Job Prototyping via Informational Interviews
Treat yourself as a product: prototype many roles wide, interview people who hold them, then narrow
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 92%
Rather than blasting out resumes to job descriptions you don't really understand, Moesta has you prototype your next role the way a product team prototypes with customers. You go deliberately wide across industries your skills transfer to, run informational interviews with people who actually hold those jobs, and use what you learn to narrow to one target — while getting interview reps that make the real interview far easier.
Origin
Bob Moesta's application of product prototyping and Jobs-to-be-Done customer discovery to career search, from 'Job Moves.'
Core principles
- 01Most people don't feel they have agency to go elsewhere — but skills you're good at are used in many places
- 02Prototype wide to learn, then use the learning to narrow
- 03Job descriptions are made up, and matching a resume to one is hunting a unicorn
- 04Reframe from 'make me fit the job' to 'find the job that fits me'
- 05No job checks every box — the real work is choosing which trade-offs you can live with
How to run it
- 1
Distill your requirements
From the energy audit and quest, distill your skills, what gives you energy, and what you're genuinely good at into a clear checklist for the next role.
- 2
Prototype wide across industries
Brainstorm many different roles and industries where your strengths apply — not just adjacent ones. Good marketers, for example, can work almost anywhere, not only in their current sector.
Pro tip Ask 'what jobs constantly give me new things to learn?' (or whatever your driver is) to generate non-obvious candidates.
Watch out Don't assume you're locked to your current industry; that assumption kills your sense of agency.
- 3
Run 10-15 informational interviews
Find people on LinkedIn who have or had each candidate job and interview them about what the role is actually like. This does two things: it gives you practice talking about yourself, and it lets you test whether the role truly fits.
Pro tip These reps make you dramatically more comfortable before any real interview, since most people haven't talked about themselves in years.
- 4
Narrow to one target and reframe your resume
Use what you learned to pick one area you can genuinely commit to, then write a resume about what you can DO, not just where you've been. Ask the people you interviewed what was on their resume for that role.
Pro tip Walking into interviews with honesty about who you are and aren't often impresses more than trying to look like a fit for everything — people sometimes come back with a better role for you.
Watch out Weigh trade-offs explicitly and, once you choose, don't second-guess the thing you gave up — you made the trade knowingly.
In the wild
A neuroscientist who'd run a big lab in Ireland, burnt out, and taken a hospital job explored wide options based on her energy drivers — design researcher, National Geographic coordinator. Told she could travel, do science, and teach, she was excited to interview a Nat-Geo coordinator.
→ The informational interview revealed the coordinator role is essentially a pre-programmed travel agent — she immediately ruled it out, saving herself from a wrong move.
An operator wanting to eventually found a company got several offers, including a ~$350-400k engineering role and a ~$200k chief-of-staff role next to a well-known entrepreneur. He chose the lower-paying role explicitly to learn, told the founder he was giving up money to be taught, and negotiated a two-year runway.
→ The founder made him chief of staff and reframed the role to fit him; Moesta told him he couldn't complain about the money later because he'd made the trade-off knowingly.
Common mistakes
Applying before understanding the role
People send hundreds of resumes to jobs they don't actually understand — 'automating the insanity' instead of learning what the job is first.
Wanting it all
Holding out for a role that checks every box means never choosing; every real career involves trade-offs you must consciously accept.
Is it for you?
Best for
A job seeker who feels stuck in their industry or unsure what role to target next
Not ideal for
Someone with an urgent income gap who cannot invest weeks in discovery before landing any job
From the transcript
“how do we prototype different job positions for you so how do we think of you”
“if you're really good at the things you're good at they're used in a lot of other places”
“it's this notion of prototyping very wide to learn and then using it to narrow”
“you actually have now done 10 to 15 interviews with in informational interviews with complete strangers that make you real way more comfortable”
“if you actually reframe this and say how do I get the the job to fit the person and you start to realize like I…”
From the episode
How to find work you love
Bob Moesta (Jobs-to-be-Done co-creator, author of "Job Moves