Ask About One Possible Role Each Month
Whenyou explore a role you might try
Each month, choose one work, volunteer, learning, family or community role you may want to understand. Ask someone who knows that role for a 20-minute conversation about a normal week, its trade-offs and one low-cost way to learn more; record one answer that surprised you.
Why it works
The ordinary week inside a role is harder to see than its title. Ask about tasks and trade-offs before borrowing someone else's version of success.
Start tiny
Write one question you could ask someone in the role.
What you’ll notice
Your idea of a possible role includes one detail from someone who knows its ordinary work.
When it slips
If you cannot find a willing contact, use an official public information session, interview or published first-person account. Record what remains unknown instead of treating one person's experience as universal.
Ibarra, H. (2004). Our Many Possible Selves: Re-working our Identities to Reinvent our Careers. INSEAD Working Paper 2004/22/OB. Read the source ↗ Full text inspected: qualitative interviews with 39 managers/professionals, mostly highly credentialed, ages 32–51; career-change cases are not a general population trial.
Mastery: Practices you develop over weeks through skill, planning and trade-offs.
