| 6 steps for landing your dream job |
| By Leslie
Hunt • Bankrate.com |
|
Doctors go to medical school. Lawyers
need law school. Professors pursue Ph.D.s.
You, however, want to design engines for NASCAR, or
read the news as a top TV anchor, or host your own TV series.
Your career path forecast: cloudy, with isolated dust
storms.
While there's no one way to go about landing your
dream job, it helps to know how to make sense of a vague career
path, where to conduct your research, how to get experience, and
how to make the best industry contacts.
| We dug up surprisingly simple
advice from career experts to help you develop a low-risk,
high-gain plan to land your dream job. |
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| 6 steps to land
your dream job |
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1. Harness the
clarity of the pen.
Begin with a short writing exercise to help you clarify this dream
career you are seeking. Write down any answers that come to mind
when you ask yourself "When am I happiest?" says Les McKeown,
president, CEO and author of "How
to Succeed At Work." As goofy as the process might sound,
it helps you pinpoint whether you're happiest with people, animals,
difficult tasks or easy tasks -- saving you years wasted at unfulfilling
jobs.
McKeown says that doing this should produce between
three and seven clear, career desires, such as "I want to be
able to travel" or "I want to be outdoors." Simply
match the job to those desires as best you can.
Another way to home in on your ideal job is to create
three lists: what you're good at, what you like to do and what's
important to you, says Steven Rothberg, president of CollegeRecruiter.com,
a resource for students and recent graduates seeking information
on jobs, education and business opportunities. You should start
to see some similarities between these statements fairly quickly,
he says.
2. Test the waters
before you jump in.
"You don't want to quit your job after deciding to become a
fireman and go become a fireman," says Margot Carmichael Lester,
author of "The
Real Life Guide to Starting Your Career" and monthly contributor
to Monster.com. "That's not a good idea."
Delve in to a new career in a low-risk way by job
shadowing for a week. Or, get an internship at a place you'd like
to work and ask to do real assignments. You can volunteer on the
weekends if you work full time. Not only will you build skills that
can help you if you follow your dream, but you will learn whether
you want to make the career jump.
Go online to do research. Read blogs from people in
the industry for great insight into the daily grind, says Lester.
Read all about available positions, job descriptions and statistics.
Suggested sites from the experts:
3. Reach out and call someone.
If you liked what you tasted so far, dig a little deeper for the
inside scoop on the realities of the job and how to reach that coveted
position.
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