How to Find a Job You?ll Truly Love
You may have heard the phrase ?find a job you love and you?ll never work a day in your life.?
From our experience in recruitment at Peopleconnexion, we know that’s easier said than done. It’s one thing just to find a job, it’s another to find one you love.
In the spirit of Valentines Day, here are our team’s tips for finding a job that ignites a spark to outlast the honeymoon phase.
1. Find your career ?anchors?
Every single one of us has ?anchors? in our lives. These are the aspects of life that tie everything together.
Anchors provide the ?why? ? the reason we get out of bed in the morning and do what we do, the one element in your life that you will not give up under any circumstance.
To be more effective in your career and ensure you are in a job that is aligned to your ?why? ? you need to identify exactly what those ?anchors? are.
Edgar Schein, a widely acclaimed founder of the field of organisational psychology proposes eight main career anchors that will serve us throughout our careers:
- Technical / Functional Competence
- General Management Competence
- Autonomy / Independence
- Security / Stability
- Entrepreneurial Creativity
- Service / Dedication to a Cause
- Pure Challenge
- Lifestyle
How do these motivators relate to you? Each and every one of them is a statement of what you want (or don’t want) and how it relates to the other aspects of life that are important to you.
For example, if family is an important aspect of your life, you may have Lifestyle as a career anchor so you can spend more time with them. You may also have Security / Stability or General Management Competence so you can increase your earning potential to provide for your family. It is all about you as an individual, so there are no right or wrong answers.
Once you’ve defined what your career anchors are, you’re on the right path.
2. Learn how to spot your strengths
We’ve written about this previously on peopleconnexion.com and outlined how important it is to identify your strengths, then be able to articulate them to others.
?The simplest and best definition of a strength is ?an activity that strengthens you.? And the proper definition of a weakness is ?an activity that weakens you? ? even if you’re good at it.? – Marcus Buckingham, leadership coach and author
One of the easiest ways to find your strengths is to look for the SIGNS:
- Success ? When you feel productive and in control of the activity. You walk away feeling accomplished.
- Instinct ? You jump at the chance to do the activity. You love it.
- Growth ? You are focused and stay curious while you are doing the activity. You want to learn more, even if it takes all day.
- Needs ? You walk away from the activity feeling satisfied, with a sense of accomplishment.
If you can identify activities that make you excited and they meet the criteria above, you can bet that it’s one of your strengths. As soon as you understand what your strengths are, you can work out how to use them.
That’s where the next step comes in.
3. Find someone who can provide you with honest market advice
Understanding drives you and what your strengths are is half the battle. As soon as you can distill these things down to a single sentence, you can square your vision and focus on exactly where you want to go.
Once you’re at this stage, you need one last piece of the puzzle: someone with the experience and knowledge to be honest with you and be a sounding board for your ideas.
It’s all well and good to want a job where you can work 10 hours a week and get paid like a CEO ? but this might not line up with market expectations and job availability.
Try to find a mentor, an industry expert or a recruitment consultant who can provide you with a ?big picture? view of the industry you want to enter or progress in. It’s important to understand what roles are available that line up with your strengths, which companies line up with your career anchors and where the market is headed so you can plan for the future.
If you are ready to find a job that lights a career-long spark and outlives the ?honeymoon phase?, browse our recent opportunities on in our JOBS tab or get in touch with one of our experienced consultants.