When we make our way through our school years, we often have a dream job in mind. Children are much more certain about what they want to do as a career and yet all too often, by the time they have become job seekers, they have diluted their dreams and put up with second best. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Your working life should be more than simply something that provides a wage; especially as you’ll spend a significant part of your life at work. That becomes a much more palatable prospect when you find your dream job— and landing it could be easier than you think.
5 steps to find your dream job
To help you on your way, here’s a handy five step guide on how to find your dream job and land it.
1. Formulate the plan to find your dream job
It’s well known that when we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail. Benjamin Franklin’s maxim can be applied to many aspects of our lives, and it’s especially pertinent when it comes to finding a great job. The first step to creating a plan that will help you land your dream job is to discern exactly what it is, so you may find it useful to remember the childhood dreams and ambitions you once had. Once you’ve done this, take a look at the rest of our guide and then write down what steps you’ll need to take to improve your chances, and who you need to contact. Look at this plan every day when you wake up, and you’ll feel energized, motivated, and ready to take positive action in your job quest.
2. Create an outstanding resume
Your curriculum vitae, or resume, can be the difference between securing a superb job and not even making it to the interview stage. Employers have to be ruthless when it comes to deciding who to interview, and they’ll base their decision upon your job application letter and resume. That’s why learning how to make a resume can pay dividends, and thankfully there’s expert advice readily available on the web. Your resume should be informative yet to the point; if it’s too long it’s unlikely to be read to the end by your potential employer, so cut out irrelevant information and place an emphasis upon qualifications, skills, and experience that would be relevant to the job.
3. Be prepared to head back to school
To find your dream job — the one you’ve always wanted — you’ll have to be ambitious yet realistic too; there will be stiff competition for it, so you need something that’s going to make you stand out from the crowd. One thing you’ll certainly need is the qualification or qualifications that people within the job are expected to hold. If you feel that you didn’t do as well as you could have at high school or college, don’t panic, it’s not too late to do something about it. Many people find that they perform much better as mature students, and returning to college or university can help you gain qualifications that eluded you initially, and which in turn can help you seem much more attractive to potential employers.
4. Add personal skills that make you shine
As we’ve seen, educational attainment is vitally important to find your dream job, but it also helps when you have non-educational skills and experience that are relevant to the dream job you’re looking for. One great way to do this is to gain experience within the field, even if it’s not at the level that you wish to hold eventually. For example, you may dream of becoming a veterinary surgeon, so it would be useful to gain experience in this environment by working as an administrator or assistant for your local vet. Voluntary work can also be highly useful to find your dream job, particularly as it demonstrates to a potential employer that you have the ability and desire to work within your chosen sector.
5. Find your dream job
With a first-class resume in place, you’re ready to land your dream rold, but first you have to find your dream job opening. Check the situations vacant columns in your local and national papers regularly, but don’t be afraid to make speculative inquiries. If doing this, you should first call the reception of the company that you’re going to be writing to and find the name of the person in charge of human resources or recruitment. This allows you to personalize your correspondence, which makes it much more likely to be noticed and read. Your letter should be polite and positive, but not pushy. Explain why you’d love to work for the company, why this has always been your dream career, and why you’d be ideal for it.
Conclusion: a dream job is feasible
Of course, it is very important to be satisfied and convinced of the job you are doing! It is YOUR life in which you want to realize your wishes and dreams. And you can actually systematically find out where your strengths and weaknesses lie, which activities fit your personality (of course, which ones don’t) to find your dream job, and with which values you would like to associate your work in order to be authentic, powerful and with a positive attitude and a clear conscience to be able to act.
Trust and ask yourself: which job is right for me? Unfortunately, we dare far too little when it comes to professional self-realization. You don’t have to pull out all your tents and open a beach bar in Bali to be happy at work and find your dream job. Some become happy in self-employment, others simply take a decisive step by asking about further training and promotions in their company. If you are just starting your career, you might want to try different jobs in order to gain experience and find “your” dream job. All of this is completely independent of your education, your current occupation or your age. You too can find fulfillment in your dream job by trusting your own abilities! “Which job fits me?” is an important question in order to live contentedly and fulfilled.
Sending a speculative yet informed letter along with a well-produced resume can help you land your dream job before it’s advertised to the public. If you don’t hear back from the company immediately, don’t worry, they may be keeping your details on file in readiness for when a suitable vacancy arises. Stay positive, stay focused, and the job that you’ve always wanted could be yours sooner than you think.
