Job Moves

Three innovators offer a road-tested framework for career development that helps anyone make real progress on their path when they switch jobs.

Each year, an estimated 1 billion people switch jobs worldwide. A lucky few stumble into the role of their dreams, but hundreds of millions are disappointed. What if, when looking for a job, we could make more informed choices to better select the opportunity we seize? What if the power to move along our career paths lies with each of us, as opposed to hiring managers or the market?

According to the “Jobs to Be Done” theory of product design—customers don’t simply buy products; they recruit them to do specific jobs that solve a problem. Job Moves adopts this model to view jobs as positions we “hire” to help us make progress in our lives and careers. Based on research conducted with over a thousand professionals at all stages of their careers, Ethan Bernstein, Michael B. Horn, and Bob Moesta find that this notion bears out no matter your age, stage, or trajectory.

Key to this new, universal approach is understanding our priorities at the specific moment when we make each move. This team has created a process to help individuals identify the current circumstances driving them to look for new opportunities, the experiences they hope to gain in a new job, what tradeoffs they’ll gladly make in return, and how to learn-before-switching if a new job will deliver. The result encourages job seekers to look beyond a title or company for a more holistic view and ask not what you can do in a job, but what a potential job can do for you.

Full of useful activities and tools, Job Moves offers the timeless framework of our generation to help anyone create a career that will be happier and more fulfilling.