Do you know those people that are born knowing they want to play in the NFL? Or they know they want to become a doctor or a teacher or a lawyer?
Regardless of what they wanted to be, they knew from day one. And I was always jealous of them because they had it all figured out. Maybe you are too because you’re not quite sure what you want to do with your life, but you know you don’t want to waste it?
If that’s the case, this post is all about helping you figure out how to find your “dream job” when you have no idea what you like, what you’re good at, or are worried about wasting your time. This post is more geared to people in their early careers, but this applies to anyone who still hasn’t found that job that makes them come alive!
Alright, now let’s get into it.
Here’s how to find your dream job:
Just don’t do stuff you hate. That’s it. Just don’t do anything you hate. Avoid those things at all costs.
To further explain, let me share my story.
So my first real job ever was being a Sales Development Rep for a company called Scripted.
For context, Scripted is an online platform where businesses can hire freelance writers to write their content marketing for them, as opposed to hiring an in-house copywriter.
As a salesperson, my job was to grow the number of businesses using the platform. It was also my job to help upsell and expand the number of larger accounts into annual subscription plans, as opposed to month by month.
I did this by primarily working on nurturing inbound leads — people who signed up for a free 30 day trial of the software.
All in all, it was a valuable experience that taught me a lot about how SAAS (software as a service) companies operate, and of course, how to sell better.
But about four months into the job, I realized I didn’t like what I was doing. And it wasn’t about the selling. It was that I wasn’t very crazy about the product. Not that it is invaluable, it’s quite useful. But I didn’t have a fire inside me to talk about it all day, every day.
I grew to hate my job quickly.
But I ignored it. I kept working and doing, not looking at other options, mainly because I committed to working at the company for a certain amount of time, and I didn’t want to be a quote on quote, quitter.
I kept working for a few more months, just really not enjoying my job. Then one day, I received a message from the CEO of a company called Praxis — it’s a college alternative boot camp that teaches in-demand business skills to get participants hired at top tech startups.
I went through the program to land the job I was in, and that’s why I knew the CEO on a first name basis. Long story short, I was offered an opportunity to work for them as a demand generation specialist. Considering the dissatisfaction of my current state, I took the new opportunity.
The main reason? I loved the product and the people at the company. I loved their mission. It was something I could see myself talking about it, day in and day out, and never lose energy.
Now I’m months into this new job, and I’m so thankful I made the switch. I can only imagine how dissatisfied I would be if I kept putting myself through a job that didn’t give me energy.
So I wanted to share this because it brings up this one specific point I want to get across:
Don’t do stuff you hate.
And there are two ways to look at that. The first is, life is too short to do things that don’t make you happy. If there’s a way to continue moving forward, that brings your more fulfillment than your current route, switch paths.
The second way to look at it is this: If you don’t know what you want to do in life, it doesn’t matter where you start. Just get a job, gain experience. Through that, you’ll learn a lot about yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, what drives you and motivates you, and more importantly, what you hate doing. Take note of the things you hate. And then only take the next job opportunity that doesn’t include those things. Over time, with each new job, you’ll continue to learn and continue to add more reasons to your hate-list. Eventually, you’ll shave away all the things you hate, making each new job closer and closer to your ideal opportunity.
So the question I have for you is this: What do you hate?