It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. THOMAS CARLYLE Sartor Resartus
You need information about yourself and about the changing world of work. Find an optimal fit by matching what you learn about yourself against what you learn about the world.
If you're like most people, at least part of your career plans was decided by someone else. If that decision was not best for you, something has to change. You must either change to fit the job, or you must change the job to fit you. If you have often changed yourself to suit the job you were in, you may not know what you want. The next chapter helps you figure out what you would enjoy doing in a job.
You cannot find out about yourself in a vacuum. Go out and test your ideas about yourself against what others think of you. That's the only healthy way. With more knowledge about the world, and with a clearer sense of our place in it, options will appear that we never noticed before.
THE STEPS TO FINDING YOUR PLACE
The basic steps to finding your place are covered in this section. Spend as much or as little time as you want on each. The process can go on forever. Do what you want now, and do more later.
Step 1: Determine what you want. Develop a long term view of yourself a guiding light that can see you through a number of jobs. In fact, you could develop a view that will see you through your entire life.
Step 2: Decide what you want to offer. Notice that I say what you want to offer not what you have to offer. You may be tempted to offer what you have been offering all along. Although a pragmatic choice may see you through a job transition, it is more important to decide what you want to offer. If you offer things you do not want to do, you increase your chances of doing things you do not want to do.
I looked at a secretary's resume. It mentioned heavy phone work as one of her duties. When I asked her if she liked phone work, she responded, "I hate phone work." I advised her to remove it from her resume or someone would say, "That's just what we need: someone who can do heavy phone work."
Of course, every job has parts you don't like. In fact, you may decide to offer such an aspect as one of your strong skills until you develop yourself in the areas you want to focus on. That's often a good approach.
I'll use my own life as an example. I started out in computers as a way of working my way through school. After learning so much about them, I have always used computers to my advantage even though working with them was not central on my list of life goals. Sometimes the fact that I knew computers gave me an edge over other job hunters. While I didn't want working with computers to be a central part of my job, the skill has been a handy one to offer.
In this step you will develop a menu of everything you have to offer, and then you can decide to offer what you want.
Step 3: A combination of the results of Steps 1 and 2. You'll do best in a job that relies on some of your strengths and experiences, but also provides you with some growth toward your goals. Bring something to the job.
CAST STUDY: AARON
Knowing where he wants to end up
Aaron has been in corporate marketing for eight years. Through the Seven Stories exercise and his Forty Year Plan, he developed a long term view of himself: the head of a five hundred person public sector related agency or organization, such as the World Wildlife Fund.
Now that he knows where he wants to end up, he can work backward to figure out how he could get there. To head up such a large organization, he has two choices: he can start such an organization from scratch, or he can take over an existing organization. Aaron decided that five years from now, he would prefer to become the head of an existing fifty person organization and expand it to a five hundred person organization.
But how can he go from where he is now to becoming the head of a fifty person organization? What he has to offer is his corporate marketing background. Therefore, his next logical step is to try to get a marketing job in a not for profit organization that is similar to the one he would eventually like to head up. That way, his next job will be one that positions him well for the moves after that, and increases his chance of getting where he wants to go.
