People always get excited when I tell them what I do for a living. I get to build cool websites for organizations that work for the greater good. They see how passionate I am about my work and a single question crops up without fail, "How can someone land a job they love so much?”
Though I can't promise you'll be as happy at work as I am, I can walk you through the steps I took to get here and hopefully help you land your dream job.
1. Know what you want.
First off, you have to know what you want to do. For me, picking a field was easy, as I always knew I would be working with computers. By the age of six I had discovered I loved both creating things from nothing and learning. My dad had one of the first versions of a personal home computer released in the United Kingdom, a ZX-Spectrum, and a subscription to early computing magazines (complete with code snippets which I copied and used).
2. Figure out your motivators.
Personally I am motivated by challenges and a strong desire to change the world for the better. Once you know what drives you, it should be much easier to find a job you'll enjoy.
3. Set goals.
Set a series of goals for yourself that you can use as stepping stones to reach your ideal position. To not get overwhelmed, make a list and check each of them off one at a time. For me, I knew I wanted to work at a web development company in a small town in Scotland. Because there weren’t any companies of this type, I started my own.
4. Hone your skills.
Practice honing your skills in your free time. If at all possible, search for ways to make a living practicing. Remember, no one is perfect, but there's nothing wrong with striving to get there.
5. Specialize.
Pick a specialty and stick with it. In my experience, you're far more likely to get the job of your choice by being an “expert” in a couple disciplines rather than just “average” in several. When you see the discipline you specialize in starting to get shelved, pick a new one and start learning all over again.
6. Make yourself accessible.
I realized that in order for me to find a reputable company that allowed me to develop beautiful sites with great content, I was going to need to move away from my small Scottish city. My wife and I were fed up with the rain, so we started looking at the US. Our research showed that Charlotte had a lot going for it, so we moved across the pond.
7. Get Lucky.
Perhaps having lived so close to Ireland all my life, I started believing in the ‘Luck of the Irish’. Hopefully some of that green luck rubbed off on me, and that is why I landed my dream job. Having luck truly is out of your realm of control, but by following the above steps, you’re far more likely to land your dream job than not.
By this time you should be a strong candidate for your ideal job. You know what you want to do, know what motivates you, have set your goals, have honed your skills, have specialized in your field, and have made yourself accessible to employers. Now go find a four-leaf clover and start your dream job.
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