3 Tips for Landing Your Ideal Career

Hearing in an interview that this prospective position would give you a fat check every pay period is great news! But it can be somewhat blinding if it prevents you from considering other aspects of the position. No matter how much fun you will have with your flashy salary, if it’s a job that you absolutely despise, then it’s going to be not-so-fun earning that stack of cash. Given that you’ll be spending 40+ hours a week at your job, it is important to make sure that it is something you will enjoy—money aside.

With that, how do you go about finding a career that’s right for you? Here are three ways you can get started:

• StrengthsFinder 2.0 –
  Available both online and in book format, this tool allows you to take a short assessment in order to determine what your top strengths are. The test evaluates you for 34 different talent themes, including, for example, Achiever, Developer, Positivity, Empathy, Includer, and Focus. Once you know your strengths, reflect on how you could incorporate these qualities into a career. It just so happens that we generally like doing things that we are good at. If you get stuck, StrengthsFinder 2.0 also provides an entire chapter dedicated to incorporating your unique strengths into a career.
• Hop around –
  If you’ve recently graduated from college and are in your twenties, this is the ideal time to explore different career options. Once you land a job out of school, if you’re unsure that that is what you want to spend the rest of your life doing (which you probably are), then consider hopping around. Many professionals in their twenties change careers every two or so years until they find that perfect fit.
• Connect with other professionals –
  If you think you’d like to go back to school in order to become a pharmacist, but aren’t absolutely certain, what better way to find out than by shadowing a pharmacist! People enjoy talking about themselves and their lives, so most people will probably be glad to help you. If it is not a position that you can shadow, ask if they would be willing to talk over coffee, respond to an email, or even Skype. While this only provides you with one person’s perspective on the position, it can still offer you some great insight.

These tips provide you with some great ways to get started on your journey to a fulfilling career! However, it’s important to note that not every one of your passions would make for a good career. There are some passions, in fact, that might be “ruined” if you were to try to turn them into a career. Knowing and understanding which passions these are is important to finding your ideal career job.