Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career

A USA Today Bestseller

“The ultimate guide to changing jobs and advancing your career." —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential, and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

Three innovators offer a road-tested framework for career development that helps anyone make real progress on their path when they switch jobs.

Each year, an estimated 1 billion people make a career change and switch jobs worldwide. A lucky few stumble into the role of their dreams, but hundreds of millions are disappointed. What if, when looking for a job, we could make more informed choices to better select the opportunity we seize? What if the power to move along our career paths lies with each of us, as opposed to hiring managers or the market?

According to the “Jobs to Be Done” theory of product design—customers don’t simply buy products; they recruit them to do specific jobs that solve a problem. Job Moves adopts this model to view jobs as positions we “hire” to help us make progress in our lives and careers. Based on research conducted with over a thousand professionals at all stages of their careers, Ethan Bernstein, Michael B. Horn, and Bob Moesta find that this notion bears out no matter your age, stage, or trajectory.

Key to this new, universal approach to job-hunting is understanding our priorities at the specific moment when we make each move. This team has created a process to help individuals identify the current circumstances driving them to look for new opportunities, the experiences they hope to gain in a new job, what tradeoffs they’ll gladly make in return, and how to learn-before-switching if a new job will deliver. The result encourages job seekers to look beyond a title or company for a more holistic view and ask not what you can do in a job, but what a potential job can do for you.

Full of useful activities and tools for professional development, Job Moves offers the timeless framework of our generation to help anyone create a career that will be happier and more fulfilling.

This practical guide provides a clear, nine-step process to navigate your next career move:

• A Revolutionary Career Advice Framework: Learn the renowned ‘Jobs to Be Done’ method, adapted to help you ‘hire’ your next job based on the real progress you want to make in your life.
• Identify Your True Priorities: Use road-tested tools, based on research from over a thousand professionals, to understand the genuine drivers behind your job search and what trade-offs you’re willing to make.
• Craft Your Career Story: Move beyond a simple resume by building a compelling narrative that explains your journey and aligns your personal goals with what a potential job can do for you.
• Valuable Employee Development Insights: Discover what causes people to truly change jobs, offering essential lessons for managers who want to retain top talent and build stronger, more engaged teams.
• Actionable Steps for Job Seekers: Go beyond theory with useful activities, templates, and a proven nine-step process designed to help you make more informed choices and find a happier, more fulfilling career.

Ethan Bernstein is the Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches the Developing Yourself as a Leader and Managing Human Capital courses. He spent five years at The Boston Consulting Group and two years in executive positions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, including Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Assistant Director of Mortgage Markets. Bernstein earned his doctorate in management at Harvard, where he also received a JD/MBA.

Michael B. Horn strives to create a world in which all individuals can build their passions, fulfill their potential, and live a life of purpose. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning Disrupting Class, Choosing College, Blended, and From Reopen to Reinvent. He is the cofounder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank, and teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also cohosts the top higher education podcast, Future U., writes the popular Substack newsletter The Future of Education, and is a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

Bob Moesta is a founder, maker, innovator, speaker, and professor. He is the president and founder of The Re-Wired Group, as well as an adjunct lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and a research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute. He is the author of Choosing College (with Michael Horn), Demand-Side Sales 101, and Learning to Build.