Finding Your Dream Job

Lucky me! I live in the Boston area, where a full 37% of people - the highest rate in the nation - are in their dream jobs, according to a survey by CareerBuilder. Nationally, the rate averages just 16%. That's a lot of dissatisfied or even unhappy people.

A nice story in the Boston Globe profiled six people who are in their dream jobs. The interesting thing? The six people were in wildly different professions, from dog runner to operations director to spa owner. Yet they all shared a common thread - a passion for what they do and a positive eagerness to get to work every day.

When you're in a job hunt, do your best to match up the work environment as well as the work itself with what will give you the greatest satisfaction. Ask questions like these during the interview to get a sense for the culture and atmosphere -

• What do people love about working here?
• Tell me about a time when the department faced a big challenge. How did people respond?
• Describe a typical day.
• What is the average staff tenure?
• How do different departments / different generations / different functions interact?

It's also important for you to define the job and environment that will give you the most satisfaction - it's hard to chase your dream job when you don't know what it is! If you've gone through your career vaguely unfulfilled or held a series of dissatisfying jobs, perhaps now's the time to engage a career coach to help you figure out how to marry your passions with your career.

As quoted in the article, Stephen Flavin, dean of corporate and professional education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, offered this very wise advice: "Find a job that combines something you're passionate about and something you do well. Passion plus competence equals dream job."

Posted by Louise Kursmark

Comments

[shelly]

Louise - was wondering what's going to be the http://www.salarybase.com ranking for your job title :-)

[Lauchlan Mackinnon]

Hi

Great post, and I agree with you that passion is the key ingredient (and competence is required to sustain it!). Perhaps even if you are passionate, you will acquire the competence.

But, what I wanted to comment about was your book links on the right: I really think you need to get Barbara Sher's books in there:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385307888?ie=UTF8&tag=ideasandinnov-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0385307888
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0733611257?ie=UTF8&tag=ideasandinnov-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0733611257

She's a great resource on helping you find what that dream role is.

[LouiseKursmark]

Lauchlan, you are right - Barbara Sher has written some truly helpful books on this topic. Thanks for sharing.

There was a fascinating "This American Life" show today on this very topic (April 13-15 broadcast) - I recommend listening for a few laughs and some wonderful insights. Even astronauts have to put up with lots of "downs" to get to the very definite "ups" of their job! http://thislife.org/

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