“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Confucius
Look around, jobs are everywhere – in every industry. However, the key is to find a job that you like, not one that you need to push yourself into. Because if you’re not enjoying your job, you won’t be able to give your best. The company you work for must target those consumers who you want to serve with your skills and passion, because ultimately consumers are the real job creators.
As Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments says, “Nerdsters create the technology, hipsters create the products and the consumer ultimately wins.” This clearly means that if you’re doing a job that you love, you will pursue technology and create products that your target audience will love. This not only give you the satisfaction of a job well done, but also fuels your passion and makes you love the work you’re doing.
Now, the question is, how can you really find the job of your dreams? A job that not only enhances your career path but also helps you grow your passion, interest and love for it.
On the path to your dream job, the three stepping stones to career discovery are:
1. Focus on You First
A lot of people are usually caught up in the same vicious job cycle where they aren’t able to get the most out of the career. They tend to jump on a job just because it looks like a good opportunity and give it a shot. They try adjusting to what the company wants and follow their boss’s orders in the hopes that it will help them advance.
However, they eventually come to the conclusion that the job that they’re stuck in is something they don’t like. This is when they decide to look into another good job opportunity and repeat the same mistake. Now in order to get out of this messy situation and find your ideal career, look at your own wants/needs first to understand what job you should be doing before you go for another job.
Discovering what you really want and how you want to highlight your skill set can be the very step to finding a satisfying career.
Action Step:
The action step is to create a portfolio – showcasing your expertise and what you can do best. Once you start writing it down the path becomes clearer. Articulating your thoughts and dream in writing often leads to the “aha” moment which you perhaps had not thought of before.
2. Discover Your Real Passion
All of us are passionate about something or the other. We’re passionate about doing something that gets suppressed due to many different reasons. Even though you’re not consciously aware of your passions, deep down your subconscious knows that they exist.
You probably are right now fulfilling a passion that’s hidden in you that gives you a feeling a satisfaction, but this may not necessarily at your workplace. Similarly, you could be doing official work that you’re getting paid for, but it doesn’t feel good as you aren’t passionate about it. This is why it’s important to discover your passion so that you’re able to follow it, get rid of any conflicts, and have more fun at the job that you’re doing.
Whether your dream job is to get make your career in charity or to become a top notch coder for a tech company – you have to first look into yourself, understand what you want and identify your passions to make sure you’re heading in the right direction. What we talked about is common knowledge, yet many people don’t get it.
Action Step:
Volunteer for some organizations or companies, or look for apprenticeships in areas of your interest. You will know best when you are at the job hands on, not just by researching online. Once you have a taste of what a career is like, your drive to do better at it is stronger and the chances to achieve success move toward a reality than a dream.
3. Use Technology to Empower Career Discovery
You can use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator – MBTI ™ and Strong Interest Inventory (SII)™ assessments which help you identify and map the right career choice for your personality type.
You can use the different career tools and applications that can help you make the right choices about a new career. Your education and aspiration might be on different paths, so investing time in career discovery before making the change will yield better results than to just jump at the first job that comes your way.
Action Step:
Follow companies and alumni associations on LinkedIn. You can gather information about how employees or alumni have carved their career path at a articular company or post-education. Technology makes it much easier for us to have access to this valuable information which is crucial to career discovery or career change. Research and use it in the best possible ways.
In order to create a more satisfying career and do a job that you’ve always dreamed of, you have to start the right way. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start focusing on the tips that tips that we discussed in the above article to find the job of your dreams.
The most often asked question here: How do I know what my passion is?