Designing Your Career: The Outsider Problem

Being a jobseeker can be really frustrating. You’ve applied to all the jobs, at least all the jobs that are listed somewhere, and you think you’re done. And the competition feels fierce. It’s hard to know what to do or even where to start to find a really good job in this crowded space. But there are more jobs available than you are aware of. As a job seeker you’re facing what we call the outsider problem. The outsider problem is that many potential jobs are invisible to you. Depending on industry, as many as 80% of available jobs are not listed publicly. So if you think you’ve applied to "everything," it’s possible that you’ve really only applied to about 1 of every 5 positions. The other 4 positions? They’re either available to those with access to the "inside," or they may be in the process of being created. The people inside the industry are building things, talking to each other, and they know where they need help. And as an outsider, you just can’t see them. So how do you find these unlisted jobs? To connect with people and opportunities on the inside, you need to get into the conversation. You need to hear insiders' stories to understand what jobs need doing, what it’s like working there, and whether you might fit in. And as you talk to more people in an industry, you’ll also learn their lingo and the right questions to ask. Sometimes, opportunities may even be generated on the spot thanks to the interaction. Talking to people who are inside the industry is the best way we know of to discover or create new opportunities. We call this process informational interviewing and we’ll dig into how to do it well in the next video.

Channel: Stanford Life Design Lab

Views: 30,145

Keywords: design thinking, d.school, career coaching, networking, life coaching, design, Stanford, stanford university, design school, designing your life, bill burnett, dave evans, recruiting, informational interviewing, internships, job-searching, job-seeking, stanford design school, career, passion, design interviewing, designing your stanford, united states, english, tutorial, stanford d.school, stanford, learn, jobs, job

Id: 006MM0eoGlE

Length: 2min 9sec (129 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2017