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Brainstorming Places to Work

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You Can Use CoPilots & Agents To Identify & Research Potential Employers

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Job Types & Industries – Brainstorming Guide

This guide is a brainstorming toolkit for experienced professionals in senior specialist or leadership roles. Its purpose is to help you identify:

  • Types of industries

  • Types of companies

  • Specific employers

…where you’ll be most valued and best able to leverage your skills.

You essentially have two broad options:

  • Employers in your current / familiar industry

  • Employers in adjacent or alternative industries

Your goal is to build a list of employers who:

  1. Are places you’d genuinely like to explore opportunities with, and

  2. For whom you would be a strong, credible, high‑value candidate.

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1. Start with your own industry

 

With employers similar to your current one, you’re normally in a position of strength. Your industry experience, relationships and knowledge are most obviously transferable and valued.

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Use these prompts to build an initial list:

  • List companies in the same line of business as your existing employer.

  • Note where your current and former colleagues worked before and where they move on to.

  • Ask your network (colleagues, ex‑colleagues, friends, customers, suppliers, advisers):

    • “If you were me, who would you be talking to?”

  • Use Google:

    • Search your employer and competitors, then review “People also searched for” / similar companies.

    • Use “top 10” / “largest employers in [region]”–style searches.

  • Use LinkedIn company pages:

    • Look up target companies and note their “Industry” category.

    • Scroll to “Similar pages” to find other relevant employers.

    • Look at people’s career histories: where do people like you come from and go to?

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Capture everything in a “Target Employers” or “Brainstorming” list. You can prioritise later.

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​2. Think in circles – adjacent and alternative industries

 

Visualise three concentric circles:

  • Innermost circle – your current industry (direct competitors and very similar businesses).

  • Middle circle – adjacent industries: similar customers, products, channels, technologies or regulations.

  • Outer circle – more different industries that still share some common ground or value your capabilities.

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Example: Coca‑Cola

  • First thought: a non‑alcoholic drink.

  • Then: food and beverages.

  • Then: consumer goods/FMCG.

  • Also: sold via retailers, restaurants, hotels, leisure venues.

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From one brand, you can brainstorm:

  • Soft drinks companies

  • Other food & beverage brands

  • FMCG groups

  • Retailers & wholesalers

  • Hospitality & leisure businesses

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Apply this to your world:

  • What is your employer’s core product or service?

  • Who are its direct competitors (innermost circle)?

  • Which industries have similar customers, channels or economics (middle circle)?

  • Which different sectors might still value your experience (outer circle)?

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Add these industries and employers into your list, tagged as “inner / middle / outer” circle.

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3. Use five methods to expand your employer list

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1) Your network

  • Ask trusted people: “Which companies are strongest in this space?”

  • Ask where good people in your function tend to move next.

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2) Google and “similar companies”

  • Search company names and industry phrases.

  • Pay attention to “People also searched for” and “related companies”.

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3) Smart search phrases & Boolean

Experiment with search phrases like:

  • “consumer goods companies UK”

  • “enterprise SaaS vendors Europe”

  • “automotive parts manufacturers Midlands”

  • “telecoms companies with US HQ”

  • “top 10 [industry] companies [country]”

Use AND, OR, quotes and minus signs to refine results.

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4) LinkedIn company & people data

  • Search a known employer.

  • Note its industry tag and similar pages.

  • Check relevant industry or interest groups.

  • Review employee profiles: where did they come from, where did they go?

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5) Local exploration

  • Use local directories and online maps to identify employers near you.

  • Drive or walk around business parks, industrial estates and town centres; note company names and types.

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​4. Map your competencies to job types

 

To decide which industries and employers are best for you, start with your competencies. They align better with some jobs than others.

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Examples of core competencies:

  • Achievement orientation

  • Analytical ability

  • Communication (oral, written, presentation)

  • Creativity / innovation

  • Decision‑making

  • Integrity / honesty

  • Flexibility / adaptability

  • Initiative

  • Interpersonal skills

  • Leadership

  • Management

  • Persuasion / influencing

  • Planning & organising

  • Problem‑solving

  • Teamwork / team building

  • Time management

 

Typical associations:

  • Achievement‑oriented → sales, leadership, highly competitive environments.

  • Analytical → finance, logistics, planning, procurement, IT, consulting, R&D.

  • Communication → marketing, PR, customer service, training, teaching, media.

  • Creativity / innovation → copywriting, design, storytelling, music, creative roles, R&D.

  • Decision‑making → leadership, procurement, change management, consultancy.

  • Integrity / honesty → accounting, governance, risk, security, nursing/care.

  • Flexibility / adaptability → care, marketing, consultancy, HR, leadership.

  • Initiative → entrepreneurial roles, business development, sales, innovation.

  • Interpersonal → sales, customer service, training, project management, HR.

  • Leadership & management → senior leadership, functional head roles, project leadership.

  • Planning & organising → project management, leadership/management, consultancy, sales operations, logistics, ops.

  • Problem‑solving → engineering, technical support, IT, complex customer support.

  • Time management → management, scheduling, event planning, services and logistics.

 

Ask yourself:

  • Which 5–7 competencies are your strongest?

  • Which job types above really describe how you work, at your best?

  • At senior or leadership level, where could you credibly play?

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​​5. Where will your function be most valued?

 

Your function is central and high‑impact in some industries and more supportive in others. This affects:

  • How valued you feel

  • Your influence and visibility

  • Your career progression options

 

Examples:

  • In many businesses, finance and sales are primary functions – close to revenue and cash.

  • The third primary area is core operations: building and delivering the product or service being sold.

    • Car manufacturer → manufacturing/engineering.

    • Retailer → stores and logistics.

    • Telecoms → network and service delivery.

 

Support functions (HR, IT, admin, etc.) can be highly valued or marginal, depending on the company. If your function feels peripheral where you are, consider:

  • Moving to an industry where your function is central (e.g. HR in an HR consultancy; IT in a tech firm).

  • Moving to a company whose strategy depends heavily on your function.

 

Ask:

  • In which types of business is my function mission‑critical rather than “support”?

  • Where would my skills and motivations be better aligned and more highly valued?

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​​6. Specialist vs generalist, size and culture

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Specialist vs generalist

Most functions can be broad or very specialised.

Example – Marketing:

  • Broad: research, product management, lifecycle management, PR, campaigns, content, analytics.

  • Specialist: copywriting, brand strategy, performance marketing, product marketing, etc.

You may be better suited to:

  • Smaller firms: broader, multi‑hat roles, more visible impact.

  • Larger firms: deeper specialism, clear functional career tracks.

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Company size & location

  • Larger employers → more defined structures, multiple pathways, global scope.

  • Smaller employers → broader responsibilities, closeness to decision‑makers.

  • HQ roles → strategy, central decision‑making, cross‑border impact.

  • Regional/branch roles → execution, customer proximity, local ownership.

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Culture and fit

Consider:

  • Regulation level and compliance culture.

  • Pace of change and appetite for innovation.

  • How your qualifications and credentials are perceived.

  • What matters most to you now (impact, earnings, balance, prestige, learning, purpose, location).

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​​7. How your experience can transfer across industries

 

Some industries are closer “cousins” than others. Use this to brainstorm where else you could apply your experience.

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Examples (not exhaustive):

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  • Retail banking & retail financial services

    • Often align with retail, consumer products, telecoms, utilities, media (B2C, brand, scale, service).

  • Business & professional services

    • Advisory, consulting, outsourcing, legal, accountancy, recruitment, security, training.

    • Often align with the industries they serve – you can move between provider and client sides.

  • Logistics, manufacturing, industrial, energy & natural resources

    • Overlap with travel & leisure, telecoms, utilities, tech, consumer products and distribution through operations, assets and supply chains.

  • Travel & leisure

    • Align with retail, consumer products, hospitality, telecoms, utilities and media via customer experience, capacity, brand.

  • Telecoms, utilities, media & technology

    • Similarities in subscriptions, large customer bases, service delivery and infrastructure.

  • Life sciences / pharma / healthcare

    • Alignment with consumer health, public healthcare, devices, health insurers, care provision.

  • Consumer products, retail & distribution

    • Linkages with manufacturing, logistics, travel & leisure, technology‑enabled retail and ecommerce.

  • Public sector, not‑for‑profit & quasi‑government

    • Align with private healthcare, defence and security, transport, infrastructure, and regulated services.

 

Within each, consider sub‑sectors, B2B vs B2C, services vs manufacturing, short vs long sales cycles, etc. This helps you see where your current expertise could “plug in”.

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​​8. A simple way to pull it together

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Use the guide as a series of prompts, not a rigid checklist. One practical approach:

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  1. Write your top 5–7 competencies and your key senior roles.

  2. List job types that best match your strengths and preferences.

  3. Identify industries where those job types are central and highly valued.

  4. For each industry, brainstorm:

    • Inner circle: direct equivalents / competitors to your current employer.

    • Middle circle: adjacent industries.

    • Outer circle: more different industries that could still value your background.

  5. Build and regularly update your Target Employers list using:

    • Network conversations

    • Search engines and “similar companies”

    • Boolean search strings

    • LinkedIn companies, similar pages and career histories

    • Local exploration

 

Over time, you’ll have a focused, high‑quality list of industries, company types and specific employers where your senior specialist or leadership experience can be put to best use.

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