Find Your Dream Job Title
Turning Your Description Into a Dream Job Title
This is the step that feels like magic ... finding words and a real job title that reflects exactly what you want to spend your life doing ... and earn a living at. In all the steps or tasks involved in finding your dream job, it is the one that I enjoy helping people with the most.
Like most of the inhabitants of the Art Gallery , it brings me to life to see others light up when their detailed dream job description becomes a reality.
Seeking A good Job *Counselor*
With your description in hand, any good job counselor or guidance counselor in high school, college, job bank, unemployment office or placement office can help you zero quickly in on titles that fit your description.
And with the title or work keywords, you can look up the jobs and learn more about them ... on the Internet, job search boards, or Jobs Outlook reference books.
Arranging Into Life Path Categories
But this is not just a site to help you put your life and dream job in the hands of someone else ... because there is a lot more work to do ... and it will help you when you go for interviews and talk with people about what you are looking for.
The first thing I do is look at what life path your dream job ingredients fall into. Usually the activities, things, people and places you love fit within one to three life paths ... and give you a great starting place. Discovering what they are is another light bulb going off ... because suddenly all of the things you love .... from people and places to activities and experiences ... fall into place and the puzzle of what you love starts to make sense.
So take a moment and look over your dream job ingredient list and then look at the nine life paths to see which ones fit you best. Each life path has a major activity that defines it ....
Life Path Activities
Life Path One |
Discovering
Exploring |
Innovating |
Life Path Two |
Nurturing |
Advising |
Life Path Three |
Expressing |
Performing |
Life Path Four |
Building |
Making |
Life Path Five |
Adventuring |
Hunting |
Life Path Six |
Healing |
Knowledge Working |
Life Path Seven |
Investigating |
Experimenting |
Life Path Eight |
Founding |
Administrating |
Life Path Nine |
Guiding |
Saging |
Life Path Zero |
Clueless |
Still Searching |
Grouping Into Career Groups
By grouping things into activities, you automatically start to create career groups that match the major type of activity your ingredients fit into. To see an example of how this works, read the bush chef's raw list and then look at the list sorted into life paths and specific activities.
The way it works is simple. You just group your ingredients under common activities, and then change the word from an adjective describing the activity ... into a noun that names the person who does those things.
Here are a few examples ...
writing --> writer
planning --> planner
performing --> performer
inventing --> inventor
managing --> manager
building --> builder
That is all there is to it. And with these labels ... you start to have the beginnings of a job title you can use to look up professions, careers and trades.
Start Researching Titles
With this under your belt, it is time to do some research. Go to a career center and ask about references that list and describe job categories and titles.Or visit the Books and look at the Occupational Outlook there. Or just go online and look at careers and professions or the online version of helpful references ...
Occupational Outlook
While you are there, get a counselor to check out what you have done and give you some feedback. They might be able to spot something you missed or lead yo directly to the material you need to research your dream job titles.
You want to try to cast a wide net and come up with all the possible options. Once you have a good list, you will want to do more checking around to narrow the list down to the job titles that best reflect most or all of your dream job ingredients.
Does that seem easy enough?
Still Want A Little Hand holding?
If you are new to turning ideas and work activities into professions, here is another example to help you see how it is done.
A Short Ingredient List
Say you love ...
kindergartners, crayons and playing board games ...
these fit into Life Path 2 (Nurturing).
But you also love doctors and hospitals,
which fit into Life Path 6 (Healer).
And you love working out and running in marathons
(you even won a prize for jumping rope in grade school),
which is Life Path 5 (Athlete).
Old School Approach To Choosing Careers
The old school approach would be to have you look in three different directions (becoming a kindergarten teacher, a doctor or a personal trainer) and then choosing one of them.
New Focused Job Titles
But ... if instead you do have stepped back ... and looked at the activities that you love and want to get paid for doing ... you are looking to CoMBINE
Nurturing, Healing and Athletics
That gives you a lot more options and places to look to find out exactly what your dream job is. Often, people will get a few ideas and jump at the first or second job that meets those needs .. and end up later unhappy with their choice and confused about why it did not turn out to be their dream job. The reason often is that your dream job has many components or ingredients .. and you need to find a job that meets most or all fifty to one hundred ingredients .. not just two or five or ten.
More Ingredients Helps You Zero In
Would you love a recipe that was missing 90% of its required ingredients? Would you even want to try it out .. or would you pass it up and wait for the real thing?
So why settle for a dream job that only has 10% of the things that make it your dream job?
In this example, we need more information to help you zero in on exactly what you would love to do. For example, who do you want to work with as clients ... children or doctors?
- Profession: Physical therapy is one profession that combines healing and athletics. Working within the field of pediatrics lets you combine healing with nurturing young children, as does work in cognitive development and learning disabilities.
- Job Title: Combining the fields of pediatrics and physical therapy, you might love the idea of being a physical rehabilitation aide ... someone who gets to spend all day working one-on-one with kids ... helping them develop their physical and mental abilities while recovering from major life threatening illnesses. The work involves hands on interaction with the kids playing with balls and jump ropes as well as board games and flash cards.
But maybe you want to work with kids, but you also have gifts and talents in computer programming and writing software. Then you might be more drawn to ...
- Profession: Computer & Interactive Games Development in the field of cognitive development, specializing in helping kids who are disabled mentally or physically.
- Job Title: Game Developer, Inventor, or Programmer working on games to help therapists diagnose problems, as well as to help stimulate and develop specific skills.
But maybe you are more drawn to working in depth with lifelong skills and self esteem ... and the athletic side of you wants to be more active. In that case ...
- Profession & Title: You might want to be involved with the Special Olympics as a trainer or facilitator -- someone who works directly with the kids on a daily basis helping them develop their physical abilities.
Now you have three job titles and an organization you like to work with, and can keep your eye out as you learn more about the opportunities in the work world to do what you love.
The Next Step ..
Now that you have some job titles to work with, you want to look at the specific industries, companies and bosses you want to work for ...
Find the Right Industries, Companies and Bosses For You
