The first steps towards discovering and pursuing your dream job

Tough times and job scarcity often push people to take whatever come their way as job offer. You shall have to start from somewhere, whether it’s your dream job or not. Passion alone can’t pay bills or put food on the table. Wherever to begin, your first job is just as important. You may have to work for several different companies in the course of your working life before you finally land on your dream job.

Your success in getting a dream job highly depends on your past job title(s) and the reputation of the previous companies for which you worked. It all starts with your work purpose statement. This is because employers generally base their assessment of you on your past and existing job title(s) and the reputation of the companies for which you worked in the past.

Discovering and pursuing your dream job entails asking yourself some questions that provide food for thought.

• What skills and values do you most value in yourself?
• What aspects of your work experience so far have you most enjoyed?
• What’s your idea of a `dream job´?
• What are you willing to sacrifice to have a dream job?

Take a look at your past working experience and see if it can lead you to your dream job.
Now, do you want to be a generalist or a specialist in your dream job? To be a specialist means you chose a particular field you are passionate about, to pursue your career. Generalists will most probably aim at becoming organisational leaders or entrepreneurs.
As a specialist, you may want to chose jobs that allow you in time to progress further in your field. As a generalist, you may want to chose jobs that will offer you opportunities to learn more about other fields and to develop your leadership abilities.

Now, get more specific and write your `work purpose statement´

• Think of the way you want to contribute to your clients
• Think of the people you want to serve
• At what scale do you want to work?

The above points combined as one statement should give you your work purpose statement.