Many of us sit around asking the same question that rung through our elementary school days “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Maybe you’ve just finished (or are about to finish) college, maybe you’ve just discovered the path you were on is not the path you want, or maybe you are just always searching for an answer. It is a tough question, and our difficulties with answering it can be paralyzing. How do you make a choice to do anything when you are viewing everything in terms of the rest of your life? Stay with me for the rest of this entry and you will get a little more peace of mind.
The first step is simple- do something. There is a lot to be said for momentum for the sake of momentum. If you are moving forward, keeping yourself involved in a job, you will learn a lot. Sometimes you will learn a lot about the job itself, and sometimes you will learn a lot about yourself. Maybe you always wanted to be a CEO, but you get a job working for a non-profit and feel so much better than you had previously. It is also all too easy to stagnate. The longer we are away from the working world, the easier it is to get used to not working. Avoid this, find something, and keep moving forward.
It is also incredibly important to stay open, and stay searching. It is of the upmost importance that you talk to people, especially people that you think have what you want. If you think you might want to teach, start talking to teachers. Shoot e-mails out to your local public school, ask for their opinion of their job. You can do this in any field, people like to help those who reach out to them for information. You also want to talk to people who have nothing to do with the field you think you want. See how people fare in other environments, see what people value, what makes a career a good fit. Soak up as much information from others as you possibly can. Do this until you feel like you have a couple ideas, a couple different paths you would want to take.
Then start going down those paths. With the information you’ve gleaned in your back pocket, start looking for jobs related to (not necessarily in) your desired field. Think about jobs in terms of skills instead of titles. If you want to learn to manage a large team, consider starting in the service industry (especially in the corporate service industry), where it can be easier to get to a managerial position. If you want to teach, consider looking for summer camp jobs, or at afterschool programs. Find something that is similar to what you want to do, but does not require the kind of CV that your dream job does.
If you keep moving forward you won’t need to worry as much about where you are headed, especially if you are moving (even vaguely) towards it. Keep pushing, and you will find yourself making your job your dream job.