Career Resources
Top 5 Ways To Find A Job You Love
By
Feb 26, 2006, 04:53 AM

Get up.

Eat breakfast.

Trudge to work.

Endure another day.

Trudge home.

Do it again tomorrow.

Does this sound familiar?  So many people are employed in jobs that dislike that it has almost become an accepted condition that you should not expect to enjoy your job.  If you are one of the many people who are unhappy in your job, don’t give up hope.  There are ways that you can seek and find a job that you can enjoy instead of just tolerate.

1.  Personality Assessment

Your personality and behavioral preferences have a great deal to do with how much you like your job.  For example, if you are an introverted, quiet person who is employed as an outside salesperson you likely struggle to adopt the outgoing behaviors necessary to succeed in sales.  Or, if you are a very structured, detail oriented person working in a start up company that is just putting together its policies and procedures you may find the lack of structure unpleasant.

There are a number of scientifically valid tools available to assess your personality and help you gain personal insight.  One of the best is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which assesses your preferences and personality attributes in a way that is informative and generally quite accurate.  For more information on this assessment tool, do an online search for “MBTI” and visit one of the many sites that offer detailed information about it.

2. Skills

Your mother may have told you that you can do anything you set your mind to doing, but that is not always the case.  Regardless of the field or profession you choose, to be successful you must have the necessary skills to perform required functions.

Make a list of the skills that your job requires, and then make a list of the skills that you possess.  Are there any mismatches?  If so, what kinds of jobs would be a better fit for your skills?

3. Motivation

Motivation deals with the drive and enthusiasm that gets you out of bed and off to work each day.  It is an internal characteristic that keeps you focused during the inevitable tough times, not an external driver like money or living up to what is expected of you.

Think honestly about what motivates and inspires you, and make a list of whatever comes to mind.  If you have trouble getting started, think in terms of what activities you do that are fulfilling and give you a great deal of satisfaction.  Perhaps you like to work with your hands, or maybe you like to teach and help others.  Whatever it is that you find fulfilling is also a source of motivation.  With your list of motivations in hand, you are ready to think about potential jobs that fit with the things on your list.

4. Life balance

This is a huge, huge factor for many people.  It is very easy to become involved in a job that practically takes over your life, demanding more and more of your time until you feel as if you are living to work instead of working to live.  Ask yourself if in your current job you are achieving the life balance that you want.  Do you have time for your family?  Do you have time for yourself?  Are you constantly under stress from work?

Think about your answers very carefully.  If you can make adjustments to improve your life balance then do so.  If, however, those adjustments are out of the question then you need to decide if you want to accept the situation “as is” or start looking in another direction for a career that is a better fit for how you want to balance your life.

5. Money

Some people put money at the top of their list as a key component of the job they want.  It is of course important to earn enough money to live your life, but money alone will not make you enjoy a job more.  In fact, the pressure to make money often is overpowering, driving people to choose careers for which they are ill-suited but that have excellent earnings potential.  Finding a job you love means balancing your desire for money with your desire for fulfillment and job satisfaction.