187. Experimenting, Failing, and Finding Your Job Fit - Catalyze Your Career

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Think Fast Talk Smart

Communicating, Influence, Career Skills, Career, Business, Education, Leadership, Careers, Communication, Career Growth, Public Speaking, Language Learning, Improv

4.7 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rethink career success by testing, adapting, and staying open to unexpected opportunities.

Career planning isn’t as straightforward as we often assume—but according to Dorie Clark, that’s actually a good thing. Instead of following a rigid path, she believes we should be “treating our careers like a series of experiments”—testing, iterating, and staying open to unexpected opportunities."People assume they need to have everything mapped out for the next twenty years," Clark explains. "But in reality, careers are built through testing, learning, and adapting—just like a scientific hypothesis."
As a bestselling author and career strategist, Clark has spent years studying how professionals can future-proof their careers in an unpredictable world. She shares why informational interviews, LinkedIn strategy, and quarterly career check-ins are essential tools for anyone looking to make a career shift. “You don’t want to be so mired in your plan that you can’t take advantage of unexpected opportunities,” she says.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Clark joins host Matt Abrahams to challenge traditional career advice and explore strategic personal branding, the power of weak ties in networking, and why “reinvention isn’t a one-time event—it’s a habit.”

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. Explore your job potential at Linkedin.com/jobs.

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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(02:26) - The Importance of Long-Term Career Vision
(03:58) - Testing Your Career Hypothesis
(05:31) - Being Proactive in Your Career
(08:02) - Reinvention: Small vs. Big Career Changes
(10:35) - How to Explore a New Industry
(12:21) - Transferring Skills to New Careers
(14:20) - Optimizing Your Personal Brand
(17:43) - Best Career Advice Received
(19:34) - Career Regrets & Lessons
(21:17) - Conclusion

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This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. Explore your job potential at Linkedin.com/jobs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Feel like you aren't being challenged or growing at work?
0:03.5	Podcast listeners and my students often ask me, when is the best time to make a career move?
0:09.0	I always tell them that the best time to look for a new job is when you're feeling too comfortable in your current one.
0:15.0	LinkedIn should be your first stop when looking for something new or just seeing what's out there.
0:20.0	I regularly use LinkedIn
0:21.6	myself, and I see how it has helped many others I know. LinkedIn has just made the job search
0:26.6	easier and allows you to explore your potential or find something that's a better match for you.
0:31.5	With its new job match feature rolling out to members in 2025, the job search process is simplified, so you know where to focus.
0:39.6	It provides personalized insights and detailed, actionable summaries.
0:44.3	Job match does the heavy lifting so you can find your ideal fit.
0:48.0	Explore your job potential at LinkedIn.com slash jobs.
0:51.8	That's LinkedIn.com slash jobs.
1:00.2	What if we saw our career is a series of hypotheses that we need to test. So essentially,
1:07.6	we're experimenting to learn what is the best fit for us.
1:11.6	My name is Matt Abraham's, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
1:17.6	Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.
1:21.6	This is the second of three Catalyze Your Career miniseries episodes that we've produced in collaboration with
1:28.4	LinkedIn. Together, these three episodes will help you chart your career path and find your job fit.
1:35.1	In case you missed it, I encourage you to go back and listen to episode 184, fit or quit.
1:41.0	The first episode in this miniseries that was distilled down from a LinkedIn live event
1:45.3	that I did with Catherine Fisher, where we answer live career questions from you, our audience.
1:52.2	Today I'm really excited to talk again with Dory Clark. Dory and I had a really thoughtful
	...

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