Feature in Kitsap’s Best Places to Work-December 2022

Becoming a Career Detective

The thought of finding the right job or ideal career can be daunting.  People often find themselves feeling stuck whether they are newly graduated or contemplating a career change.

A great place to start is to become a detective in your own life.  The question: “What are your strengths?” Can send people into a weird head space.  It’s not necessarily a bad question, however it’s a tough one.  People don’t find it easy to acknowledge their strengths and get uncomfortable at the idea of bragging.  Listing strengths can also be a red herring; what you excel at may not be what brings you joy.

Instead, try asking yourself questions such as: What do I gravitate towards? What do I like to spend time doing? For example, I’ve always enjoyed asking questions and loved listening to other people’s stories. You might instead geek out on data and numbers or feel your best when surrounded by nature.  Ask yourself: Do you work best surrounded by people or on your own?

If you still feel adrift, switch your focus to what you don’t want.  Do you hate the idea of presenting to a large group, working for hours at a desk, or not being of service to others?  What you don’t want gives you an idea of what might work for you.

Getting to know your values can also offers clues.  You might have a top value of creativity.  How could a role honor and let you express this value?  Being aligned with your values and having the opportunity to express them leads to a greater sense of fulfillment.

Get support. You can narrow down your options by taking an online career aptitude test, speaking with a careers advisor or by hiring a coach to partner with you. If you already have a few leads, you can take your investigation to the next level by asking: What sort of people do I like being around? What is going to be important for me in terms of company culture or environment.

Network. Remain open in your exploration.  Who do you know that work in fields that interest you?  No job is perfect, so you’ll want to ask them how they find joy in the work they do.  What’s the upside and what are the pitfalls?

Practice self-compassion.  You might not find the ideal role this time around.  Many of us have meandering and messy paths to get to what feels right and even then it can change.  Let go of the shoulds: thinking it should be easier and you should automatically know what you want.  Lots of hard work can go into finding and refining the right fit for us. Lots of people will offer advice on what you should be doing based on what they know about you and the opportunities they have experienced and missed out on.  Feel free to take on board all the useful tips and leave behind the rest.

You can’t control everything, but less stress will make navigating the process easier. What do you need to let go of to make it more enjoyable?

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash