Digest #11 – Tackling The Brain Fuzz

Tools to make clear, intentional decisions + the Career Clarity Worksheet

Mar 15, 2025

👋 Hiya, I’m Harshali and you’re reading my weekly digest on the mental health tech economy and the non-linear career narratives of its people.

This week I’ve been responding to questions from early career folks on how and where to get started in Mental Health Tech.

In the process of writing tailored responses, I found that there is a pattern in the blind spots spots which when identified, get so easily resolved.

The key to a high agency career is responding to the challenge with intentionality, which comes after some mandatory internal due diligence.

I put together a Career Clarity Worksheet for just this purpose. The worksheet is a set of prompts to walk through the right of passage that is the brain fuzz which comes with making a career move.

In Pursuit of Clarity

Please discuss how one makes their way into Mental health tech as a fairly fresh graduate. Additionally how to approach people and any homework one should do before reaching out to people. I know this is where I want to grow, how do I get a job here?

For a fresh graduate, I observe that the framing of the question is often “how do I land this job”. Here’s the thing—the organisation needs you (a potential employee) as much as you need them.

We would all benefit from thinking of ourselves as a single person business. How about we then reposition our perspective to “what do I have to offer that is of value to this organisation, and what do they have to offer, that is of value to me?”

This framing is irrespective of the industry or the sector. No matter where in your career you are, if you want to make a shift, there’s some ground work you have to do.

Understand the market

Any industry has its players which interact with the market and with each other. My older posts (linked below) have more material and examples on the MhTech market:

Identify Your Strengths

You have your core competencies, your core skill-sets, the ones you consider your ride or die. And then you have some other skills that perhaps were picked up along the way. I call all of these skills The ToolKit.

I hold a degree in Industrial Design. During the design training I discovered that I had an aptitude for workshopping. In one of my jobs as a digital product designer, my team and I discovered that I was very good at sales conversations. My ToolKit evolved to what it is today by a series of happy accidents and intentional hours of practise.

Identify Areas Of Growth

From your ToolKit, are there any specific areas you are particularly keen on developing further? . Identify those.

I’m a Clinical Psychologist with some experience in building programs for adolescents. I want to enter the digital product space and learn to build digital products for adolescents.

Visualise Your Journey: Past to Near Future

From the roles you’ve played so far (however long or short they might be), can you develop a story for yourself? Can you form a narrative that makes sense of it all?

I started out as a digital product designer for a HealthTech org. But the startup was so small I ended up doing so much more than just design. So when time came for a switch, I decided to try out for a Product Managers role at another HealthTech org. They liked that I was a PM with a design lens. From then on, I’ve been building a Product Leadership profile. I now act as a Product Leader for my vertical, and I mentor all kinds of designers on developing product skills.

What are your goals for the near future

This bit requires some hard reflection.

There is no one definition of success—and so there is no one goal to chase here. Have a peaceful sit and ask yourself this: if all were to go as I’d like, and I were to be very honest and bold with myself, what do I want my life to look like in the next 5 years?

I personally believe in thinking about 5 years at a time. I won’t be the same person 5 years from now, I daren’t not commit to things on that girl’s behalf. Who knows what fun things she’ll take on!

Looking for Opportunities

Note that I didn’t say ‘Looking for Open Roles’. If that’s the brief, we will all run to recruitment portals. The thankless scouting of open roles will make you want to pull out your hair and plunge in depths of self-doubt and despair that I don’t wish upon my worst enemy. No, we don’t want to go there.

Instead, we want to land roles via warm introductions, via referrals, via inquiries and DMs. We want to land roles via talking to people.

Keep an eye out for orgs with fast growth, new tech, lots of momentum. Look out for leaders who are active on socials, who are building in the spaces you are keen on. I’ve listed some sources to find these in the ‘Further Reading’ section below.

Evaluating the Value Trade-Off

After many leads, a few conversation will develop into something of substance. You’ll be at the juncture where you learn about what the team is seeking to full-fill by hiring for the role.

Ask yourself if you have at least 60-70% skills that they seek which will make a valuable contribution to the team. The rest 30-40% skills are you willing to develop? Can other skills from your ToolKit be useful in any way? What are some completely different, unforeseen skills you might pick up in this environment? What are some key relationships you want to develop?

Free Resources

My free Career Clarity Worksheet with prompts to sort you through all that fuzziness of next career moves
One of my favourite non-linear career influencers Hannah, has free LinkedIn DM templates

Dog Ear for Your Career

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