Day 12: Ladder of Tests

Today you will learn what the Ladder of Tests are, why it's important to investigate careers before committing to them, and how to test jobs in low cost ways that save time, money, and energy.

Summary

What is the Ladder of Tests?

The Ladder of Tests is the idea of starting with the least costly way to learn more about a particular opportunity before taking more expensive steps, such as doing a trial project or even taking on something like a master's degree.

• These tests allow us to investigate some of our key uncertainties about job fields or the companies we might want to work for
• You need to speak to people, learn about the options, and try things out. The closer you can get to actually doing the work, the better.

Why Spend Time Investigating? 

Doing research through the Ladder of Tests is beneficial because:

• It's one of the best ways you can learn what you're good at.
• You'll understand if you actually enjoy working at that place or enjoy working in that field before you dedicate the rest of our life.
• You'll be able to make better decisions over the coming decades about your career.
• It avoids one of the biggest career mistakes, considering too few of options.

‍How to Investigate Career Options

In the activity below you will take a similar approach to building a Ladder of Tests like the following example:

• Read relevant career reviews and do some Google searches to learn the basics (1-2h).
• Then the next most useful thing you can usually do is to speak to someone in the area. The right person can give you more up-to-date and personalized information than what you’ll be able to find written down (2h).
• Speak to three more people who work in the area and read one or two books (20h). You could also consider speaking to a careers adviser who specializes in this area. During this, also find out the most effective way for you to enter the area, given your background. Bear in mind that when you’re talking to these people, they are also informally interviewing you.
• Now look for a project that might take 1-4 weeks of work, like applying to jobs, volunteering in a related role, or starting a blog on the area you want to focus on. If you’ve done the previous step, you’ll know what’s best.
• Only now consider taking on a 2-24 month commitment, like a work placement, internship or graduate study. At this point, being offered a trial position with an organization for a couple of months can actually be an advantage, because

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Activity

Download today's worksheet and complete the exercises inside of the worksheet.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.