Spring Clean and Find Your Dream Job

It's that time of year again, when the weather starts to warm up and the flowers begin to bloom. It's common to take this time to tidy things up a bit and prepare for the new season. What about your career path? Are you in a mess of confusion regarding your ideal job? It can be a challenge to keep moving forward when you are in this frame of mind. Maybe it's time to get some clarity with a spring cleaning.

Here are three strategies to help you spring clean your career path, and get on track to land your dream job:

1. Dream first and get practical later. If you get practical too soon, you can cut yourself off at the knees with your brainstorming ideas. If you allow yourself to dream first and dream big, you may come across a career idea you never considered or even knew about. Tap into your childhood dreams; tap into your passions and your heart.

2. Clarify what you want by identifying what you don’t want. As a career coach, I've discovered that when I ask people what they want in an ideal job or career, they can't tell me. But if I ask them what they don't want, or what they didn't like in previous jobs, they can give me a long list of complaints or things they'd want to change! Like a less demanding boss, fewer deadlines or less stress. If this is the case for you, it may feel like you are checking things off of a list and identifying what you don't want, instead of moving forward by clarifying what you do want.

3. Determine your transferable skills and experience. Review your resume and every position you’ve ever held - paid or not. What are your transferable skills and past experience that you can capitalize on to transfer to another industry? What natural talents do you have that you enjoy using at work? Create a list of skills and experience. Brainstorm career ideas with a friend based on what you can bring to the table.

Bonus: Lastly, here is an exercise from our Identify Your Ideal Career Path Home Study Program: Take a moment to visualize your ideal day at work. If you could create it from scratch, what would you be doing? What would it look like? If it helps, go ahead and try writing your ideas down instead of just visualizing, sometimes that works better for some people. You can also look for tangible clues in your current life instead of making things up from scratch. Think outside the box, and dream big. You can always compromise later.