Activity: Rethink an industry

Many industries right now are being reinvented in ways that enable meaningful work. Before you begin this activity, choose one industry you are interested in.

Don’t know which industry to choose? Review and consider other options you missed while Map Your Current Career Path.

Once you have chosen your industry, answer the following questions to help you discover the often invisible possibilities that are rebuilding, reinventing and redesigning our world.

  1. Why does industry X exist? 

What fundamental need does this industry meet? Does it ensure that people travel great distances quickly, or does it help us understand the world around us? How different do these needs look if you zoomed out 10, 20 or even 50 years from now? Express your answer to these questions in the form of a human need that will be around for many years to come.

Three people strategizing a plan illustrated on a large paper with a path leading to a target. One person holds a giant pencil.

2.  What’s broken?

Knowing your industry's current limitations, flaws and challenges can help you identify the gaps you could fill and the opportunities for innovation. How could you help this industry function better more sustainably, and efficiently? Where are there opportunities for reinvention? Seek to answer these questions from an industry perspective.

Illustration of a person holding binoculars, standing inside the curve of a large question mark, with small clouds in the background.

3. What are the mavericks doing? 

Once you start to look, you’ll find people who are already working on these core questions and rethinking industries from the ground up. Look at industry conferences to see who is speaking. Everyone within a particular industry knows who the relevant upstarts are. Get to know what these companies are doing, what questions they are asking and how they have found funding that allowed them to dedicate themselves to realizing their answer to that core question.

A person in a suit and red cape stands on a mountain peak, holding a telescope and a briefcase, gazing into the distance.

4. Who are the winners? 

Understanding who profits as a result of your industry’s redesign will help you immediately recognize who will fund your work, who will hire you, or will eventually acquire the company you work for. You can guarantee that the companies already entrenched in answering this question are looking for ways to recreate and rebuild in response to our changing environment; they want to hire you.

Illustration of four people running holding different objects: a lightbulb, a target, a trophy, and a large puzzle piece.

Other ways to keep exploring:

Attend events hosted by CxED.  Connect with alumni and people in the industry you are interested in - see tips on What is out there?