How to test a new career idea today (and reduce risk with your move)
Are you thinking about pursuing a new career path — but there’s a lot at risk?
Whether you aren’t sure where to start, are worried about making the wrong choice — or throwing away everything you’ve invested into your current career, this article is for you.
Today, I’m talking about practical steps you can take to test and validate your career idea, so you reduce risk with your move.
In a recent coaching session with a long-term leadership client, we worked on developing new habits and behaviours. As I shared with her, identifying the right strategy or having the ‘perfect’ plan alone won’t create change.
What separates the clients who get results is that they take action — repeatedly. EVEN when it’s uncomfortable.
Because when you consistently rinse and repeat, you build new neural pathways in the brain. And over time, those new habits and behaviours become embedded, resulting in permanent and transformative change.
Yet one of the most common places I see high-achievers resist taking action is when it comes to testing and validating a potential career path.
And I get it. Reaching out to someone to ask for a conversation can feel awkward. Life also gets busy, so it’s easy to keep putting it off until you have no choice but to make a change.
Plus at the heart of it all is a fear of failure which holds you back from taking action. It seems easier to stay where you are — even if you want something different.
So in today’s article, I’m walking you through exactly how to test and validate a new career idea — before you commit to anything. By the end, you’ll have a proven process to assess risk and make your next move with confidence!
#1 — FIND SIMPLE WAYS TO TEST OUT IDEAS
Start by finding simple, low stakes ways to test out your career ideas. Think about volunteering, board roles and taking on an additional project or secondment at work.
Outside your day job you could start a side hustle, create a new product or service, take a short course, launch a Substack or podcast. Even reading articles, watching YouTube videos and consuming content is a low-barrier way to immerse yourself in new areas of interest.
To explore my interest in coaching, speaking and training, I ran 1:1 coaching sessions and monthly workshops on a voluntary basis and was the MC at a friend’s event. These activities cost me nothing except time — but gave me all the information I needed before ever moving into the work I do now.
And this doesn’t require a big financial investment or immediate retraining either. Consider online programs or short training courses to try out your ideas — rather than jumping straight into a full master’s program!
Before retraining as a professional coach, I watched short 30 minute webinars from several training providers. Then, I did a weekend foundational course with my chosen coaching school before committing to a 9 month certification program.
When you test before you invest, you’ll know if this direction is right for you — without wasting a single penny or putting your career on the line.
#2 — START WITH ONE
It’s important to test out your career ideas one at a time. Don’t try to explore three different directions simultaneously — or you’ll dilute your energy and won’t get a clear read on any of them.
If you have multiple ideas you’re excited about, start with the one that’s easiest to test and validate. Follow all the steps I’m sharing in this episode to fully validate each idea. Run through this entire process before moving on to testing the next one.
I remember speaking to a woman I trained with years ago. As a qualified health coach with a long corporate career in marketing, she was torn between starting a marketing consultancy or launching a coaching business.
My advice? Start with the one you’re most drawn to and that’s easiest to test out. Then fully validate it before moving onto the other!
When you focus on one idea at a time, you’ll get the clarity you need to move forward faster.
#3 — HAVE REAL CONVERSATIONS (WITH REAL PEOPLE!)
The best way to test out a potential career path is to talk to people! With this step, I recommend you have two separate types of discussions with two different groups:
1. Informational Interviews
To test out your career idea, start by speaking to individuals doing work (or elements of work) that interests you. Let them know what you admire about their experience and why you’re interested in what they do.
Explain you’re exploring a similar path and ask if they’d be willing to spare 20 minutes for a short phone call or coffee catch-up to share a bit about their career journey. Make it clear you’re not looking for a job and that you’d appreciate their insights and advice as you consider your next professional move.
Always make these approaches about the other person, not you. I adopted this exact strategy before pivoting my career and business back in 2018 and was pleasantly surprised that all the warm (and cold) contacts I reached out to were willing to share, very generously. As human beings, we love to help — as well as talk about ourselves!
Prepare some questions in advance and during the conversation, make sure the other person does the majority of the talking. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Talk me through a typical day in your role — what does it look like?
- What do you love about your work and what do you find most challenging?
- Tell me about your career journey and how you ended up in this role?
- What does it take to be successful in this field?
- What other advice would you give to someone in my position?
2. Customer Research
Next, conduct customer research conversations with your ideal target clients. This type is specifically for established or aspiring consultants and business owners who are testing out a new business idea. Before reaching out to potential customers, consider:
Who do you want to serve? Get crystal clear on your target client. Think about demographics (profession, industry, age, location) and their pain-points.
What do you offer? Make sure you can clearly articulate your offer and the benefits of your service. Position this as the solution to your client’s number one problem.
Next, identify 7-10 people who represent your ideal client and invite them to a conversation. During the discussion, dive deeper to understand their motivations, challenges and buying behaviour. Here are some questions to guide you:
- What are their biggest pain-points or challenges as it relates to your offer?
- How about their dreams, goals and ideal solutions?
- What steps have they taken to attempt to resolve these problems or reach their goals — and what worked/didn’t?
- Have they purchased similar services before? If so, what was their experience?
- Would they purchase these services again — why or why not?
When you talk to the right people, you’ll get real-world insights to validate your ideas in a way no behind-the-scenes research ever could!
#4 — RUN VALIDATION CHECKS
Once you’ve tested your career idea using short experiments and conversations, it’s time to validate it.
The goal is to take this career path through a series of questions to confirm it makes sense with your priorities. Here are four areas to check:
- Strengths: Do I have the skills and experience to pursue this career — or the ability to fill any essential knowledge gaps?
- Passions: Do I enjoy this enough to spend the majority of my time on it every day AND to commit to it long term?
- Profits: Does this make sense with my financial goals — and is the payoff worth it? For a business idea: Are there enough people who are willing and able to pay?
- Vision + Purpose: Does this idea align with your my lifestyle goals and the impact I want to make through my work?
A senior executive I worked with had several ideas about different career paths they could pursue — from consulting, to starting a gym or wine bar. After walking them through this process, they could easily see which ones were a fit for right now and those which were passions — or endeavours to explore later!
Only proceed with your idea if your answer is a clear YES! to each of these questions. When you run your ideas through these four checks, you’ll immediately see which path is the best fit for this season of your career.
#5 — DECIDE WHETHER TO PROCEED (OR PIVOT)
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve worked through a series of practical steps to ensure your career idea is logical and financially viable. But don’t forget to step out of your rational mind and do a final ‘gut check’ to make sure it resonates at an energetic level too.
Does the idea of proceeding with this career fill you with excitement — or dread? Do you feel expansive, or contracted? Lighter or heavier?
Check in with those feelings because your body carries a lot of wisdom that your analytical mind often overrides. Before committing, this idea needs to resonate at a deeper heart and soul level too!
If the first idea you’ve tested and validated isn’t right — pivot! Take the insights you’ve gathered and apply them to the next idea on your list. And don’t forget to run it through the same process!
When you combine the rational with the intuitive, you’ll make a decision you can commit to with complete confidence.
When you’ve worked hard to get where you are, navigating a significant career move is one of the biggest decisions you’ll face. These steps have helped my clients and I pivot careers, redesign our roles and launch new businesses — while minimising risk along the way. I hope this process supports you too!
If you’re looking to clarify your direction, build confidence and and create a personalised strategy to reduce risk with your next career move, I invite you to explore Ignite Your Career.
Apply for a complimentary call to get started HERE.
Stacey Back is The Career Planning Specialist, an executive career coach and speaker. She guides high-achieving senior leaders and organisations across the globe to design fulfilling, sustainable careers for long-term success.