Login / Signup
“I want to find my dream job.” This is what we’ve heard someone say. If we are being completely blunt, we’ve made this statement at one point or the other at various stages of our career.
It often feels like there is a lot of pressure in life to find your dream job. So many people out there talk about how they’ve found a job that they are passionate about and others feel like they deserve that as well, which is only fair. However, most often than not, the job you’ve worked so hard enough to actualize might turn out to not be as you expected. For example, you might begin to feel unfulfilled after some time on the job.
Alternatively, you might outgrow something that you always thought you wanted to do from childhood. And all of a sudden, it no longer feels like a job that you are interested in. This can feel intimidating giving all the time you must have spent training and trying to accomplish the goal of getting the ‘dream job’.
Have you really sat to think of what your dream job is? Is there really something like a dream job? The last time you said that to yourself and you eventually landed the ‘dream job’, how long ago was that? Are you still working that job? If that’s the case, does it still feel like your dream job?
It turns out that some people don’t feel like that’s their dream job anymore. According to research at Stanford University and Yale-NUS College,
“These feelings are born out of the idea that people have ‘fixed’ passions in life. While some people are open to developing new interest areas and expanding their skillsets, others heavily identify with a set area and show reluctance to move beyond it.”
There are so many questions to ask when it comes to this because many people put in every effort, blood, and sweat to achieve a goal which eventually feels like a fallacy. So rather than thinking of just the ‘dream job’ or working on something that could feel like throwing all your eggs into one basket, you could do these below.
1. Look out for a career path
Looking out for a possible career path can feel much more interesting and inspiring for a person. You’ll have the ability to find innovative ways to explore various job functions which might interest you.
A good way to go about this is to list out all of the skills you currently have and the things you enjoy doing. Next step is to research on possible roles in the job market that align with your skills and interests. Once that is highlighted, consider the type of industry you’ll prefer to work in. Then find out what the job title is as industries might have different job titles even though they all are of the same job function.
2. Look out for a person in a similar career path
This person might eventually turn out to be your mentor. So what’s the catch here? It’s intriguing to find out how someone has grown within their chosen career. Often times, you also see a person change career paths and grow from there. You can learn how they got to be unstuck simply by asking them out for coffee.
A good way to begin is via LinkedIn which we often refer to as an open resume. You get to see the career journey and you can put yourself in this person’s shoes. You’ll have the opportunity to decipher if that’s a path you want to explore or not.
Another tip: during the interview stage, you can ask questions that would give an idea of what working with your prospective boss might feel like. You might want to look into whether this person would influence your career decisions. Note that your boss doesn’t have to be your mentor, however, if that happens, it’s a win-win.
Read: How To Find A Mentor: 5 Practical Tips
Read: How Mentorship Has Helped Me
3. Look out for company culture
Culture has varying definitions for different companies. Basically, company culture encompasses the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of a business. It is the personality of a company and defines the environment in which employees work.
It includes a variety of elements, including work environment, company mission, value, ethics, expectations, and goals. You might notice that other companies have a casual workplace without many rules and regulations (eg. dress down policy).
This is where the company’s website and social media platforms truly give an idea of what working in such an environment would feel like. The question is would you be comfortable working for this company? You can also have a sense of a company’s culture during the interview stage and you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions around this and have a sense of what it might feel like to work there.
4. A company with growth opportunities
A job where you can keep learning and growing is usually ideal. A company that allows you to explore your skills and grow in diverse capacities is even better! If you can look into this during your job hunt, it’ll go a long way. You can tell a company who is all about the growth of their employees as they’ll usually share this openly. You can also check into their employees and how their path has been within the company.
Remember, if you don’t get your next job, you’ll move on and it’ll be a thing of the past pretty soon. If you get the job, it might not live up to all your expectations. The reason is that, as humans, our expectations change from time to time. What you thought you wanted to do as a profession when you were eight years old most likely is different from what you decided to do once you turned 18 and so on.
Also, although you might love a job because you’ve dreamed of it for a really long time, this doesn’t mean that every aspect of it is entirely what you might love to do. For example, you might enjoy being a Sales Representative but having to talk to a number of people for long hours daily might feel tiresome after a while. It’s a part of the job and some people might feel that this is monotonous and begin questioning if this is indeed their ‘dream job’.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you working in your dream job? Have you made these mistakes in the past and will you be applying these tips? If you enjoyed this article, remember to subscribe to the blog to receive exclusive information right in your inbox and please share this post with someone who will find it useful. There won’t be spams, that’s a promise!
