Interview Shock: When a 20-Something Redefined My Leadership Blueprint This Week

A Candid Encounter That Turned My Traditional Leadership Playbook on Its Head

In an interview last week, I asked a young candidate what “job” she ultimately aspired to. I expected the usual suspects: manager, director, maybe CEO. Instead, she smiled and replied, “The job I want hasn’t been imagined yet.” It was a bold, off-script answer that hung in the air. For a moment, I didn’t know how to react. Then it hit me: she might be right.

In fact, by some estimates 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been invented​

Her audacious response exposed a provocative truth about how we think of careers — and why we desperately need to change it.

Framing Careers in the Rearview Mirror

Most of us plot our careers by looking backward or at best sideways. We latch onto existing job titles and predefined paths. We dream of becoming something we’ve already seen — a doctor, a marketing manager, a software engineer — because those roles feel tangible and safe. Our education systems and professional cultures reinforce and indoctrinate us this way, encouraging us to aim for known quantities. It’s no surprise; human beings find comfort in the familiar. We sketch our ambitions based on the jobs our parents had, the jobs we see around us, or the jobs currently posted on LinkedIn.

The problem? The world of work is evolving faster than ever. When you plan your life around static job descriptions, you risk training for a world that no longer exists by the time you arrive.

Consider this: many of today’s in-demand jobs didn’t even exist 10 years ago​

Social media managers, app developers, drone operators, UX designers, podcast producers — these roles were rare or unheard of just a ten years ago. Yet they’re now everywhere. The pace of change is accelerating. If you’re aiming for a role that’s hot today, you might be chasing yesterday’s news.

We still have a mental model of careers as a ladder — climb rungs that are already there. But in a world of rapid innovation, careers are looking more like free-form rock climbing on a wall that’s still under construction. You can’t just follow someone else’s route; new places to grab the wall are appearing while old ones crumble away.

The Future of Work: Unwritten and Unimaginable

Technology and innovation are not only disrupting old jobs; they’re creating new ones at a dizzying rate. Every wave of innovation — whether it’s AI, renewable energy, biotech, or industries yet unnamed — bring entirely new fields and roles. The candidate who told me her dream job isn’t invented yet intuitively understood something that many leaders are missing:

The future of work belongs to those ready to invent and adapt.

Her mindset isn’t science fiction; it’s grounded in reality. The World Economic Forum estimates that 65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in job types that don’t yet exist

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Think about that — two out of three kids will ultimately have careers in roles we have no name for right now. We’re hurtling toward a future where the coolest job on the planet might be something like “Quantum Network Navigator” or “AI-Assisted Healthcare Designer” — titles that sound like gibberish today but could be as commonplace as “data analyst” a decade from now.

Even for us already in the workforce, the ground is shifting under our feet. Automation and AI are retooling jobs at every level. Entirely new industries are being invented, while older roles fade away. There’s a popular saying that people entering the workforce now will have multiple careers in their lifetime, many in fields that didn’t exist when they started. Lifelong employment in one track is increasingly the exception, not the norm.

Crucially, the shelf-life of skills is shrinking. Most skills lose about 40% of their relevance every 3–4 years​

In other words, nearly half of what you know today could become obsolete by the time you master the next season of your career. If that doesn’t underscore the need for adaptability, nothing will.

So what does all this mean? It means that framing your career ambitions only in terms of present-day roles is a losing game. Instead, the real question to ask yourself is: What problems do I want to solve? What impact do I want to have? Focus on that, and you’ll invent the job title as you go.

Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage

In an era where change is the only constant, adaptability isn’t just a nice-to-have skill — it’s your lifeline. Whether you’re a new grad or a seasoned executive, the ability to learn, unlearn, and re-learn will determine who thrives and who doesn’t. As one insightful piece bluntly put it as I was researching this thought:

Your adaptability level could be the difference between excellence and extinction in the modern workplace​

This hurt and hurt me to think about. Excellence or extinction — no middle ground in that phrasing. But it rings true.

We’ve glamorized expertise and experience for generations: become a master in your field, drill down, specialize. That made sense when industries were stable. Now, expertise has an expiration date. Don’t get me wrong — deep skills still matter, but the ability to pivot when those skills become outdated matters even more. In fact, adaptability itself has become a form of expertise.

Adaptability is master skill that unlocks all other skills over time.

Forward-thinking leaders have started to realize this. There’s a reason you hear phrases like “growth mindset” and “learn-it-all culture” in boardrooms these days. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella famously shifted his company’s culture from a bunch of “know-it-alls” to “learn-it-alls.” The message was clear: in a company as tech-driven as Microsoft, curiosity and learning agility trump knowing it all. The same is true for each of us individually.

Being a know-it-all about your current job won’t protect you when that job morphs into something else. Being a learn-it-all will.

And let’s talk about leadership for a moment: It’s not just workers who need to adapt; leaders must radically rethink their approach to talent. If you’re a manager or executive, ask yourself: Are you hiring only for today’s needs, or also for tomorrow’s unknowns? Are you developing your team for the jobs they have, or for the missions your organization has yet to undertake?

The harsh truth is that many organizations are stuck in a 20th-century mindset, slotting people into static roles and rigid org charts. That’s a recipe for extinction. Companies that encourage adaptability, that give people room to stretch beyond their job descriptions, will have a massive competitive edge. Why? Because when the market shifts, those companies will already have a workforce that can shift with it. The others will be left flat-footed, scrambling to hire “unicorn” candidates who magically have experience in a brand-new field.

Future-Proofing Yourself: Prepare for a Job That Doesn’t Exist (Yet)

How can you — as an ambitious individual — prepare for a career that isn’t even defined? Here are some bold strategies to future-proof your career and mindset:

1. Stop Chasing Titles, Start Chasing Growth: Instead of fixating on becoming “Vice President of X” by age 35 (a title that might be irrelevant by then), focus on the skills and experiences you want to accumulate. Ask: What do I want to learn in the next few years? Those who define their progress by learning and impact, not just promotions, will be ready when new opportunities arise.

2. Embrace the “Explorer” Mindset: Think of your career like an explorer entering unmapped territory. Be curious and proactive in learning new things even when they’re outside your current role. Take that online course in AI, experiment with that new design tool, tinker with a side project. The goal is to broaden your horizons. You never know which new skill or insight will become your secret weapon in the future job market.

3. Build Transferable Skills: Certain skills never go out of style, even as specific jobs come and go. Creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, leadership, communication — these are foundational. If you strengthen these, you can apply them to any role, invented or not. For example, someone who excels at leading teams and solving problems can step into a wide array of new positions and make them their own.

4. Watch the Trends and look for SIGNALS (but Don’t Be a Trend Chaser): Stay informed about emerging technologies and societal shifts. Read about the future of work, follow industry thought leaders, pay attention to what startups and researchers are doing. If you see, for instance, renewable energy taking off or gene editing becoming big, you’ll spot clues to tomorrow’s job market. But don’t blindly chase fads; dabble and see if an area genuinely sparks your interest. You want to be ahead of the curve, not on a wild goose chase.

5. Network Beyond Your Comfort Zone (this is why I have started teaching more and starting a podcast): If you only hang out with professionals in your current field, you’ll only hear about the opportunities of that field. Make a point to connect with people in other industries, ages, and backgrounds. Those diverse connections might expose you to ideas and career paths you never imagined. The more perspectives you absorb, the better you can envision possibilities beyond the status quo.

6. Be Ready to Reinvent: Perhaps most importantly, be mentally prepared to reinvent yourself multiple times. Don’t pigeonhole your own identity (“I am an accountant” or “I am a graphic designer”). You are more than a job title. If that role becomes obsolete or morphs into something new, you can pivot. In fact, expect to. You might go from accountant to data analyst to who-knows-what as the landscape evolves. Reinvention isn’t a sign of failure; it’s a hallmark of a long, vibrant career in the future.

Call to Action for Leaders: Hire for Mindset, Not Just Skillset

Organizations, listen up. The old playbook of hiring for a narrow job description and checking off credential boxes is holding you back. In a world where roles are constantly evolving, what you should crave is adaptable talent. It’s time to shift from recruiting employees for today to recruiting the kind of people who will figure out tomorrow. Here’s how leaders and companies can act on this mindset shift:

• Hire for Potential and Curiosity: When filling a role, look beyond who has done that exact job before. Instead, assess how candidates learn new things, how they navigate unfamiliar problems, how they adapt. Ask interview questions like, “Tell me about a time you had to take on something outside your job description” or “What’s a new skill you taught yourself recently?” The answers will reveal a lot more about future performance than a perfect resume fit. Forward-thinking companies like Google have long hired for general cognitive ability and learning agility, not just a checklist of experience.

• Promote a Culture of Continuous Learning: Make it okay for people to not know things — and brilliant for them to learn. Give your team time and resources to take courses, experiment with new technologies, and attend workshops. Celebrate the learners, the ones who stretch themselves. Maybe even incorporate learning goals into performance reviews. When adaptability is part of your culture’s DNA, you won’t have to panic-train your workforce whenever a new trend hits; they’ll already be training themselves.

• Redefine Roles as Flexible: Consider ditching ultra-rigid job descriptions. Instead, define roles in terms of missions or outcomes, and give people latitude in how they achieve them. Encourage employees to shape their roles around their talents and the organization’s evolving needs. Some companies are introducing internal “gig marketplaces” where employees can spend a portion of their time on stretch projects outside their formal role. This not only keeps your best people engaged, it also prepares them (and your company) for new roles that might emerge.

• Encourage “Intrapreneurs”: Reward initiative and innovation inside your organization. If an employee identifies a problem or opportunity that falls outside anyone’s job description, support them in pursuing it. Maybe that side project becomes your next new line of business — and creates a new leadership role for that employee. Companies that nurture these intrapreneurs will be the ones creating the jobs of the future, not reacting to them.

• Lead by Example – Be Adaptable at the Top: Leaders need to walk the talk. Show your team that you are learning new tricks, too. Humility goes a long way here: admit when you don’t know something, and demonstrate your commitment to figure it out. If the C-suite models adaptability, it sends a powerful message that evolving is part of everyone’s job. Encourage cross-functional stints for managers, rotate leadership assignments, and break the silo mentality. The goal is to develop organizational muscle memory for change.

The call to action is clear: shift your mindset from “roles to fill” to “minds to cultivate.” If you’re a leader, start valuing adaptability as highly as you value expertise. In fact, maybe make it your top criterion. As the saying goes, “Hire character, train skill.” In this context, character includes having an open mind and a hunger to grow. You can always teach a new hire the specifics of a job, but you cannot teach someone to be curious and flexible if they aren’t. So hire the curious ones. Hire the dreamers who say their dream job doesn’t exist yet, because they just might help your company invent it.

Quiz: Futurist or Fossil? Test Your Future-Focused Mindset

So many people liked my quiz last time I tried to create another for you to determine and then tell me, are you a Futurist or a Fossil?

Take the quiz below to find out if you’re a forward-thinking futurist or a career fossil stuck in old paradigms. (No judgments — and no matter your result, you can always shift your mindset starting now!)

1. When you think about your “dream job,” what comes to mind?

A. A well-known position at a reputable company (something my parents would recognize).
B. A hybrid of roles – a twist on an existing job, with some new elements.
C. Something completely new or self-defined; I have ideas for a role that doesn’t really exist yet.

2. A new technology is disrupting your industry. How do you react?

A. I stick to what I know best and hope my experience carries me through. Change is worrying.
B. I’ll sign up for a workshop or read a few articles to get the gist, but I’ll wait to see how it truly affects my job.
C. I dive in headfirst – experiment with the tech, take courses, maybe even suggest a pilot project at work. Disruption = opportunity!

3. Your company offers you a chance to create a role that has never existed before. You will:

A. Likely pass; I’d rather take a position with a clear, established career path and title.
B. Be intrigued and discuss the scope, but I have some hesitations about a role with no precedent.
C. Jump at it! How often do you get to write your own job description? I’d start crafting a vision for what that role could achieve.

4. How do you approach learning new skills?

A. I’ll learn new skills if my job explicitly requires it, otherwise I stick to my domain.
B. I pick up new skills occasionally, especially if I notice colleagues or friends dabbling in something — I don’t want to fall behind.
C. I’m constantly learning outside of my comfort zone — coding, design, a new language, you name it. I schedule regular time to feed my curiosity.

5. When setting career goals, you primarily consider:

A. The next title or promotion in the same field I’m already in. Climbing the ladder in a familiar area feels logical.
B. The next experience I want — maybe a slightly different role or industry, but nothing too wildly off-course.
C. The next big problem I want to help solve, regardless of what job title that might translate to. My goals are about impact and learning, not job labels.

6. Imagine it’s ten years from now. What’s the scenario most appealing to you?

A. I’m an expert in my current field, doing a senior version of what I do today. Consistency is key.
B. I’ve advanced in my career, with a couple of interesting pivots under my belt, though still in related domains.
C. I’m in a role or running a venture that hardly anyone could have predicted — including me! — combining passions and innovations that emerged over the decade.

Quiz Results Key:

• Mostly A’s – The Nostalgic Navigator: You’re reliable and value the tried-and-true, but you might be peering into the future with a rearview mirror. You lean on familiar career paths and proven formulas. The good news: your experience is valuable. The caution: don’t become a career fossil encased in amber. Try breaking one routine or exploring one new skill to start tilting toward the future.

• Mostly B’s – The Adaptive Adapter: You have one foot in today and one in tomorrow. You’re not averse to change, and you’ve made some effort to grow, but you might not be actively pushing your boundaries yet. Think of yourself as in training to be a futurist. With a slight mindset tweak — a bit more risk-taking and forward envisioning — you could step fully into the future. Keep stretching that comfort zone.

• Mostly C’s – The Futurist Trailblazer: Congrats, you live and breathe the future! You’re essentially a career time-traveler, surfing trends and reinventing yourself as you go. You thrive on novelty and probably inspire those around you to think bigger. Just remember, being a futurist doesn’t mean abandoning all practicality; you still need to bring others along on your journey. Keep leading the way — the rest of us need your vision.

No matter what your score is, the takeaway is this: we can all become a bit more future-focused in our careers. The first step is recognizing the mindset we currently have. The next step is deliberately practicing adaptability and curiosity.

The candidate who said “the job I want hasn’t been imagined yet” didn’t just give a clever interview answer and challenged me, he issued a challenge to all of us.

Are we brave enough to envision possibilities beyond the obvious?

The future belongs to those who are. So, whether you’re a CEO or just starting out, dare to imagine the jobs and opportunities that don’t exist... yet. Embrace the mindset that your dream job is something you might just have to invent. And then, go about acquiring the skills, experiences, and adaptable attitude that will get you there.

The future of work is unwritten and we live in a world where we must constantly be thinking about how to move from NOW to how to be ready and prepared for NEXT.