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The Secret to Finding a Career That Fits while Removing Career Change Risk · Happen To Your Career - Meaningful Work, Career Change, Career Design, & Job Search

• 0:00
  Scott Anthony Barlow: What if you could test drive different careers, different industries, different roles without gambling years of your life? Most of us were taught the traditional career path. Go to school, get a degree, apply for jobs, hope you pick the right one, and if it doesn't work out, well, you know, you start over. But there's another way. It's called career experimentation, and it changes everything. You don't have to take such big risks each time you make a career change, a pivot, a promotion, a transition of any kind. Instead, you can test and validate your assumptions systematically about what you want to do in a matter of weeks or months. In this episode, we're gonna cover exactly how two people used career experiments to not just figure out what they wanted, but to actually create the opportunities, real job offers that they ended up taking. Because once you understand how career experiments work, you'll never have to wonder what if about a career move again. You'll know because you'll have tested it first. This is Happen To You Career, the podcast that brings you real people, real transformations, and the courage to do work that truly fits. And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed, click Follow right now so that you don't miss any episodes. I want you to meet Travis. After 24 years building a successful career in custom cabinetry, he knew something had to change, but the idea of making the wrong choice completely paralyzed him. I first want to take you to a bit of a breakthrough moment that Travis had.
• 1:25
  Travis Van Oosbree: I've gotten my signature strengths, and I had kind of defined what my ideal workday would be like, and then it was like, “Okay, well, now what do I do with this?” I was talking to Amy, and she kind of asked me, “Okay, hypothetical here, money is of no consequence. You have your whole day to yourself. What would you do? You could do anything.” And I thought about it, and I said, “You know, I would probably spend more time playing with my daughter. I would, I'd play more softball. I'd join a couple more softball leagues. Oh, I'd play some golf during the week. I would, you know what? I've been meaning to play that new Zelda game. I would love to play, have more time to play video games.” And she's like, “Okay, Travis, you just said play about five times in 15 seconds, so let's focus in on play.”
• 2:16
  Scott Anthony Barlow: That word play, well, it became Travis's North Star. But here's the crucial part. He didn't just go quit his job and started playing to toy companies. Instead, he began experimenting. One other quick note, though. Travis was initially resistant to the idea of experimentation. Like most people, he found it a little bit awkward and unconventional at first.
• 2:38
  Travis Van Oosbree: So that was really a case, rip the bandaid off, get outside your comfort zone, and then you quickly realize that your comfort zone has just expanded. So the first couple of emails I sent out were very awkward, and I was very uncomfortable sending it and asking.
• 2:55
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Despite this initial resistance, he pushed through the discomfort and began experiments, and Travis started what we call the Social Goldilocks Approach, having conversations with people across multiple industries, in this case, related to play. He talked to folks at Mattel, Hasbro, and eventually playground companies, but these weren't job interviews. They were experiments in understanding what created an amazing fit for Travis.
• 3:22
  Travis Van Oosbree: I just started going back and thinking, “Okay, I got back into that loop of, okay, well, now what job title do I type in to Indeed to see if Hasbro is hiring for a blank?” So I went back to the second career coach and I looked at his list of potential roles that would be good for. And something that's always kind of scratched at the back of my brain is, you know, marketing. I like advertising a lot, and so then I changed my LinkedIn search to who am I connected to that works in marketing. Let's just see.
• 4:02
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Yeah. At this point, most people might think, “Okay, well, Travis needs to just start applying to places like Hasbro.” But he didn't. He started experimenting, and through experimentation, Travis discovered that he wasn't just interested in toys, he was actually interested in product marketing. This led to more conversations, which led to job shadowing, which led to, well, let me share what happened when he talked to an old neighbor.
• 4:28
  Travis Van Oosbree: I started asking everyone, “Hey, do you know anyone that works in the toys and games industry?” I asked our across the street neighbors. They came over and, you know, our kids played. And that's when she said, “Well, I know someone who works in the playground industry. Is that toys and games?” And I said, “Yeah, absolutely. Sure.”
• 4:47
  Scott Anthony Barlow: That casual conversation with a neighbor, the result of his experimental mindset, led directly to a current role as a project manager for a playground manufacturing company, not through a job board, not through a recruiter, through experimentation, to be able to prove what he actually wanted. And then this organically, naturally evolved into opportunity. But Travis isn't the only one. Let's take a look at Bob's story. After 24 years as a restaurant chef, moving from sous chef to corporate chef, Bob reached his own breaking point.
• 5:21
  Bob Kalish: I would say there's a couple different things at work. It was this steady decline of fulfillment, okay, alongside the desire to be a better employee, to be a better father, to be a better husband, be a better person. I just felt like I was ready to grow as a person, and I couldn't really do that without changing that piece of my life.
• 5:49
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Bob's experiments took a very different form. He wasn't just exploring new industries, he was exploring what fulfilled him about his existing expertise and where could he move to within his current industry that he would actually enjoy.
• 6:02
  Bob Kalish: I spoke with a lot of different people and organizations through, and I think my trying to figure out how I could put this politically correct, my BS detector is really high, and as I spoke with people, I could really figure out quickly whether I wanted to be part of an organization or not.
• 6:22
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Okay, but here's where Bob's experimental approach led to something unexpected. He wasn't just evaluating companies, he was building relationships. And when a regional restaurateur he'd known for 20 years heard about his career exploration, something clicked for him.
• 6:39
  Bob Kalish: I was fortunate enough that I connected with a regional restaurateur. I went and talked to him. And he's like, “What's going on?” And I've known him for 20 years, and I'm like, “Hey, well this is kind of… da, da, da, you know?” He goes, “Well, that's really interesting.” And I was like, “Yeah. You know, it's a tough, it's tough to get started, you know?” And he is like, “Well, I started,” he said to me, “I started my career consulting and, you know, we have a nice little portfolio now of restaurants and six concepts.” He said, “Why don't you start consulting for me?”
• 7:17
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Okay. You've probably noticed the pattern. Both Bob and Travis did not find their opportunities through the traditional job hunting approach. Their opportunities emerged naturally from their experimental approach, but here's what makes this even more powerful. Bob's current consulting role isn't his in destination. It became another experiment. The role itself is experiment that's opening more doors and giving him continuous feedback about what he wants within his career.
• 7:46
  Bob Kalish: I really am, you know, in touch with some people that I know I, that have similar interests in what I'm doing. So I'm speaking with a woman who she actually is in the West Coast, in California, and she is, she got her master's in psychology, and it's really near dear what I believe in. And so that might be a connection, a partner. I also went back to school. I went back to college 'cause I left my senior year in hospitality management. So I just wanted to, for myself and these well-connected, like I said, with the restaurant association, the stuff like that. So I laid a lot of groundwork
• 8:27
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Experiments don't just validate what you want. They create the opportunities and experiences themselves. In some cases, like you heard with Bob and Travis, they naturally created those relationships, and those led to real paying job offers. But think about why this works so much better than traditional job hunting. When you're experimenting, you're not desperate, you're curious. And people can sense that difference, responding much more openly to genuine interest than to need or desperation. Experiments also let you learn what you don't want just as much as what you do want. And here's how Travis put it.
• 9:03
  Travis Van Oosbree: I've gotten to the point where I'm bored with my current job. Maybe they need a product marketing manager. It's not currently a role that they have, but I figure, like, let me start doing some of that work.
• 9:15
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Perhaps most importantly, experiments allow you to build relationships over time. The best experiments have multiple purposes built into them. And in the couple of experiments that we described with Bob and Travis, the relationships were actually built over time. So by the time an opportunity emerges, you're not a stranger applying cold. You're someone that those people already know they already trust.
• 9:42
  Bob Kalish: I guess the best thing about the experimenting faith is there's really nothing to lose. And once I figured that out, it put me in the driver's seat, and I was gonna be myself. I could have gone through the interview just fine. I could have interviews or conversations and answered any way they would've liked to hear. I chose not to. I chose to be myself.
• 10:09
  Scott Anthony Barlow: Here's the truth about career experiments. They worked because they're low-risk, high learning activities that compound over time. Each conversation, each small project, whether it's a volunteer opportunity, whether it's a conversation, an interaction, whatever it is, it doesn't just give you information. It gives you the ability to decide what is going to allow you to spend your years of your life better. Additionally, it can give you relationships. It can give you other types of opportunities and experiences that create the foundation for new, real-world jobs to come. Both Bob and Travis are now in roles that didn't exist in their minds when they started. Travis is working for a playground company that he'd never heard of before, doing product management he didn't even know that he wanted. Bob is consulting for a restaurant group while building multiple other possibilities, all stemming from his experimental approach. Despite their initial resistance to experimentation, both are incredibly grateful that they pushed through all of that discomfort, and Travis's advice for anyone hesitant to start.
• 11:15
  Travis Van Oosbree: Don't be afraid to like, just make that really awkward connection. Because if you don't, you're right where you are. And if you do, you know, maybe after that conversation you'll still be right where you are, but maybe you'll be somewhere further along the road. So if you're ready to take control of your career journey and find work that aligns with your strengths, we'd love to help. All you have to do is just pause this right now and drop me an email, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just shoot me an email. Put “Conversation” in the subject line, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. I'll connect you with my team, the specific team member who can help with your unique situation. That's all you need to do. Drop me an email right now. Happen To Your Career - Meaningful Work, Career Change, Career Design, & Job Search