Click to expand the mind map for a detailed view.
Key Takeaways
- Understand Your Energy Drivers and Drains: Identify what energizes you and what drains you to find a job that aligns with your strengths and passions.
- Job Features vs. Job Experiences: Focus on the experiences a job offers (e.g., learning, growth, respect) rather than just the features (e.g., salary, title).
- Jobcation: If you’re burnt out, consider taking a less demanding job to reset and recover before moving on to your next big step.
- Prototype Your Career: Use informational interviews to explore different roles and industries before committing to a new job.
- Craft Your Career Story: Use a structured narrative (e.g., Pixar’s storytelling framework) to articulate your career journey and what you’re looking for next.
- Trade-offs Are Inevitable: No job is perfect. Understand what you’re willing to give up to get what you want in your next role.
- Self-awareness is Key: Know your strengths, weaknesses, and what you want from your career to make better decisions.
Detailed Summary
Introduction
- Guest: Bob Moesta, co-creator of the Jobs-to-be-Done Framework and author of Job Moves.
- Big Idea: The moment you stop making progress in your career is the moment you start looking for another job. The book provides a tactical guide to finding a job you love.
Key Concepts
- Job Features vs. Job Experiences:
- Features: Salary, title, benefits.
- Experiences: Learning, growth, respect, and the day-to-day work environment.
- Money is often a surrogate for respect or security, but it’s not the sole driver of job satisfaction.
- Energy Drivers and Drains:
- Energy Drivers: Activities or situations that energize you (e.g., learning new things, helping others).
- Energy Drains: Tasks or environments that drain you (e.g., routine work, lack of control).
- Understanding these helps you design a job that aligns with your strengths and passions.
- Four Quests for Job Change:
- Get Out: You’re burnt out and need to leave your current job to recover.
- Take the Next Step: You’re ready for a new challenge or skill-building opportunity.
- Regain Control: You need to simplify your job and regain control over your time and work.
- Realign: You need to realign your job with your core strengths and passions.
- Jobcation:
- A less demanding job that allows you to reset and recover before moving on to your next big step.
- Example: After a demanding startup, Bob took a job in homebuilding to rebuild his family life.
- Prototyping Your Career:
- Use informational interviews to explore different roles and industries.
- This helps you understand what a job is really like and whether it aligns with your energy drivers and drains.
- Crafting Your Career Story:
- Use a structured narrative (e.g., Pixar’s storytelling framework) to articulate your career journey.
- Example: “Once upon a time, I was a curious kid who loved taking things apart. Every day, I struggled in school but found joy in asking questions. One day, I realized my superpower was curiosity, and now I help others innovate.”
- Trade-offs:
- No job is perfect. Understand what you’re willing to give up to get what you want in your next role.
- Example: Taking a lower-paying job to learn from a mentor or gain new skills.
- Self-awareness:
- Know your strengths, weaknesses, and what you want from your career.
- Tools like StrengthsFinders can help you articulate your strengths and weaknesses.
Conversational Insights
- “The moment you stop making progress in your career is the moment you start looking for another job.”
- “Money is a surrogate for respect, or I’ve got bills to pay, or I’m falling behind. Money has many different implications.”
- “The moment you are comfortable doing nothing, you know who you are again, and you can actually figure this out.”
- “Employees hire companies more than companies hire employees.”
- “Nobody randomly changes jobs. It’s just not possible. It’s caused by context and pushes/pulls.”
- “If you’re in a place that gives you energy, it doesn’t feel like you’re working.”
- “Most people spend 95% of their time doing work that sucks their energy so they can get the 5% of joy from the work they love.”
- “The job description is made up. It’s a list of stuff the manager doesn’t want to do.”
- “When you overpay people, they become more scared of losing it and more conservative in their work.”
- “Your weaknesses create your super abilities. Knowing what they are is so important.”
Software Tools
- Eppo: A/B testing and feature management platform.
- Vanta: Security and compliance automation software.
- OneSchema: CSV import and data integration tool.
- LinkedIn: Professional networking and job searching platform.
- StrengthsFinders: Tool for identifying personal strengths and weaknesses.
People Mentioned
Speakers
- Bob Moesta: Co-creator of the Jobs-to-be-Done Framework, author of Job Moves.
- Lenny Rachitsky: Host of the podcast, former product manager at Airbnb.
Other Individuals
- Clay Christensen: Co-creator of the Jobs-to-be-Done Framework.
- Ethan Bernstein: Harvard Business School professor, collaborator on Job Moves.
- Michael Horn: Co-author of Job Moves.
- Christina Cacioppo: CEO and co-founder of Vanta.
- Christina Gilbert: Founder of OneSchema.
- Tobias Lütke: CEO of Shopify, also dyslexic.
Companies Mentioned
- The Rewired Group: Bob Moesta’s company.
- Airbnb: Former employer of Lenny Rachitsky.
- Snowflake: Company where Eppo’s founders previously worked.
- Twitch, Miro, ClickUp, DraftKings: Companies that use Eppo.
- Atlassian, Ramp, LangChain: Companies that use Vanta.
- Shopify: Company led by Tobias Lütke.
