4 Things to Look For When Finding Your Dream Job

Finding your dream job requires major insight into who you are, first and foremost. Your beliefs, values, desires, and interests all play a role in how you perceive the perfect dream job. While these factors will be different for everyone, there are some universal truths that we’d like to cover. Aside from what sets your soul on fire, finding your dream job is about fulfillment and enjoyment. This article discusses the factors that make dream careers enjoyable and rewarding. Here are four things to look for when finding your dream job.

1. Are the Hours Ideal?

Even if you could get hired to sit in your pajamas eating ice cream, you’d still want to make sure that the hours made sense. Maybe it’s important to make time for family dinner. Perhaps you want to fit a workout in before dark. These preferences will impact how you think about the convenience of your work hours. In all fairness, however, there may not be a perfect situation. The best thing to do for yourself is to consider whether or not you’re settling too much for the hours required. If you find that you are, it’s probably not your dream job, after all.

2. Is the Work Rewarding?

In today’s economy, you might think that settling for aspects of your dream job is the same as getting your dream job in its entirety. This way of thinking is an attempt to make the most of an imperfect situation. Ask yourself if the work you are doing is truly rewarding work, as in, it’s rewarding because it’s EXACTLY what you WANT to be doing. If you want to be a children’s book author, but your job is to spend most of your time writing Amazon reviews, you’re not genuinely working as a writer, at least not the way you think of it. So, if you find that your job is close but no cigar, keep looking.

3. Are You Being Taken Seriously?

One of the most important parts behind finding reward in your dream job is knowing that others at your work appreciate what you bring to the table. You should never go fishing for compliments, but, having a genuine presence and sense of respect from others where you work are two essentials. If you’re asking yourself how long does a background check take because you haven’t heard back, chances are the company isn’t valuing you like you deserve. If your work is dismissed or overshadowed, you may not be working in your dream environment. In cases like these, search for job opportunities that give you the recognition you deserve.

4. Could You Improve the Situation?

Maybe you have found your dream job, and it’s almost everything you could ask for. Ask yourself if these “almost” situations could be improved by changes that you make. For example, let’s say you’ve dreamed of managing an art gallery. Now, you’ve been given the position, but the gallery is two hours away from where you live. You don’t want to commute every day, but you love the job. Could you consider relocating? If you did move closer to work, you’d eliminate the one pitfall of an otherwise perfect job. See if any of your job opportunities could turn into dream jobs with a few changes on your part.

Looking for your dream job is about taking the ideas you’ve created in your mind and finding the opportunities that match them in real life. If you can’t find a perfect match, create one and make flexible changes that bring you closer to landing the job of your dreams.