Activity 4.1
Principle of Triangulation
Step 1: Do your Homework
A good starting point for exploring the Professional YOU is to search through the huge amount of employment information available. Your secondary research sources will include:
Government reports (e.g., employment studies, census data)
Annual reports of companies, periodicals (e.g., newspapers)
Other media (e.g., podcasts)
Scholarly journals
Commercial information (e.g., American Marketing Association)
Credible online publications (e.g., Scientific American, Fast Company).
Your employment research will allow you to identify entire industries, educational programs, companies, and jobs you’ve never heard of. All this research will lead you to form the detailed questions you need answered as you develop the Whole YOU and help you identify assumptions you want to test by talking to experts.
For example, research around the topic of mathematics may soon lead you to see that there’s a burgeoning field called data mining that requires a deep understanding of math. A little more digging may tell you the types of industries and companies, from global giants to Silicon Valley start-ups, that can’t hire data mining experts fast enough. You’ll then be able to use this type of information to explore what exactly a data miner does: What type of education do you need? Is it a short-term or long-term opportunity? Beyond mathematics, what other competencies does this role need? If you’re someone who is both good at math and loves math, this small amount of information might have helped identify the Professional YOU.
Below are five basic rules for using this type of information to identify potential opportunities related to what you love to do:
Always start by using existing information rather than relying on your intuition or biases.
Ask your network and design team for advice on places where you can start looking.
Don’t take existing information as an absolute. It’s always contextual to a time and place.
Only use the information if the original source is credible.
Become a regular consumer of market intelligence, especially in your areas of interest. For example, this may be following news about companies in your areas of interest or general trends.
You’re going to do some research to give you a richer understanding of the things you love, as well as uncover insights into the professional opportunities in those same areas. Refer to your Potential YOU list, where you identified the things, you’re both good at and love. Remember, these don’t have to be career or job related, as they’re simply a starting point for your exploration.
Based on this information, replicate the following table in your journal and identify the Professional YOU—the intersection of the Potential YOU (what you love to do and what you’re good at) with professional opportunities. Keep notes on the sources of your information and the nuggets you find. The invaluable part about existing information is that it can be a trigger to stimulate more questions. Jot down these questions in the table in your journal; these are the questions you need to focus on when you proceed to the next phase and plan for your informational interviews.
You can continue to add to the table as you do additional research. Here’s a sample table to see where the Potential YOU meets opportunities:
Step 2: Networking and Talking to Real People
The problem with relying on existing information is that you don’t get to ask questions or dig deeper on topics that may only be interesting to your combination of competencies and personality. To get this level of understanding, you’ll have to talk to people with the answers. Steve Jobs believed that you had to understand your customers so well that when you showed them what you built, they would exclaim, “Of course we need that!” You must get to that same level of knowledge about your customer: your future employer or field of work. There’s only one way to do that—talk to them face to face. You should do at least five informational interviews to guide you towards the Professional YOU.
These interviews are far more in-depth than the curiosity conversations in module 1, so you’ll need to approach these with rigour and discipline. These interviews have a variety of purposes, including to:
Expand and strengthen your professional network and add new members to your design team.
Explore industries and specific companies related to what you love to do.
Explore specific needs/jobs that are, or will be, in demand within these industries.
Evolve a clearer picture of a Professional YOU.
Develop and refine your professional communication skills.
Click on the link below explore topics like: Who Should I Talk To?, How Do I Book An Interview?, What Should We Talk About?, How Do I Run An Interview? and Consolidating Your Interviews.
Step 3: Defining your Professional Mission
There are four stages to defining your professional mission:
What’s Your “What”
What’s Your “Why”?
Articulating Your 5-Year Professional Mission Statement
What If?
Click on the buttons below to explore each activity.
Click the button below to go to Activity 4.2 - What’s Your “What”?
Click the button below to go to Activity 4.3 - What’s Your “Why”?
Click the button below to go to Activity 4.4 - Articulating your 5-Year Professional Mission Statement
Click the button below to got to Activity 4.5 - What If?
