Two magic ingredients for discovering your dream job!

There are so many career/ personality tests available online (I know because I’ve done them all!). They ask you a set of questions and spit out a list of ‘possible’ jobs that you may be suited to. Then you have to go through that list and work out which ones you can see yourself doing. This is difficult for two reasons:

• You may have never worked in these roles before and therefore can’t be certain you understand it

• There may be factors outside of the actual day-to-day work that you consider important — such as workplace culture.

There are two steps you can take to uncover the type of role you should be aiming for:

First Step: Find your MUST-haves, SHOULD-haves, COULD-haves and WON’T-haves!

When looking for a new role to jump-start your enthusiasm for work again, consider working backwards. Breakdown the factors that you consider essential and non-essential. An easy way to do this is by dividing those elements into the following:

• Must-haves

• Should-haves

• Could-haves

• Won’t-haves

In this way, you paint a clear picture about the things that are really important to you without putting pressure on fitting into a particular role/industry / workplace. They can be completely abstract or really specific.

For instance, I know the things that are non-negotiable for me, and MUST be present in my job in order to feel content are:

• A company that invests in workplace culture

• A company that invests in training

• A job that allows me to deal with people and the psychology of human behaviour

• A job that challenges me

• Career progression opportunities or development

• Being able to help people and change people’s lives to some degree

My should-haves are things that are second in importance. I would prefer to have them, and when comparing multiple job offers, the presence of these factors would help sway me. For me, these include:

• A higher salary

• Working in an interesting industry where there’s lots to learn

• Work commute time

• The complete opposite of micromanagement

• A fast-paced role

Then we move onto the could-haves. These are positive factors that could be present but it doesn’t bother me if they are there or not there. For instance: workplace flexibility. For me, it makes no difference whether I work in an office or at home. But for others, it might be a really important factor! Others for me include:

• KPIs and deadlines

• Tech allowance

• Health insurance / gym membership

Then there’s the won’t-haves — a really important one!! These are things you may have experienced in past roles and REFUSE to go back to. They could be:

• A company that wants results but does not want to invest in the tools to get those results

• A certain salary you won’t go below

• A certain distance you won’t travel

• A repetitive role (my hand is up, I love variety!)

• Dealing with or managing people (or not)

• A toxic workplace culture

• Working outside of an office environment — ie, a laboratory

There could be so many things — which makes it easy for you to narrow down on what you do want!

Second Step: We all have natural talents — utilise them!

Part two is about looking within. We all have skills that come naturally. More often than not, we enjoy utilising these skills because we are good at them. For instance, I love conversing with people and attempting to understand what makes them tick. This served me well when I was a recruiter — most of my candidate conversations started with understanding their skills, before aligning them with the roles I had available. One thing I do not have a talent for is repetitive work. I get bored easily and would rather poke my eyes out than work in a role where I had to do the same action again and again.

From this, it’s really great to create a list of the things you KNOW you’re really really good at. To help think about this, go back over all of your career achievements to date — the things you’re really proud of! Try to get an understanding of what skills someone would need to possess in order to replicate that event. Then lay it all out in a list format so you can see it clearly.

Then bring it altogether!

Once you do this self assessment, you can do your research and career tests with way more clarity. This exercise would also help when transitioning between companies but keeping the same role. It might shed some light on the factors that were making you miserable in your previous company, and set you on a trajectory for fulfilment and success!

But probably the most important thing to remember is this: we all deserve to work in a job we enjoy!

Happy hunting.