Putting On the Coat of the Job
Run the spreadsheet, then tear it up — and simulate a Tuesday in the job instead.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Vora's method for career decisions: do the analytical comparison, then discard it, because none of it predicts how good you'll actually be at the job. Instead she runs an emotional simulation — putting on the coat of the job — and checks for one signal: walking through the door, do I feel lucky to be here? The underlying variable she is testing for is trust, which is what lets her take risks and therefore do her best work.
Origin
Vora's own approach, developed over a career she describes as planless. She frames it explicitly against the alternative — believing there is one end state you must reach — a mode in which she says she brings less creativity, less luck and less excitement.
Core principles
- 01The spreadsheet math does not determine how good you will be at the job.
- 02The predictive signal is emotional, not analytical: do I feel lucky to be there?
- 03The feeling of home is really a proxy for trust — will these people have my back and let me take risks?
- 04Not having a plan is a legitimate operating mode; the mistake is refusing to admit that's who you are.
- 05Fixating on one predetermined end state suppresses creativity, luck and excitement.
How to run it
- 1
Run the spreadsheet
Do the analysis you were going to do anyway — the axes, the five-year projection, what each option does for you. Get the engine in your head out of your system.
- 2
Tear it up
Discard the analysis. None of it determines how good you'll be at the job — which is the thing that actually determines the outcome.
Watch out The seductive belief is that the rest of your career hangs on making the exactly right decision. It doesn't; that pressure is what makes the spreadsheet feel load-bearing.
- 3
Put on the coat
Simulate a normal day in the role. What would I think about on my commute? Who would I have lunch with — do I like them? What problems am I going to solve today?
Pro tip Do it on waking, before the analytical mind boots up. Vora runs it in the morning: 'what would it be like if I were doing this job'.
- 4
Read the emotional response
The simulation produces a feeling, and that feeling is far more telling than the five-year projection. Test it against one question: walking through the doors, do I feel lucky to be here?
- 5
Check for trust specifically
Interrogate the 'home' feeling for its component: will these people have my back, will they let me take risks, will I enjoy spending time with them? That is the unlock that makes you try more things and do better work.
Pro tip Same test applies to a CEO relationship. Vora's advice to a prospective CPO: spend a day together and mind-meld before taking the job — check whether you can work together with high fidelity and high trust.
In the wild
Vora consistently chooses roles by whether she feels lucky to be walking through the door — a feeling of being at home built on trust in the people around her. That trust is what makes her willing to take risks.
→ It is the pattern that has produced her best work across her career, in her own assessment, more reliably than any comparative analysis.
She joined Faire for the same reason she has gone anywhere: she believed in the people and the mission. It was personal too — much of her family in India works in wholesale and local retail, which is exactly Faire's customer.
→ She reports a trusting, complementary relationship with CEO Max, who engaged seriously with her quarterly 'hot takes' documents rather than telling her to just run product.
Common mistakes
Believing there is one right answer you must reach
Vora says when she gets into the zone of 'there's only one outcome and I just have to get there', she isn't at her best — she stops bringing creativity, luck and excitement.
Refusing to accept you're not a planner
She felt held back for years for not having a plan. The unlock was acknowledging that she is not going to be a person with a plan, and building a decision method that works without one.
Is it for you?
Best for
Mid-to-senior operators choosing between roles, especially anyone who feels paralysed by the belief that this one decision determines their whole career.
Not ideal for
Decisions with hard external constraints — visa, salary floor, geography — where the analytical filter has to bind before the emotional one gets a vote.
From the transcript
“work through the spreadsheets and then tear it up because none of that stuff like is actually going to determine how good I am at…”
“I try to just put on the coat of the job like when I wake up in the morning I'm like what would it be…”
“the thing that that has led me to like the places where I do my best work is a feeling of being at home which…”
From the episode
Making an impact through authenticity and curiosity
Ami Vora (CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG)