Coaching practices for Range vs Deep Dive Career
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Range vs Deep Dive Career, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I feel like I should already know my one thing and lock in, but honestly I’ve barely tried anything
- My whole job search is just refreshing job boards and firing off applications into the void, competing with hundreds of strangers for whatever happens to be posted
- At the beginner stage everything in this area feels flat and a little boring, and I’m ready to write it off
- Every single one-on-one we only ever talk about this week’s deliverables, and we never once zoom out to where they’re headed
- When I talk to people in the field they give me the polished official version, and I walk away no clearer on what the day-to-day actually feels like
Practices that may help
- Sample widely before committing to a niche
Premature specialization forecloses interests you haven’t discovered yet.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Prioritize skill gains that reveal more of the domain
Each layer of skill opens new parts of a domain you couldn’t see before — this is how interest deepens.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Spend real time on growth, not just tasks
Regularly leave the weeds and talk about career, skills, and where they’re headed.
Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical - Listen for what isn’t in the job description
Focus on the texture of day-to-day work, not the official narrative.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Practise your story before you need it
Have a clear, genuine two-minute narrative about who you are and where you’re headed.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Use the bullseye to resolve competing values
When two values pull in different directions, the bullseye shows you which domain is most neglected and most in need of attention.
Values Bullseye, Made Practical - Allow multiple active interests without forcing a hierarchy
Having more than one developing interest is not a sign of lost focus — it’s how passion develops for many people.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Protect dedicated deep work days
Reserve at least one or two days per week for solo, cognitively demanding work with no meetings.
Theme Days, Made Practical - Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network
Related concerns
- Should I Include A Career Objective On My Resume
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
- Why Cant I Find A Job With A Bachelors Degree
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
- Can I Apply For A Job With My Minimal Experience
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
- Career Exploration
Premature specialization forecloses interests you haven’t discovered yet.
Sample widely before committing to a niche
- Career Research Conversations
An informational interview is a low-stakes conversation with someone in a role or field you’re curious about — you ask questions, they share experience, and no job is on the table. Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? popularised this as a career research tool; the evidence is largely observational and practitioner, but it consistently shows that direct conversation with insiders produces better career decisions and unexpected referrals.
- Career Research Questions
Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.