Design the Job: Start With the Tuesday, Not the Title

When people start thinking about their next move, they almost always start with a title. Director. VP. Something bigger than now. And the title is the least useful place to start, because it tells you nothing about what your Tuesday will actually look like.

Here is what I see in coaching. Someone lands the title they wanted, and 6 months later they are unhappy, because the job underneath it is full of the work that drains them. The title was right. The day was wrong. And nobody asked about the day, including them. I have watched people take a step back in title to get a better Tuesday and call it the best move they ever made.

So the tool. Design the Job starts with one question: what does 10 AM on a Tuesday look like in a role that energizes you? Not the big moments. An ordinary Tuesday. Who are you with? What problem are you working on? How much of the day is yours to direct, and how much is meetings? Write it in plain sentences, as if you were describing a day you already had.

Then the second step, which is where it turns useful. Turn that day into a filter: 3 to 5 things a role has to give you, written so you can hold any listing, internal opening, or offer up against them. Not salary, not title. The shape of the work. Be specific. “Interesting work” is not a filter. “2 days a week building something new with a small team” is. If a role cannot give you most of that Tuesday, it does not matter what it is called.

And here is the part people miss. The filter works on your current job too. Hold your real Tuesday next to the one you designed. Some of the gap might close with one conversation: a project you ask for, a meeting you stop attending, a responsibility you hand to someone who wants it. Stay, speak, or go. Designing the job tells you which one you are actually facing.

The move this week: write your Tuesday at 10 AM, one paragraph. Pull 3 must-haves out of it. Keep them where you will see them the next time a recruiter calls or a reorg starts.

Stop chasing the title. Design the day, and let the title follow the work you want to do.

https://youtu.be/7_5JfS2-mGw

The Right Move. Stay, speak, or go. www.therightaltitudebook.com