommended it a plenty.

With all of my career changes and decisions that I’ve made over the years, I can sometimes suffer from an unsettling anxiety or unease about different choices I’ve made and where I am now.

Like many, I’m not completely immune to the social media comparison traps, and have learnt slowly to keep coming back to myself and make my path my own. Easier said than done sometimes.

For me, getting used to all of these feelings and embracing uncertainty has been a learning curve, something I feel really passionate about sharing and connecting with others as they go through it.

Reading Designing Your Life really helped me conclude and cement that we all really have the same career – we are life designers for ourselves.

We are essentially solving problems and wayfinding – feeling our way forwards without necessarily knowing the end destination. Navigating various stepping stones that help us learn about ourselves and then decide the next one to take.

So what is Career Prototyping?

It’s looking at your options and identifying where you maybe have some beliefs and assumptions around them that you can logically test.

It’s then going out and having either conversations or mini taster experiences on an option that allows you to gather information and test some of your thinking.

So for example you could think any of the following:

• Writing might not suit my extroverted personality

• The coaching industry is competitive now and it’s probably really hard to get clients

• I’m not sure how much of doing my finances I would enjoy if I was self-employed

• I can’t handle the risk of setting up a business

• I won’t be able to earn enough as a Therapist

• A tech start-up might involve too much pitching to investors or be too ‘techy’

• I don't’ think I can transfer B2C marketing to B2B easily

These are just an example of different assumptions and limiting beliefs, but can you list out yours? What are you repeating over in your head about some different options you have?

Testing the human way

Once you know your assumptions, you set about testing these things by getting out into the world, speaking to people and trying things out.

What I’ve found is important here is to not to solely prototype your options via Google. It’s tempting because it’s so easy. You type in the phrase ‘How much do councillors earn once trained’ and sift through the mass of articles until you reach a conclusion.

But it’s so one-dimensional when compared to having a full conversation with someone. Blogs and articles can usually only cover one topic at a time and you can’t ask the specific questions you need. Although there are some very authentic and truth telling bloggers, you’ve also got the risk that some might have glossed over other things for some reason you don’t know.

And there’s nothing like actually connecting with someone. It also builds your network in a positive way and helps you understand them as a person and how the rest of their life factors into things.

Because context is really important. Their context is important. Your context is important and unique.

So instead of becoming the Google champion, it’s important to try to have career conversations and experiences. In the book they call these ‘Prototype encounters and shadowing experiences’.

What I love about Career Prototyping is that it gives you a way forward when you feel confused or stuck. A really logical one that you can set goals against and move towards e.g. Reach out to three people in the film industry or have a conversation with someone that owns a small marketing business.

You can’t straight away see the clarity that might come from it, but you can trust that by having conversations and trying things out, you expand your thinking to help you make decisions down the line.

My experiences so far with Career Prototyping

You are also reading one here!

So this blog and exploration of my writing is a bit of a prototype for me. I’ve always had in the back of my mind a feeling that with the amount of career changes and the unconventional decisions I’ve made along the way, I would love to share my experiences to see if they enlighten or help others.

I’m not setting myself up as career coach or anything just yet, I’m just going to start writing and seeing how things go. I miss blogging from when I was health coaching, so it’s time to dip my toe back in!

So if you’re in a bit of a stage of transition or exploration, or you’re trying to work out next, say hello.

And if any of my experiences might be helpful for you, drop me a comment or e-mail - I may be able to help confirm or challenge those assumptions!

Laura xx