What's the MVP of your next career move?

Next Step Navigator is a career newsletter mixing real talk with real advice to help you tackle the job hunt and carve out your own unique path. It’s like grabbing a coffee with a mentor who shares stories and strategies to boost your confidence and guide you towards making strategic, meaningful career moves.

One of my least favourite career-related questions OF ALL TIME is "Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?". I never ask it and I hope never to answer it. The job market is changing so fast, we’re all dealing with a lot of uncertainty and I don’t think that a long-term plan or vision is necessary to build the life you want, enjoy a meaningful career or make incredible contributions to an organization.

Caveat - if you are motivated by long-term planning or goal setting - great! You do you. But if the idea that you have to commit to a singular long-term career vision in order to pivot or move forward feels paralzying, irrelevant or impossible in this day and age, you’re not alone and I’m here to offer an alternative.

Lots of people dream about doing something different, something potentially more engaging or aligned with their interests, or something that fulfills another life need (different location, salary, hours, etc.). But when most people think about how to make that change, the only path that seems clear or legitimate is the traditional one: investing significant time and money to go back to school for a new degree or certification. It feels like the only way to signal a serious shift and establish legitmacy in a new field, even if you're not 100% sure it's the right direction.

Going all-in on expensive and time consuming education or re-training before validating your interest or idea is a recipe for potential regret and wasted resources. Fortunately, there's an alternative approach designed for exactly this kind of uncertainty. 

We’re gonna borrow a concept from the tech world: the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In tech, an ‘MVP’ is the simplest version of a product released to test assumptions and gather feedback quickly.

What if we applied this to our careers? What's the quickest, easiest, fastest way to test out a new career idea before making huge commitments? Instead of aiming for the perfect, finished product, let's figure out the MVP—the smallest experiment you can run to see if this path feels right.

Cautionary Tale vs. MVP Win: Two Paths

Let's consider two people interested in transitioning into UX Design:

• Alex Takes the Plunge: Alex felt burnt out in their marketing role and kept hearing about high salaries in UX Design. They saw slick ads for an intensive (and expensive) 6-month bootcamp promising a complete career transformation and job placement assistance. Without exploring much further, Alex quit their job, cashed in some savings, and enrolled. Halfway through, they realized they didn't enjoy the detailed, iterative design work and found the concepts harder than expected. After graduating with significant debt, the promised job support was minimal, and Alex struggled to land interviews, feeling unprepared and regretting the hasty, costly decision. They also discovered the UX market is saturated and in tense economic times, the really high salaries and plentiful job opportunities that existed 6-7 years ago have somewhat dried up. Alex made a big leap based on hype, without a smaller test or labour market research.

• Sam ‘Dips a Toe In:’ Sam was also curious about UX Design. Instead of a bootcamp, Sam started with a free online introductory course on UX principles. They enjoyed it, so their next step was joining a UX community online to see what professionals actually talked about. Then, Sam reached out via LinkedIn for an informational interview with a UX designer at a local company. Through that conversation, Sam learned about the importance of portfolio projects. As a low-risk MVP, Sam volunteered to help a local non-profit redesign a small part of their website, applying what they learned. This small project confirmed Sam's interest, provided a portfolio piece, and gave them the confidence to pursue more targeted, affordable training, knowing the field was a good fit. Sam's deeper dive also revealed the tough competition, prompting them to focus their upskilling on UX writing and content strategy, a less saturated niche they discovered an aptitude for during their project. Sam used MVPs to test the waters and make informed choices.

These stories highlight why testing your assumptions matters. A big, expensive commitment isn't always the first or best step.

Your Guide to Finding Your Career MVP

Ready to test your own career idea without going all-in? Here’s how:

1. Start with You (Quickly!): Don't get bogged down, but take a moment for reflection. What sparks your interest in this new direction? What skills do you want to use? What kind of problems do you want to solve? What values are driving this potential change? Understanding your "why" helps define your experiment. But don’t spend endless time in this step!!!  

2. Brainstorm "Dip Your Toe" Experiences: What's the smallest, quickest, cheapest possible way to get exposure? Think low-cost, low-commitment. Could you:

   • Do an Informational Interview: Talk to someone in the field. Ask specific questions about their day-to-day, the challenges, the rewards. Use LinkedIn to find people.  

   • Volunteer: Find a short-term project related to the field.  

   • Take a Mini-Course: Try a free or low-cost online class or workshop (not a full degree!).  

   • Attend an Event: Go to a virtual or local industry meetup or conference session.  

   • Start a Side Project: Work on something small in your spare time that uses the skills or knowledge you want to test.  

   • Shadow Someone: Ask if you can observe someone in the role for a few hours.

    

3. Conduct Targeted Research (Light Version): Forget endless Googling. Briefly explore resources like O*Net Online or Canada Job Bank to understand related job titles and skills. Check out one or two relevant professional association websites for industry insights. Look at a few company websites that interest you. The goal isn't exhaustive research, but quick insights.  

4. Learn and Iterate: Treat your MVP test like an experiment. What did you learn? Did you enjoy it? What surprised you? Did it confirm your interest or make you want to pivot? Use this feedback to decide your next small step. Maybe it's another small test, or maybe you're ready for a slightly bigger commitment. The key is forward momentum.  

Remember, you're not looking for the job, just the next step or the next thing. Finding the MVP of your next career move is about making it smaller, less scary, and taking action now.

Mindset tip: Getting started isn’t about finding some elusive motivation or forcing strict discipline (I’m looking at you ‘wake up at 5 AM’ to be productive crowd). More often, it's about choosing one small, manageable action—like any of the MVP steps above—and just doing it. That single action creates a little momentum, making the next small step feel easier, and that's how you build forward progress, one tiny decision at a time. 

What's one tiny MVP step you could take this week to explore a career curiosity? Let me know your thoughts!

Share this with a friend who might be feeling stuck and might benefit from a new approach. 🙂 

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