The average person spends about one-third of their waking hours at work.
If you don’t love your job, that means you’re spending one-third of your waking hours on something that feels mediocre, uninspiring, or, worst of all, toxic.
You only get one shot at life. Why spend it doing work that doesn’t light you up?
It’ll take some work and a lot of reflection, but it is definitely possible to find a job that you love.
In this article I’ll give you a ton of tips and ideas to get you one step closer to identifying and securing your dream job.
Finding a Job You Love Is Possible, But It May Take Time
Some people knew they wanted to be a doctor when they were 5. Lucky them.
For many of us, getting to a job we love is a winding journey that takes time, failure, and learning from lots of work we don’t love.
So, if you can’t figure out your dream job right away, don’t fret. That’s normal.
I spent years working in HR. Most of my time was spent firing people. I knew it wasn't what I was meant to do. Eventually I had to make a shift. So I took a scary leap and started my own coaching business.
I had to face some fears. And there was uncertainty. But I’ve found out how to create a job I love.
And I want to help you do the same.
Just the fact that you are on this page means you are moving in the right direction. And rest assured, if you intend to find a job you love and you continue to take steps in that direction, you will likely get there eventually.
Identify your Passions
A dream job usually comes down to doing what you love, what you’re great at, and what pays you well.
Let’s start with what you love.
If you don’t know what your passions are, they’re probably hiding in plain sight.
You have interests. You spend your time doing something. There are certain topics that you probably enjoy talking about more than others or reading about on the internet.
And you may be thinking, “But nobody would ever pay me to just ______.” Well, you’d be surprised!
Do you love games and puzzles? You could become a programmer, where you solve logic puzzles in the form of code all day.
Do you love helping others grow? You could become a career coach, therapist, or personal trainer.
Do you love to meditate? You could become an art model where you get paid to meditate for hours at a time while people draw you.
The point is, if you get clear on how you like to spend your time, then you can find a way to get paid to do that in some capacity.
Try these approaches to clarify your passions.
What did you enjoy in your previous jobs?
Even if you haven’t loved your work so far, there have likely been bits here and there that you enjoyed.
Maybe there’s a social element of your job you like. Maybe you enjoy the parts of your job that involve organizing. Maybe you love researching a tough problem and figuring out how to solve it.
Journaling prompt: List 1-2 aspects of each job you’ve had that you liked. Can you find any patterns?
What gives you energy and what drains your energy?
You can also look at your personal life in search of your passions.
You do dozens of activities each day. Some of those activities leave you feeling more energized, and others leave you feeling more drained.
Generally, if an activity gives you energy, it’s pointing in the direction of passion.
Journaling prompt: Think about the past few days. What activities have given you energy? What activities have drained you of energy?
What activities make you lose track of time?
When you are in a flow state, time zips by. You get so engrossed in what you’re doing that you lose track of the clock.
Does this ever happen to you?
If so, it can be a great place to look for your passions.
Journaling prompt: What activities (in work or outside of work) have caused you to lose track of time? Even if it was just for a few minutes.
What are you curious about?
If you don’t feel cued into your passions, one place to start is curiosity.
What do you wonder about? What type of YouTube videos do you watch? What topics do your conversations often return to?
Your curiosity can be a gateway into your interests, creative expression, and passions. Pay attention to what sparks that itch to know more.
Journaling prompt: What topics do you feel like you could study forever and never get bored?
Clarify Your Strengths
The next piece of the puzzle is discovering what you are good at.
Studies indicate that anyone can become an expert at anything with enough deliberate practice. So, if there’s something you want to be good at, you certainly can make it a strength.
And, at the same time, you have natural gifts. These natural gifts likely feel intuitive to you. And it’ll be easier for you to improve at these skills than at ones that don’t come as naturally to you.
For example, if you are naturally gifted at music and have perfect pitch, then it will take a lot less effort for you to become a virtuoso than someone who started out tone-deaf.
Either way, doubling down on your strengths is gratifying, and research suggests that it can boost your self esteem, lower your stress, and make you feel better.
Here are a few ideas to help you figure out your strengths.
Ask other people what your strengths are
Sometimes, it can be hard to see yourself clearly. But those around you have a great view of your strengths and weaknesses.
Use your friends, family, colleagues, and mentors to your advantage to understand what your superpowers might be.
Action Step: Reach out to at least five people in your life and ask them, “What would you say are my top strengths?”
You can ask them in a conversation or send them a text. The more people you ask, the better. It can also be valuable to ask people from different contexts in your life (for example, your boss and your sister will probably see different sides of you).
Take your best guess
If you’re like most people, you probably haven’t spent much time talking about all the ways you kick ass.
It’s considered taboo to brag, and many of us feel afraid to admit that we might actually be good at something.
Here is your permission to let it rip.
Journaling prompt: List out what you think your top 5-10 strengths are. Don’t be shy. Nobody else will read this. Let yourself boast!
Take a strengths test
Another great option to understand your strengths is to take a test.
Here are three well-regarded strengths tests that might give you some insight about yourself.
VIA Character Strengths Survey. This is a survey championed by the positive psychology movement. It’s free and will take about 25 minutes. It will show you your top 5 strengths from a list of 24.
Redbull’s Wingfinder. Here’s another free test that will take about 35 minutes and give you a detailed run-down of your top strengths.
Clifton Strengths Finder. This is a well-renowned strengths test developed by Gallup that will teach you to leverage your natural talents. The only downside is that this tool isn’t free.
Uncover What You Care About
For a lot of people, having a job they love means doing work that matters to them.
When your career revolves around helping people in some way, it can give you a deeper sense of meaning. Instead of just punching in and punching out every day, your job can become a type of calling where you are doing the work you feel like you’re meant to do.
One of the best gateways to understanding what you care about is through your emotions.
Look at what makes you most sad
“Heartbreak delivers your purpose. If you are brave enough to accept that delivery and seek out the people doing that particular world-changing work, you find your people. There is no bond like the bond that is forged among people who are united in the same world-healing work...
We all want purpose and connection.
Tell me what breaks your heart, and I'll point you toward both.”
This poignant quote from author and activist Glennon Doyle can give you some great direction.
What breaks your heart?
Is it the massacring of rainforests for profit?
Is it the suffering of animals in factory farms?
Is it the lack of equal opportunities for people of different races and genders?
Is it the LGBTQ youth thrown onto the streets by their parents?
Is it the fact that people lonelier than ever, despite how connected the internet makes us seem?
Often that which breaks your heart points to an important part of your own history, identity, or belief system.
It may take time, but if you continue to follow this thread, it will bring you toward a meaningful career brimming with purpose.
Journaling prompt: What’s one thing about the world that breaks your heart? What about that breaks your heart? How does this point to something you care deeply about?
Try reflecting on those questions for 1-3 different issues and see what you discover.
Notice what your anger is trying to tell you
We often get angry when things aren’t the way we want them to be. Studies suggest that one trigger for anger is the perception of injustice.
If you find what it is about people and the world that pisses you off, you might be able to tap into a deeper undercurrent of what you really care about.
Journaling prompt: If you had a megaphone for the whole world to hear, and you got to vent to them about what pisses you off about people and what changes you want others to make, what would you say (or yell)?
Pay attention to your envy
Envy is a painful emotion. In a shallow sense, it often gets stirred up because we feel like everyone else on social media is happier, richer, and hotter than we are.
But if you can discern a layer deeper, you might notice that there are people in your life who you envy for a more personal reason.
Sometimes, we envy others because they are creating the career we wish we could make for ourselves. But we’re not doing it because we feel too stuck, afraid, or uncertain how to.
Journaling prompt: Is there anyone in your life (maybe someone who you once felt like equal with) whose career you feel envious of? Besides the success, riches, and fame they’ve accrued, what is it about their work and decisions that you want for yourself?
Use fear as a compass
Have you ever noticed that the things you secretly want most for your life can be the most scary?
Fear often serves as a compass that points toward your sense of purpose.
Think about your work skills and your creativity. Is there some place you want to take those skills that feels expansive and a bit scary to look at?
This could mean taking on more leadership, seeking the stage, or sharing your voice on the internet.
Journaling prompt: What is something you secretly want for yourself that feels scary? It could have to do with your work skills, your creative expression, or your leadership.
A Few More Questions to Get Your Gears Turning
Here are a few more reflections that might help you find clarity.
Give a few minutes of thought to each.
If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you go for? This question can reveal our deeper dreams that have been buried behind the fear of failure.
If you inherited a billion dollars from an unknown relative and didn’t have to work again, how would you use your skills to serve the world? This question can unhook you from the rat race and get you to see past your salary when thinking about your ideal career.
What would you want your clients, colleagues, family, and friends to say at your funeral? There’s a reason Buddhists and Stoic philosophers have been advising us to contemplate our death for thousands of years. The answer to this question may reveal the core values you hold most dear. Might you want those values to guide your career?
If you had to give a Ted Talk in 10 minutes, what topic would you speak about? This question can help clarify where your interests and expertise meet.
Figure Out Your Dealbreakers and Must-Haves
It can be helpful to figure out your hard lines. What do you require in a job? And what aspects of a job posting will cause you to swipe left immediately?
Clarifying your requirements limits the scope from an infinite pool of all jobs to just the jobs that fit your criteria.
Journaling prompt: Try going through the following questions and seeing what you discover. If a question doesn’t matter to you, skip it. And if you’re not sure, it’s okay to guess for now.
What minimum salary do you need?
How many hours do you want to work per week, and is there a maximum number?
Do you like having a flexible work schedule, or is it important to be on a routine?
What level of job-related stress are you comfortable with?
Is remote or hybrid work necessary for you?
Is there such a thing as too much social interaction for a job?
Is there such a thing as too little social interaction for a job?
Do you prefer working independently or as part of a team?
Is working on a computer a no-no for you?
Do Some Research
If you put some time into thoughtful research, there is a lot you will find out a lot about your ideal job. Here are some ideas.
Set up informational interviews
This is far and away one of the best ways to learn about different jobs out there.
If there are career paths you are interested in, send an email to people in those jobs and ask if they’d be willing to meet for twenty minutes.
Let them know you are contemplating entering into a career just like theirs, and that you’d be incredibly grateful if they’d be willing to answer a few questions about a day in the life.
Most people want to be helpful. And if you tactfully phrase this request, you’d be surprised just how many people will meet with you and do their best to help you find what you’re looking for.
Come in with a set of questions ahead of time. And don’t be afraid to follow the flow of your curiosity in the moment. But do make sure to ask:
What are your favorite parts of the job?
What are your least favorite parts of the job?
What are some things about the day-to-day that nobody would know unless they worked that job?
Action Step: Challenge yourself to set up five informational interviews over the next two weeks. If you’re feeling more ambitious, can you set up ten over the next month?
Research the type of company culture you are drawn to
Unless you’re called to entrepreneurship, it can be helpful to get a sense of what type of companies appeal to you and what company values are oil to your water.
There are plenty of people who are in the right line of work, but at the wrong company. If your company has a toxic culture, then no matter good of a fit the role is, your life might be hell.
Take some time to browse different companies on the Internet. Let yourself fall down the rabbit hole. Look at different companies' missions, stories, and values.
Action Step: Spend an hour some time this week exploring different companies online. Make a list of your favorites and why you liked those companies.
Browse LinkedIn Jobs to look for jobs that excite you
It’s likely that there is a perfect job for you out there; you just don’t know what it is yet.
And that job may be more than out there; someone may be hiring for it right now!
Try going on LinkedIn Jobs and looking at all the postings. Put aside the pressure to actually apply for anything. Right now, this is just an act of exploration.
As you’re scanning through jobs, notice which ones excite you.
This might provide you with some helpful information about what direction to head.
Action Step: Spend an hour browsing through LinkedIn Jobs. Make a list of all the jobs that feel exciting to you. Then rank them from most appealing to least.
And as you’re browsing, remember that you don’t have to be qualified for any of the jobs you like. This is just exploration of what sparks your interest.
Try Meeting with a Career Coach
If you’re still stuck, or you just want some professional support to expedite your process, consider meeting with a career coach.
This topic is their wheelhouse. They can help you get clear on what your dream job is. And then help you take create a practical action plan to get that job. And then teach you to do A+ work at that job.
If you’re interested in career coaching, I would love to hear from you. You can book your first call here.
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