The Guide to Getting Your Dream Job

Well, there is no guide to getting your dream job. Unless, you’re looking for one that lists down steps asking you to discover your passion, jot down qualities of your ideal job, not give up, and strive harder. Before you even go ahead to Google a guide like that, are you even sure of what a dream job exactly is? Is it a coveted company you’ve always wanted to work for, the desired position, a massive pay-check, or work hours that don’t suffocate your social life?

For most people, it is indeed a job that checks all these mentioned work elements. For some, it’s driven by raw passion. For others, it may be a combination of both, intense passion and preferred conditions. For a good section of the crowd though, their dream job may just be a replacement of their original dream job. Original dream job? Well, a profession they’ve always dreamt of pursuing; something that sits at the back of their minds throughout. Now that may be their ideal dream job but may seem far-fetched for multiple reasons, making them take the easier and available option.

That option they settle with may be a more practical, easier substitute for that dream job. It may also be one that might not exactly relate to the original dream job but may still be professionally and mentally satisfying to some level. Say, a traveller aspirant turned into a travel writer or an aspiring astronaut turned into an astronomer. Maybe, you always admired a career choice from afar but never had the courage to even try to pursue it due to some reasons. Maybe, that was your dream job. However, since you couldn’t get yourself to walk towards that path, you found a substitute that is satisfying at least to a certain level. Basically, you made some adjustments.

Now, in this society, your career is not only yours. It’s theirs too. They want to know if that particular profession will guarantee you success in terms of reputation and revenue. They want to know whether it’ll be an acceptable qualification for being a part of society. It could be fear aided by such external factors or personal inhibitions like lack of confidence, motivation, and self-doubt that may dodge you away from pursuing your original dream job.

For a large part of the crowd, their dream job more or less seems unattainable. Not because it’s impossible, but because it’s a tough road. And, we’re usually bound by these irrational social and cultural boundaries. There are restrictions – familial, financial, and mental.

Then comes the issue with the timing. Whatever your dream job may be, you probably won’t reach anywhere near it until maybe years of learning and struggling. On the other hand, you may even attain that space within a short span of time. It’s different for everyone. You’re not the same as your school bench partner or your long lost cousin. You are a different person with different capacities, different ambitions, and different perception of life. That’s exactly why it takes a different amount of time for you to reach there.

Though the idea of a dream job is quite subjective and there have been a lot of theories as to what exactly it is. The most compelling explanation would be availed by attaching interest, mental satisfaction, a handful of passion, and the degree of usefulness to your job. A dream job is one that doesn’t exactly feel like a job. In the sense, it doesn’t feel like negative baggage that you carry every day like a robot. It’s a job that makes you feel useful and makes you feel like you’re contributing something to the world.

It’s where you know all your skills are being used contentedly and fruitfully. Moreover, there has to be interest and a healthy amount of passion. If your work runs only on passion, it might just not run at all after a point. And well, a dream job doesn’t exactly promise happiness and success. It’s all about personal and professional gratification and growth. You shouldn’t feel like any of your useful skills are being wasted or that you’re only taking but not giving back to the world through your dream job.