Career Questions as Research

#pipelinematters
#viewsmyown

When exploring analyst careers, it may be helpful to approach your job and career questions as a research project. By pooling information from interesting positions, organizations, and career trajectories, you can piece together which specific skills, credentials, and experiences are most valuable in the roles you want, and which organizations are hiring for them. Collect these details from job descriptions, informational interviews, and current and prior analyst profiles. LinkedIn is your friend here.

Depending on the breadth of your search, consider how you might research specific positions, organizations, and/or careers.

Researching positions

When considering a specific opening:

  • Which particular skills are necessary to get in the door at Jobt=1? If asked, how might you demonstrate those skills?
    • For positions of interest, collect the specific skills listed in the job description. Which ones seem most common and worth learning?
  • Don’t invest too much in job titles. How do people in the position of interest actually spend their time? Are those tasks you’d find valuable and interesting?
    • Ideally, your work is your training.
  • Look two jobs down the line: what skills, experiences, and accomplishments do you need out of Jobt=1 (2-3 years out) to prepare you for Jobt=2 (5-7 years out)?

Researching organizations

When beginning a longer, wide-ranging job search, start with a list of at least 20 organizations of interest. You may have an initial list of places in mind, but push yourself beyond your shortlist.

For each organization:

  • How does the organization see and talk about itself? How does it position itself within an industry?
  • Where does its business come from? How does it finance itself? Who are its “clients” (defined broadly)?
  • What are the trajectories of the people who are there now and were there in the past? What skills and experiences did they have before joining? What skills do they use now?
  • In addition to speaking to people there now, can you speak with someone who was there previously?
    • Previous employees are able to be more frank, and they can put their experience into a broader perspective.

Researching careers

If you feel very uncertain where to begin, it may be useful to first identify jobs you aspire towards, then work backwards to reverse engineer a path there. For this, find 20 people doing cool things 4-7 years out from where you are (roughly two jobs out). Those folks have current, relevant career information, but they can also put their last job into perspective.

Go for a “Goldilocks” time window relative to your circumstances. Too far out, and their advice might not be current or applicable to you. Too close, and they may not have enough perspective and the benefit of hindsight.

Conduct informational interviews to hear their thoughts on:

  • How did they get such cool positions? What credentials, skills, experiences, and accomplishments were necessary for their role?
  • What skills do they find most valuable or useful in their current work?
  • What do they wish they’d known entering their current position? What have they been surprised by?
  • Who else would they recommend you talk to?

How to scope these conversations:

  • Timing: Stick to 20-25 minutes if it’s a phone call. If it’s in person, ask how much time they have and aim to end within 30 minutes. Keep within time.
  • Come prepared: Do your research on who they are and what they do. Try not to ask anything you can easily Google. This shows respect for their time, and it’s a good use of your time as well.

In your initial email request:

  • Why them: Explain why you admire their work and why you’re asking for their advice:
    • “given your experience/expertise in [Subject]”.
    • “admire the work you’ve done on [Subject]”.
    • Your reasons for contacting them should be completely genuine and specific to them/their experience.
      Otherwise, why bother? Don’t waste your or their time.
  • Preview: Send 3-5 broad questions you want to walk through. Always end with “Who else would you recommend I speak with?”
    • Ideally, every conversation sparks another conversation.
    • You might be surprised by how open people—including folks you don’t know—are to chatting with you if they know which specific questions you’d find helpful.
  • Intros: If someone pointed you to that person, say so: “I was recommended to reach out to you by [Person],” “[Person] recommended contacting you given your expertise on [Subject].”
    • The ideal is to be introduced by someone else. Barring an introduction, if someone recommended you reach out, start by saying that.

Best of luck!