Have you ever felt stuck in your day-to-day job? Burn out from your job can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life. Naturally, just like everyone else, you spend a good part of your day getting ready for and being at your job. That is a long time to be dissatisfied.
If you genuinely feel stuck, here are 6 great ways to find your ideal career:
Brainstorm on a sheet of paper – Start with a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form. And then next, list as many answers. For example, how ’bout writing “What should I be doing with my time and life?” Then after that stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question . The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers – don’t quit until you have 20 answers. You can easily do over and over again till you get a satisfactory answer.
Discuss with friends and relatives – Sometimes our friends have greater intimate knowledge of us better than ourselves. While meeting with one of your friends, ask for their help to sort things out about your career goals. Ask them for what they think you’d love to be doing. More often than not they can zero in to the skill sets that you like using over and over and come up with a good suggestion.
Talk to people at work – Much like your friends in the example above, your boss and coworkers see you in a different light. Your coworkers have seen what you’re good at in a professional sense. Look at the list of answers and determine if there’s a hint of what can be your new direction.
Work with a job placement recruiter – Professional men and women have a resume. Sometimes you may get lucky and catch a job placement specialist in between recruiting schedules and discuss with them your career goals. I’ve done this at different times in my life and some, not all, have been open to talk. After all, if you don’t g et paid, they don’t either. The ideas I get are usually good.
Take a career assessment test – Let’s get this straight: all professions require different career paths. Easy to illustrate, nursing career goal lists need a different route from a firefighter. There are several sites on the Internet that these tests are available to you at your convenience. From the previous tip, most recruiters and headhunters are already using a skills assessment program and will most likely let you complete the test in their facility. These are simple tests asking you to answer a series of questions regarding your professional expertise and goals. If you take one, you will likely receive hints of what you want to do.
Jot down ideas, like in a journal – Do you keep a journal? If so, read through, looking for what you liked doing or what made your day. Look for common themes. Keep in mind that finding things you don’t like is just as important as things you don’t like. By way of example, if you disdain a micromanaging boss, then you’re most likely fitted for an independent field work.
Learning who you are professionally is the most important decision you can make. After all, we spend a big portion of our lives earning a living for ourselves and family. So figuring out the right career is important to keeping that 1/3 of our lives happy and productive.