Friday, September 21, 2012

Five Secrets to Creating Your Dream Career

There are countless career opportunities in this economy for you to create your dream job. Why be unhappy with your career when you can create the perfect job that leads to a happy fulfilling career using a little creativity?
The following are seven secrets to creating your dream job and very successful career:

1. What Do You Want to Achieve in Your Career?
This may seem like a fairly obvious question; however, when I interact with employees who are unhappy with their careers I ask them, "what do you want to achieve in your career?" At that point most employees can't answer the question or I may receive an answer of, "I Know What I Don't Want." I have found out that the lack of career goals is one of the leading factors of job dissatisfaction, conflict, and stress in the workplace.
The foundation of a successful career is knowing what you want from your career. Take the time to develop career goals. Once you have done this, break your goals into manageable pieces and time periods so that you can continuously track how successful you are in achieving your goals.

2. What Are Your Job Requirements
Now that you have developed your career goals, recognize your requirements for success. Some career questions you can ask yourself are:
* What additional education needs will I have?
* Are my career requirements in harmony with my family goals, etc.?
* Do I want to work at home or in the office?
* Do I want the added responsibility of being a leader or would I be happier as a team member (be honest with yourself).
3. Look for Your Perfect Job
Ideas for your dream job are all around you every day. Look for career ideas from the following resources:
* Look for trends for career opportunities in newspapers, magazines, or TV or radio, and the Internet. Act as an "opportunity filter" and look for the career opportunities where others only see the negative.
* Think like your internal and external customers and find out what their biggest challenges are and how you can provide solutions.
* Think like management, and constantly seek to discover the challenges they face and develop solutions. The biggest gold mines for finding organizational solutions are the meetings you attend. Listen for the little gold nuggets of opportunities that will help you develop you dream job.

4. Sell the Solution
Once you have completed the research and preparation, it's time to sell management on your solution and your dream job. Remember to tune into management's W-I-I-F-M, What's In It for Management, when communicating your solution. Stress the benefits of your proposal and why they should adopt it. Stress how you would deliver the solution in your new position. Make sure to discuss your career requirements (resources, telework vs. office, education, etc.) for success in detail and how they relate to the solution. Close with conviction by asking for management's input on your presentation and address any concerns at that time.
5. If You Don't Succeed at First...
If you don't succeed at first, stay positive and continue to fine tune your proposal Remember, there will always be changes in management, the economy, situations, personnel, and organizational opportunities. Constantly be aware of them so that you can rise to the occasion when the career opportunity presents itself again.
Apply these five career secrets to achieve more career success in your life. Act today to start developing the foundation for your dream job tomorrow.

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