Personal & Life
Industry and Role Research Map: Narrow It Down to Two
Intermediate | 1 whiteboard page · Task board: 5 columns (5 parent tasks, 10 subtasks)
Intermediate: Method names appear, but the whiteboard explains the key points. Use the examples as a guide and fill it in, thinking it through for your own situation.
An industry and role research map for cutting target roles down to two, opened before building any employer list, when you cannot say what work to apply for. The whiteboard holds the firsthand-source rule, a mindmap spreading six directions of work, a grid comparing roles on the same four points, an interest-versus-evidence matrix, and frames for the research routine and where image and fact part. Five task columns run from Curious about to Ruled out - only cards with all four grid points filled reach Firsthand info done, and everything outside your final two leaves with a written reason.
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Industry & Role Research Map
How to use: (1) Spread six directions of work on the mindmap to open up options → (2) Narrow to two with the comparison grid and the quadrants, tracking firsthand research across the five task columns
1. What this board is for, and the rule for narrowing
- The goal Say, over three months, cut down to two roles you will actually apply for. Two rather than one, so a stalled process never leaves you stuck.
- The firsthand rule Every role you keep must clear one direct source: a person doing the job, an employer session, or hands-on experience. Articles and videos alone are not enough.
- When you stall Pick one role you know nothing about and research it. Preferences usually fail to form because there are too few options, not because you lack taste.
- The usual trap Starting from famous employer names hides the work itself. Re-sort the list by what the job actually does all day, then compare.
2. Six directions of work (branch = field, leaf = a role and where to hear about it)
- Kinds of work
- Build things Design and dev / ask a practitioner
- Sell to people Field sales / ride along for a day
- Keep it running HR and finance / ask about a day
- Read the numbers Analytics / check the daily tools
- Teach and support Education, care / observe a shift
- Make and publish PR and production / hear the backstory
3. Compare roles on the same four points (one row per role, filled rows move on)
| Daily work | Skills demanded | Pay range | How people enter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical | Take requirements, design, then build | Keeps digging and keeps shipping | Copy the bounds from the posting | Internships and entry-level intake |
| Sales, service | Visit clients, hear the problem, propose | Builds trust with people you just met | Check the base-to-commission split | Open year-round, entry level welcome |
| Planning, ops | Gather numbers, shape plans and budgets | Moves people with facts, not volume | Entry pay varies - check the raise curve | Often entered after time in another team |
| Support, teaching | Listen to the situation, keep supporting | Patience to keep listening, and to switch off after | Always check for qualification pay | Needs a licence or entry exam first |
4. Interest x evidence you can speak to - sort candidates into four
Vertical axis: Interest (low to high) / Horizontal axis: Evidence you can speak to (little to plenty)
- Fill with firsthand It pulls at you but you have nothing to say about it. Hear out one practitioner and build one small experience first.
- The two to keep Interest and evidence are both there. Choose the two you will apply for here, and draft your motivation material early.
- Ruled out for now Thin on both counts. Write a single line on why, move it to the ruled-out column, and stop carrying the doubt forward.
- Held as a backup Evidence is there but nothing moves. Keep it as the option you return to only if you run short of places to apply.
5. The research routine (thirty minutes per role, in this order)
- Open three postings, pull the shared wording
- Write out one day in the role, hour by hour
- Hear one practitioner with three set questions
6. Where image and fact diverge
- Write your impression down before researching
- Post only the points that turned out different
- Two gaps means you re-rank the candidates
7. What people actually told you
- Start each note with who you asked and when
- Keep only what no posting would have told you
- Add the name of the next person to ask
Task board contents
Curious about 15 items
Cast a wide net
Done first. Judge nothing yet - grow the number of options, including kinds of work you know almost nothing about.
List six directions
Fill the six mindmap branches in your own words, and include fields you have only ever heard of in passing.
Name twelve roles
Pull two representative roles out of each branch and put all twelve into the first column as cards.
Compare on 4 points
Start once the options are on the board. One row is one role, and only rows with all four points filled move forward.
Fill the grid rows
Open three postings per role and write down the daily work and the skills demanded in shared, plain wording.
Check pay ranges
Copy the lower and upper bounds printed in the posting itself, and never fill the cell with a guess.
Get firsthand info
The gate every candidate must pass. Reach one direct source yourself - a person doing the job, an employer session, or hands-on experience.
Talk to someone
Get thirty minutes with one person per candidate role. Book it early, counting back from your application deadline.
Ask three questions
Narrow to three questions nothing in the posting answers, and post what you hear in the insights frame.
Narrow down to two
Done once the firsthand information is in. Decide from where each role sits in the quadrants, not from a gut feeling.
Place them on grid
Position every role by how much it interests you and how much evidence you can speak to, with a one-line reason.
Pick the final two
Settle on two roles to apply for and move them to the candidate column. Everything else goes out with a reason.
Hand off to apply
The closing step. Turn the outcome into material you can use as-is in applications and interviews.
Log why you cut it
Write one line per ruled-out role. It becomes your answer when an interviewer asks what else you considered.
Collect proof points
For each of the two roles you kept, pull three facts from your firsthand research onto a single page.
