How To Find The Right Career For Me
I was driving down I–15 in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago and the billboards kept drawing my attention. However, it was not the advertisements in itself drawing my attention. My draw was the theme of the billboards.
FIX THIS!
NEW YOU!
INSTANT UPGRADE!
I began hunting for these instant gratification billboards being plastered along the side of the freeway. They were everywhere. Advertisers, businesses, and brands were screaming at their target market, “You can fix your crap NOW!”
Marketing has always been psychological. Their first move is to press on you, the market, the problem or pain. They pull out that pain and remind you how much it hurts. For example, if businesses are marketing plastic surgery, they will emphasis, “Your fat, your ugly, you have no shape, you are not desirable.” They take what is already a pain in the markets’ mind and throw gasoline on it.
Why would they do this? They want to lead you to a fix. Even better for the business, a quick fix.
Companies are in business to solve pains and problems. There is nothing wrong with that either. The problem lies in the timing. Not every fix can be quick.
Fix My Job Search Quick
Job seekers, specifically millennials, are looking for jobs that best fits them. It can get frustrating at times.
After a while of “searching” for a job, you can get stuck in rut. Self-doubt creeps in. Self-limiting beliefs increase in magnitude. You just want a job. Any job possibly.
So all the advertising to quickly find the perfect job is enticing. Understandably so.
Be careful though. Finding a job means more than a paycheck. Think about why you truly are looking for a job. Find the purpose itself in the job search.
How To Find The Right Career For Me – Real Question?
Does this relate?
It’s been 2 years since you graduated from Springfield State University with a degree in marketing. However, Best Buy doesn’t seem like the exact fit for your marketing degree. You have had a couple of nibbles on your “real” job search line, but no big bites. You just don’t know how much longer you can teach Baby Boomers how to operate a camera at Best Buy. You desperately want your $35,000 student loan to produce more than your underemployment.
You have grown over these last 2 years though. No longer are you looking for a job, but the perfect career. Maybe not the perfect career, but at least the right career for you. And you keep searching, “How to find the right career for me?”
Then you progressed from the right career to becoming the right hire. You started realizing it has more to do about you.
Now you are wondering if there is something wrong with you. You’ve realized your missing an ingredient. Your convinced there is a secret sauce to becoming the right hire. It is the secret sauce you must have missed learning in college. Your friends earning a comfy $75,000 plus benefits straight out of college must have learned about the secret sauce, but you didn’t.
What did you miss to become the right hire?
What Is The Secret Sauce?
Cornell University Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and Green Peak Partners ran a study in 2010, interviewing 72 executives from private and public companies with a revenue of $50 Million to $5 Billion on “What Predicts Executive Success.” Their study revealed the two top predictors to an executive’s success was self-awareness and strong interpersonal skills.
Last week I was coaching a young professional, who is in his second career with an average salary, when I revealed this study to him. He was shocked self-awareness ranked so high. I uncovered the meaning behind self-awareness and its affect, the light bulb went on. The power of self-awareness is difficult to be precisely measured, but nonetheless, it is one big key to success.
In fact, I would call self-awareness the secret sauce.
When people become self-aware, they are truly understanding their gifts, talents, skills, and abilities, not to mention strengths and weaknesses. A person or employee who can sufficiently examine themselves, knows the boundaries of their abilities. Self-aware people maximize their efforts at work because they know their strengths and what best work environment fits them.
Self-awareness is priceless to companies and executives.
Self-Awareness Is A Marathon
However, increasing one’s self-awareness and even interpersonal skills is not a short game. It is a marathon. There are plenty of personality assessments that can evaluate a person such as StrengthFinders and Myers Briggs. Those assessment do not sufficiently increase a person’s self-awareness though. In fact, I believe it can contradict self-awareness.
Tweet ThisIf you have to depend on a test to tell you who you really are, how self-aware are you really? (read that again)
Don’t get me wrong, I believe they have their place, but it is absolutely not the end all. Some of the greatest tools to helping people become self-aware are coaches, mentors, and leaders. Having wise people who know how to pull something out of person can be a person’s greatest asset to increasing self-awareness. These mentors or coaches help others learn how to view themselves in a healthy manner. These habits must be installed for people to succeed.
Don’t sell yourself short though. This might take a while. Just ask yourself this question, “Are you looking for a job, a career, or a calling?” What are you really searching for?
If you need to pay the bills, go ahead and get a job. But if you are looking for purpose, seek out your calling.
Know you can also possess a job while seeking out your calling and niche. It is a process.
Job Searches, Resumes, and Interviews Stealing Focus
How often do people searching for jobs, seek out answers for writing resumes or interviewing? All the time. Even if you are employed, you are probably still researching and studying these two skills.
Last night, I watched a great Blab with Chelsea Krost and Ashley Stahl on how to get multiple job offers and paycheck you deserve. They did a fantastic job uncovering some tactics to help those looking for a job. (Interested more in Landing More Jobs Offers? Check out Ashley’s free webinar.) Although, something stood out to me in the conversation. Ashley said 3 things, as a career coach, she coaches most are:
- How to find a job
- How to find purpose
- How to start a business
Number 1 and 3, can be laid out in a step-by-step process. Number 2 however, “how to find purpose,” tells me specifically millennials are looking for more than a job.
Millennials are seeking for purpose.
The reality is millennials may desire finding purpose, calling, or their niche, but are they aware of the time investment involved in the process?
Self-Awareness Produces Purpose
Resumes and interviewing are important, but have you found your purpose yet? When a person increases their self-awareness, purpose becomes much easier to produce. A person not aware of themselves, will have a difficult time distinguishing their purpose.
Dan Miller from 48 Days and 48 Days Podcast, in his book 48 Days To The Work You Love says, “I tell people that 85% of the process of having the confidence of proper direction (in finding a job/career) is to look inward. 15% is the application—resumes, interviews, etc.”
Take the time and learn yourself. Or better put, get a coach, a mentor, or a mastermind that will help uncover identity and passion.
Quit The Quick Fix and Run The Marathon
Remember the billboard signs I mentioned at first? Businesses market to fix pains and problems. Often this comes in quick fixes. Do not get sucked into that deception.
The greatest self-developments will take a life time to learn. However, you can implement processes and strategies to all your growth to be continual learning.
Apply this principle. You can learn all the tools and strategies, but invest most in those lasting a life-time. These are the matters that will tip the scale on your career success and better yet, your life success.
