Bob Moesta: How to find work you love

Takeaways

Stop Making Progress, Start Job Hunting The moment career progress stops, job searching begins. Most people don't know how to find a better job because they don't know themselves. Moesta interviewed and coached over 1,000 people, discovering that without deep self-awareness, most land in roles worse than before.

Jobcation: A Reset for Your Career After high-intensity roles - especially in startups - a “jobcation” can help. This is a low-effort job where you can rest, reset, and reconnect with what energises you. Once you're comfortable doing nothing, you rediscover who you are.

Features vs Experiences Salary, title, and benefits are features. What matters is experience - how a job makes you feel. Money might mean respect, stability, or survival. Know why you want more money, and stop chasing titles that don't energise you.

The Four Career Quests Get Out – You're drained and stuck. You need to breathe and recover. Take the Next Step – You've outgrown your current job. Time to grow new skills. Regain Control – You like the work, but chaos or volume has taken over. Realign – You've drifted from what you love. Time to get back to your sweet spot.

Pushes and Pulls: Know Your Triggers People leave jobs due to a cluster of “pushes” (boredom, disrespect, stagnation) and “pulls” (desire for growth, better balance, aligned teams). Change doesn't come from one bad day - it builds over time.

Energy Drivers and Drains What gives you energy? What depletes it? Go back to key moments in your career and figure out the context. Patterns emerge. Most people spend 95% of their time on draining tasks. Flip the ratio and you stop feeling like you're working.

Prototyping Your Next Job Treat your next move like a product launch. Identify your skills, energy sources, and goals. Then “prototype” by interviewing people in roles you're curious about. Informational interviews aren't optional - they're strategic.

Resumes Are Fiction. Be Honest Instead Job descriptions are often just wishlists. Most roles are filled by tweaking the job to fit the person. Walk into interviews knowing your energisers, what you suck at, and what progress means to you. That honesty is magnetic.

Career Storytelling: The Pixar Framework Craft a compelling story using a simple structure: Once upon a time… Every day… Until one day… Because of that… Until finally… Helps you articulate your journey and connect the dots between strengths, motivations, and what's next.

Job Moves Is a System, Not Just a Book The book outlines nine steps to career progress. You don't need all nine, but even five can radically shift your direction. Moesta's building a product to automate this process - tools for reflection, energy mapping, and prototyping.

Founders: Know Your Superpowers (and Weaknesses) Being a founder isn't for everyone. Use the same framework to test if the founder path suits your energy profile. Self-awareness helps build teams that complement your blind spots.

Hiring Managers: Flip the Script Don't find people to fit jobs. Shape jobs to fit great people. Write job descriptions as sets of experiences, not feature lists. Ask candidates what energises them and where they struggle. Create alignment early.

Best Quotes

💬 The moment you stop making progress in your career is the moment you start looking for another job.

💬 When I start to realize the things that drain my energy and I suck at, I should actually find my teammates that actually love to do the stuff I suck at.

💬 Resumes are all the stuff you did. It's not the stuff you want to do... and then you end up matching it to a job description, which is like a unicorn.

Podcast Link: How to find work you love | Bob Moesta