It is no news that many people dread the reality of waking up to go to a place of work in the morning. You know why? It is because they hate their jobs.
According to research, more than half of people that work are unhappy at work, and this has little or nothing to their job roles.
If you wake up every morning and ask yourself these questions:
Am I in the right job?
Am I supposed to be working in this company?
Is this career meant for me?
Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing with my life right now?
Then there is a high possibility that you are in a job that you don’t like. The truth is that you are not the only one in this position. A survey by Deloitte’s Shift Index shows that 80% of workers don’t like their jobs.
If research shows that a lot of people are in jobs they don’t like, then the question is how can you find a job you love? There are many reasons why many people can’t seem to find the job they love which we are going to discuss later in this post.
Whether you are currently in a job that you don’t like and looking for a way out or dreaming to land a job that you would love these “5 secrets to finding the job you love is for you”.
Finding yourself is the first stage in finding a job that you love. This may sound funny because you may be like of course I know myself, but the question is how well do you know yourself?
Do you know yourself well enough to determine the kind of job that is good for you and the job that is not good enough for you?
If you have never worked before it may be hard for you to say for sure what kind of job will be good for you and the job that won’t be. If the greatest effort you put into your job search is responding to posted job adverts, then you may likely not find the job you want.
So, how do you find yourself to get the job that you would love?
To find yourself, you can start by asking yourself these questions:
What drives me?
What do I like doing?
What is important to me?
What can I do well?
What do I look forward to achieving?
What roles am I most suited for?
What kind of life would I love to live?
Once you find yourself, you would know what you are meant to do. Finding yourself will give you the courage to listen to yourself and not everyone else. A job seeker that has found out himself/herself will not take a job because it pays more.
You may think that by trying different things, you would finally get to find out what works for you. Well, while that is true, it doesn’t work all the time. You don’t have to be in several bad jobs before you discover the job that you love.
If you don’t know how to go about finding out yourself, you can just take a simple self-examination assessment to examine yourself and to also find out the job that is right for you.
See ‘self-examination assessment’ (72 Hours to the Job You Love p.12).
One of the major questions people have when it comes to finding a job they love is; “Am I satisfied with the job that I am doing?”
Job satisfaction means different things to different people, while some people think about job satisfaction as doing what they love to do, others relate it to the meaning they derive from the things that they do.
Many employees that are doing the job that they love are still not satisfied with the job because they don’t seem to find meaning and relevance in what they do every day. If your values are quite different from the values of your job, then you might experience some form of dissatisfaction with the job.
How do you match your values with that of your job or the job that you are looking to get?
Before you can tell if the values of a job match your values, you must have first of all discovered your values. Different people value different things, and when it comes to discovering your workplace values you may consider the following:
What makes me feel relevant regardless of the job that I am doing?
What matters most to me in a work environment asides from my salary?
What don’t I mind doing every day even if I am not paid?
These are a few of the questions that will help you discover what matters most to you. Sometimes finding your values can be a bit confusing because values can change over time. If you don’t have an idea of what workplace values are, then these examples will definitely guide you:
Problem-solving and helping others
Continuous learning and self-development
Work/life balance
Work stability
Job security etc.
These are a few examples of workplace values to give you an idea, discover your workplace values here. You can also find out if you derive meaning from what you do by:
Assessing your day-to-day job.
Find out if you derive purpose and meaning from what you do
If you discover that you don’t find purpose and meaning from the job that you do, you can find out to see if there is a way for you to make it more meaningful, or if it is time for you to find a new job altogether.
One of the first steps to finding the job you love is discovering your skills and the skills you need to thrive in your job. Once you can to discover your skills and develop them, then it will be easy for you to know the skills you need to thrive in the job you want to apply for.
Once you find a job that you would love to do, the next thing is to think of:
The aspect of the job that makes it exciting to you.
What are the things you are going to be doing?
What skills do you require to do them?
It is important for you to find out the skills and develop them because it will to a large extent determine if you would be happy in the job. The more skilled you are to do the job that you are applying for the more confidence you will be in approaching your job, and this gives a form of fulfilment.
Before you find out the skills you need to thrive in a particular job, it is important you first find out the skills that you possess naturally. This will influence the kind of jobs that you will end up doing at the end of the day.
So how do you find out your skills?
You can discover your skills by simply taking a deep look at yourself. This means examining yourself to find out:
The things you can do well with ease.
The things you love doing.
The things you can do with little or no supervision.
The things that you are passionate about.
The things you have learnt how to do well.
Even if you are not able to find out all the skills you need in the job that you are applying for, take note of your soft skills.
Soft skills are also as important as hard skills. A survey carried out by career builder showed that 80% of hiring managers agree that soft skills are equally or more important than hard skills when hiring candidates.
While you are trying to discover and develop your hard skills, you should also focus on developing soft skills like; team-work, attention to details, and customer service.
Have you ever seen a job advert and you immediately feel like you want to take the job?
As desperate as you maybe when you are surfing the internet for a job, it is also good you take time to read the job description properly to understand what your prospective employer wants from you.
Getting as much possible information that you can before accepting the role can prevent the issue of finally finding yourself in a job that you don’t like. Carefully reading the job description will help you find out:
The responsibility required of you in the job.
The skills that are required to do the job.
The education required etc.
Aside from carefully reading the job description of the job that you are applying for, you can also read the job description of related roles to find out the most important skills required to do the job.
Job adverts usually contain some important skills, you can use that as a starting point to evaluate if the job will end up being one that you would love.
You may think that you can work anywhere until you get the job. The truth is that you would thrive more in some work environment more than others.
“The people you work with and the environment you work in can determine your success or failure to a large extent. That is why it is good for you to understand the kind of environment that will fit your personality and bring out the best in you.” (72 Hours to the Job You Love p.41).
To discover the kind of work environment that works for you, you have to, first of all, discover yourself to be able to identify the kind of environment that you can work in.
When we talk about the work environment, we are not just talking about the physical environment of the workplace. The work environment also includes the people that are in that workplace too.
There are different groups of people:
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising etc.
While you belong to a particular group, you should also discover the group of people that you tend to be comfortable working with.
One way you can find out if a work environment will work for you is during your interview. Once you have managed to land a job interview, don’t just be carried away by the thought of whether or not you will get the job. Observe the work environment (the physical environment and the people) to determine if it will be a great place for you to work.
What exactly should you observe during your interview?
Try to observe the structure of the company.
Pay attention to patterns of operations in the company to discover the company’s culture.
Observe staff members attitude towards each other and their attitude to work.
Also, observe the attitude of the person interviewing you.
You can ask yourself the following questions:
Are employees showing a sense of personality and ownership at their desk or is everything just plain?
Are workers in the office engaging in conversations with one another or is everyone sitting in silence with headphones.
These questions will help you discover how comfortable employees feel expressing themselves, and this can give you a hint on employees’ interpersonal relationship.
You can also research the company that you are applying to on social media and review website to catch a glimpse of their culture. Mysalaryscale.com is one of the websites where you can find out what other people are saying about a particular company.
Putting it together
The question you might ask is; how does all this come together to help you find the job you love?
To begin with, examine the following:
What you are passionate about?
What are you skilled at (what can you do)?
Which company is best for you?
Once you see a job vacancy, evaluate them with the following factors and see the result that you would get. If you don’t like the result that you got, click here to get our step-by-step guide to getting the job you love.
Do well to drop your questions in the comment box below.
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