Prompts for Mentally Modeling Your New Job
You know you’re going to own your new job, but you don’t yet know exactly how you’re going to do it, which is fine of course, but you’re a planner. You like to anticipate what’s coming, even when all you know about what’s coming is what you’ve pieced together from a job description and a few interviews.
Get way ahead of the game with prompts that create a mental foundation solid enough to support changing details and specifics.
Prompt: Reflect on something you accomplished in your previous role.
- How did you accomplish it?
- What did accomplishing it look like?
- What were the benefits of accomplishing it?
Swap a goal you have for your new job into the framework of your past success.
Why it helps
Sometimes, looking back is the best way to gain some sense of direction toward an uncertain future. Things probably won’t play out exactly as they did in your previous role. The point of this prompt is to provide you with something specific to work towards, something you already know you can do.
Prompt: Think about your top-priority goal for the new job.
(If you don’t have one, then now is the perfect time to set it.) Try to describe that goal in a way even a computer might understand. In other words, describe its measurable characteristics, including size, time, level of difficulty, subtasks, budgets, locations, and people.
Why it helps
You’ve gotta decide where you want to end up before you can imagine how you’re going to get there. Setting a measurable end point is as helpful to the trajectory of your new job as setting a specific address is helpful to your success in getting to your friend’s new place across town.
Prompt: Envision your top-priority goal again.
- What resources do you need to pursue it?
- What skills do you need to achieve it?
- What about support?
Do you have all those things or do you know how and where to get them?
If not, consider how to acquire the support you need or adjust your goal to fit within the constraints of your reality.
Why it helps
Ensuring your goals are achievable may not be a blue-sky optimist’s cup of tea, but it’s a pragmatist’s key to achieving success and avoiding disappointment.
Prompt: Why is your big goal important to your future company? Why is your big goal important to you?
Why it helps
With any luck, this will be the easiest prompt to answer. If not, well, that’s also lucky in a sense. You just dodged the tragedy of chasing an irrelevant goal — one that’s not important to both you and your future company.
Prompt: Set a deadline for your big goal, or at least deadlines for the first few benchmarks.
Why it helps
Never set a deadline. Never get it done.
It may not be an adage but maybe it should be, as deadlines have proven to be quite motivating.