# Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment #Careers #Product #Well-Being **Update Nov 10, 2021:** Follow [this](https://twitter.com/RohitMalekar/status/1453242936595042315?s=20) thread on Twitter for the latest status on this effort If you are looking to build an authentic interview presence in search of a tribe you can belong to, I have an experiment for you. I am calling it a cohort-created course. There isn't any cost to participate. There may be a small upside if it works as planned. - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#Re-thinking the Model for Learning Experiences|Re-thinking the Model for Learning Experiences]] - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#Re-thinking Ownership of Learning Experiences|Re-thinking Ownership of Learning Experiences]] - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#What is the Course About|What is the Course About?]] - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#How will a Cohort Create a Course|How will a Cohort Create a Course?]] - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#How do I opt-in|How do I opt-in?]] - [[Cohort Created Course - A Creator Community Experiment#FAQs|FAQs]] ### Re-thinking the Model for Learning Experiences The most memorable learning experiences in life are [[Product - Learning in Cohorts|two-way streets]]. Those moments happen when the facilitator walks away from the experience as enriched as the audience. This is enabled by the spontaneity of the discourse in the form of questioning assumptions, exchanging ideas, sharing insights, and much more. As a direct result, the course experience improves in material ways from key takeaways in each iteration. In many ways, the first few participants contribute significantly towards the evolution of the course. ### Re-thinking Ownership of Learning Experiences What do these early participants get in return for helping build the course experience? Often, not much beyond a few early-bird discounts. > Why can't those who make significant contributions to the learning experience stand to make some [[The Next Frontier for Indian Startups - Sequoias and Meadows#^community-first|gains in return]] ? By participating in the first few iterations of this cohort-created course, you get an opportunity to earn a stake in the future earnings, if any. All you need to do is actively listen to your peers and candidly share your experiences, reactions, and feedback on the topic. ### What is the Course About? #### How to discover a place of belonging during a job search? Why does this matter? It might feel counter-intuitive, but if you stretch too much to pretend who you aren't during a job interview, then at best, you won't get the role. At worst, you might and you will struggle for months to be someone who you are not with your future teammates. Even if you are your truest self, there is still work for you to evaluate if this is the right place for you. Just because it is for a thousand others, it still may not be right for you. #### A Craving for Belonging The most memorable moments in our lives are rooted in [[A Longing for Belonging#^belonging-empathy|strong connections]] with our surroundings, especially when someone is able to relate to us, understand where we are coming from, and empathize with our situation. When that empathy is missing, the exact opposite happens — you withdraw yourself from such an environment, physically and emotionally, where you don’t think you belong. At times, that could even happen with your own family. This happens even more frequently at work. #### Belonging at Workplace With virtual and remote work becoming the norm, belonging at the workplace is trickier to define. At a minimum, staying true to who you are is the first step to discovering that belonging. At certain points in our careers, we all have struggled to bring our true selves into our interactions at work. In those moments when we overcome this struggle, we can fully align our actions with our hearts. Whereas, in those moments when we are not ourselves there is a dent in that belonging. #### Finding Your Habitat The course will attempt to equip you in the following two pursuits during your interview process: - **Am I bringing my true self to the job interview?** Interviewing is an [[Recruiting - An imperfect process|imperfect process]]. So don’t read too much into the final decision to evaluate you, one way or another. What is more important is whether you are representing yourself accurately to make the process objective for yourself and others. - **Is this work environment right for me?** Things can only transform when they are fully allowed to be what they are. How can you determine if the people and the environment you are interacting with during an interview can empower you to be who you are today while attempting who you want to be tomorrow? ### How will a Cohort Create a Course? I am structuring the approach over three phases, with a kill-switch at each stage, if any of the current assumptions about the evolution of the course don't hold true. You could opt into any of these phases as follows. #### Phase 1: Core Creators Build First Strawman This phase will have 5 participants or core creators. Your time commitment will be 2 hours (virtual). The minimum expectations from you are active listening and candid participation. In return, each of you will receive a 5% stake in future earnings, if any, from phase 3. I will seed the entire content for discussion and will be responsible for making the coursework ready for phase 2. #### Phase 2: Co-Creators Refine Experience This phase will have 5 iterations of the course, with 10 participants in each. Through a peer-selected process, 2 of you in each iteration will earn the tag of a "co-creator". The cohort will make this choice through a voting process based on who has contributed the most value (through questions and sharing experiences). A total of 10 co-creators will receive a 5% stake each in future phase 3 earnings. #### Phase 3: Go to Market At this stage, I will make a digital content product available for sale for anyone to purchase. It will be crafted based on the feedback from the previous phases. A total of 15 core and co-creators will vote on the decisions for cost and course format from the alternatives I will offer. I will retain 25% of the earnings in return for seeding the course content, hosting and facilitating the core and 5 additional cohorts, owning changes to the course material, and producing the final product. ### How do I opt-in? At each phase, I would like to pull together a diverse group (by craft, geography, gender, etc.) > If interested, fill out this [form](https://forms.gle/vwhYDyzasEtkSj5G8). Here's a tentative schedule: **15th November:** Finalize Core Creators **15th December:** Complete Phase 1 **15th February:** Complete Phase 2 **1st March:** Complete Phase 3 If you apply and don't find yourself in phase 1, I will automatically consider you for phase 2 (based on first-come-first-serve). If seats fill up in phase 2, you will receive an option to buy the phase 3 outcome at a discount in lieu of your interest. ### FAQs #### Can I see the content prior? Yes and no. You may not see the specifics of the 2-hour discussion, but through 60+ articles on this site, you will find my documented biases in building your craft and careers. The course will be based on these writings. Click [here](https://publish.obsidian.md/rohitmalekar) to explore. #### Is there a cost to participate in Phase 1 and Phase 2? No. Also, at no point in time your live participation will exceed 2 hours in effort. As a core creator and co-creator, you will need to vote on a few decisions on the economics and distribution of the course. This will be done asynchronously. These are the only contributions I am looking for. #### I am not a creator. Is this for me? There is a bit of a creator in all of us. You don't need a blog, a podcast, a portfolio, or an army of followers to clamour for your posts to be a creator. Your lived experience and ability to introspect without bias is enough. [Join us](https://forms.gle/vwhYDyzasEtkSj5G8)!