Inside the Search · For Candidates
Journey: Understand
Understand What You Are Walking Into
A job description tells you what has been written down. It rarely tells you the whole problem.
A role sits inside a situation. There is always a reason it exists now.
Something may be growing, changing, failing, recovering, scaling, reorganising or simply no longer working as it used to.
Before deciding whether you fit the role, try to understand what is actually happening around it.
Notice · Investigate · Question · Test · Move
01 · Notice
Why does this role exist now?
Look beyond the job description.
- Why is the role open now?
- Is it new, a replacement, growth or recovery?
- What has changed in the organisation?
- What is currently not getting done?
- What may be creating pressure around the role?
A vacancy is rarely just an empty chair.
02 · Investigate
What needs to become different?
- What would need to be different after six months — and after twelve?
- What would the hiring manager need to see to believe the appointment was working?
- What problem is this role expected to make easier?
Responsibilities describe activity.
Outcomes reveal why the role matters.
03 · Investigate
What will make it difficult?
Mandate, governance, resources, decision rights, stakeholder tensions, culture, legacy, speed, expectations, conflicting priorities.
- Where might the role have responsibility without authority?
- Who will matter most to success?
- What tensions are likely to appear?
- What part of the role is probably harder than the job description suggests?
The difficulty is often not in the task itself, but in the system around it.
04 · Question
What do you still not know?
Resist filling the gaps with assumptions.
- What is unclear?
- What are you inferring from limited information?
- What have you assumed because it resembles something you have seen before?
- What would you need to ask before forming a view?
A question worth sitting with
What are you actually seeing — and what are you supplying from your own experience?
Uncertainty is not a gap to hide.
It is a reason to ask better questions.
05 · Test
Use AI to test the situation, not define it
What seems to be happening here?
“Based on the job description, company information and public context I provide, what are the three or four most likely reasons this role matters now? Separate evidence from inference.”
What might be difficult?
“Identify the likely stakeholder, governance or execution tensions in this role. Clearly distinguish what is stated from what you are inferring.”
What should I ask?
“Based on the gaps in the information, suggest five questions that would help me understand the role more accurately before judging fit.”
Use AI to form hypotheses. Use the conversation to test them.
06 · Move
Before you judge fit
You may now have a better picture of the role.
Not a complete one.
That is enough.
The next question is where your experience genuinely meets what seems to be needed — and where it does not.
A natural place to pause
You do not need to decide yet. The next step becomes useful when you want to test the connection between you and the role.
Has one of the questions on this page landed? Think it through with Mimir →