A Short Guide to Career Experimentation
Optimize for learning through thoughtful experiments.
We all come into college with an idea of what we want to do after we graduate. But for most students, that idea is fuzzy at best and without any real experience, it could be completely misaligned with what work really makes us happy. Today, we’ll be discussing how career experimentation can accelerate your career development and help you identify what you want to do as early as possible.
What is Career Experimentation?
The purpose of running career experiments is simple: we want to validate whether the assumptions you have about the career you want are valid. You have a hypothesis of what type of job will make you happy, so we’ll need to run a few experiments to test that hypothesis.
Consider this example: Matt’s a second-year marketing major. He watched Mad Men growing up and thought it was the coolest job ever; when he started doing a bit of research in high school about the field, he became inspired to pursue that career path in college. But when Matt started school, he realized that there are a ton of different marketing roles out there, and even non-marketing roles he found interesting. What can Matt do to find the role that works best for him?
Running Experiments
Most students have a wide range of interests and those interests will change after a while. Because of this, careers are often nonlinear and don’t follow a strict trajectory. This is why running experiments early on is so powerful: you intentionally test your interests to see what sticks.
Running an experiment is simple:
Identify a hypothesis you want to test: In Matt’s case, his hypothesis is that working as a marketing creative directly with clients is a fun, fulfilling experience.
Test the hypothesis through relevant experiences: These experiences can be anything that gives you a taste of what it’s like to work in your field. Ideally, you want to get real work experience through internships or part-time jobs so that you get a feel for the types of problems you’ll be tasked to solve. You’ll also get to work with full-time employees and see what their every day looks like. If you don’t want to commit to an internship, start a side project or reach out to people doing things that you find interesting.
Evaluate each experience: After each experiment, evaluate your impression of the experience. Did it live up to your expectations or was there something missing? Did you want to continue doing it? Envision what your life would be like if you took on that role after you graduate and if it’ll satisfy your needs.
If you haven’t realized it already, you’ve been running career experiments since you got to college. All the part-time jobs, internships, talks with mentors and working professionals, and classes you’ve taken have helped you make better career choices.
Major Takeaways
Career experimentation means optimizing for learning. Take roles that you’re interested in, even if they aren’t directly connected with what you want to do after you graduate. Some of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had were a result of career experimentation.
Find people to experiment with. If you want to try something new, it’s a lot more fun to do it with a friend or group of people.
Enjoy your time in college and don’t stress too much about getting everything right. Take risks as you experiment and don’t be afraid of failing a few times. It’s all part of the process and even if it doesn’t go well, you’ll have a good story to tell during your next interview!
Resources of the Week
SEO Career - Career prep program for underrepresented college students
A Primer on Investing for Designers and Developers - Short article on investing and personal finance
Product Buds - Online community of students interested in product management
Build a Career Worth Having - Awesome HBR article on career planning
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