How To Find A Job You Love (With Examples)

Finding a job you both enjoy and are passionate about can be a challenging task. It might seem easy enough to place a search for keywords that might help you find the right career or job, but there’s no real way to be certain without doing the work first.

Searching for a job can be daunting and sometimes downright exhausting. Finding a job that checks all of the boxes for what you’re looking for doesn’t just mean finding any old job in the career or market you’re looking at; it’s finding the right job for you in the stage of your career journey.

If you end up choosing a job that’s not going to benefit you in the long run, you’ll find yourself back on the job market sooner rather than later and end up needing to go through the job search process again. This can be stressful and a detriment to your resume.

That’s why it’s important to focus on a few key things when you’re in the job market, looking for your next opportunity. In this article, we discuss what makes a job one you love, how to find one, and what to do if you’re not having success finding the job of your dreams.

How to Identify the Job You Love

The hardest part of finding a job you’re passionate about might not be about finding the job at all. It may be discovering or re-discovering the passions you have. Oftentimes, the regular grind of a job can cause us to forget what really excites us.

• Rediscover your interests. Our true passions often emerge when we’re children and become suppressed by adult pressures and responsibilities. Tap into your inner-child and think about what you loved before you had to worry about building your career.

  Try not to hold back or stifle yourself during this process. Even if it feels impossible at the moment, it’s a good idea just to understand those initial instincts you felt. Anything can translate to a job or career.

• Don’t consider financial burdens. Though seemingly impossible, including financial restrictions around this process can hinder you in exploring the infinite possibilities of what your job could look like. Consider what you would do if you could eliminate money from the equation. Would you travel, spend more time at home, or start a non-profit?

  At the end of the day, when you make a decision, you’ll need to be financially responsible. However, it shouldn’t be your motivating factor when searching for a job that fulfills your passions.

• Ask for feedback. We can be our own biggest roadblocks. Asking trusted friends or family for their opinions might help you decide on a job and give you honest feedback on the next steps to take. Of course, be sure you’re not bringing this to a consistent naysayer. Make sure you talk to someone who readily supports you, your dreams, and ambitions.

• Identify those you want to emulate. If possible, find someone you want to look up to in terms of career goals. Although everyone’s journey is different, it’s essential to have a vision. It doesn’t have to be a celebrity or even someone necessarily in your network. It just has to be someone who has accomplished something you wish to achieve, with a set of values you’re looking to adopt.

  You may also be able to reach out to this person and develop a networking relationship with them so that you can ask about how they got their start and any suggestions they may have for you.

• Think about your skills. Another key thing to give your attention to is determining what you’re naturally good at. What innate skills can you bring to the table to translate to the career you’re thinking about? What comes easy to you? Write these skills down in a safe place and consider narrowing them down to just a few you can focus on. This list is a great jumping-off point when you’re taking the plunge.

Where to Find the Job of Your Dreams

When you’re ready to dive into job searching, you’ll want to create an action plan. Consider the fact that your job will directly impact your lifestyle and quality of life, along with your relationships and other interests outside of work.

One of the best ways to find a job that aligns appropriately with the type of life you want to live is to think about what’s important for you in your personal life and go from there. This could mean you want to take a hobby full time or look for more time to spend with your family. How you answer this question will depend on what you find most important in life, which can be different for everyone.

• Consider a mentor. Many people underestimate the importance of having trustworthy people in their corner. See if you can find someone in your network who knows you, your abilities, and your goals. This can be someone like a former colleague, a sports coach, or a teacher.

  Having people who push you and care about your success is the best inspiration to help you grow with purpose. They can help you with advice and also surface new opportunities that might be of interest to you and your dreams.

• Use digital to your advantage. With the amount of digital platforms accessible at our fingertips today, it’s an oversight not to use them to your advantage. This does not mean sending private messages to everyone you come across on LinkedIn. Instead, use social platforms to seek out the people who have your dream job and see if they wouldn’t mind having a short conversation about how they got there.

  These interactions should be similar to interviews – you never know who is looking to hire. If you make a lasting impression, you might be the candidate they think of when they start recruiting. If not for their company, then perhaps for someone they know in the industry.

• Get educated. Depending on the career path you’re seeking, you may need to obtain additional certification to get in the door. Volunteer or intern for organizations where you can offer your time in exchange for knowledge about the specific role or industry.

  If you need to incorporate school into your education, a night school or online course might work well. Not only does this boost your credentials and credibility, but it will open up new networking opportunities with others on the same career path or professors who have connections. It could also have the opposite effect and reveal things about the job or industry you may want to avoid.

When You Can’t Find a Job You Love

If you’ve been searching for a while or are struggling to find a job or career path that speaks to you, there might be a few reasons why you’re stuck.

• What you put in. Just because you’re working hard or longer hours, doesn’t mean you’re satisfied. While long hours might be required for some jobs, most successful people or those satisfied with their jobs spend their time on the jobs that are right for them.

  When you’re in a job that you’re passionate about, counting hours becomes a thing of the past. For these people, the amount of hours is less significant than doing what they love, whenever and wherever they can.

• Bad fits. Typically when looking for a job, candidates might search for the most attractive companies. They may even go back to their resume and attempt to tailor it for the specific job. This often ends badly.

  The company is pitching their most attractive side, while the candidate pitches their most attractive qualities. This may make for an optimal match, but more often than not, it is a recipe for unhappiness that ends unfavorably for both parties involved.

• Passion. In terms of finding satisfaction in what you’re doing day in and day out, passion alone may not cut it. The real secret sauce is finding a job that helps you explore something you are passionately curious about while combining your natural skills.

  If you can find the sweet spot in the middle of these two things, chances are you will find a career that you’ll find satisfaction in for quite some time.

• Money. As mentioned above, financial concerns can drive a lot of decision-making, most obviously when it comes to your career choices. If you remove money from the equation, you might find your true passion, but how do you maintain financial responsibility?

  Finding various revenue income streams can help you become more financially free and pursue a job that you love instead of relying on a job you dislike. There are a variety of different ways to maintain steady streams of income outside of your career.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research. Caitlin holds a degree in English from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.

Expert

Matt Warzel, CPRW, CIR

Matt Warzel a President of a resume writing firm (MJW Careers, LLC) with 15+ years of recruitment, outplacement, career coaching and resume writing experience. Matt is also a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Internet Recruiter (CIR) with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing Focus) from John Carroll University.