Do you ever worry about making a good decision related to your career path? Have you ever thought that it has a lot to do with knowing and utilizing your personal strengths?
They could play an important role when finding your dream job. E.g. if you are a real people person enjoying social interactions, it might be difficult to work as a software developer. If you are naturally gifted with the analytical mind, leadership skills, and enjoy working with numbers, you may find a creative role a bit tough.
When you feel a little bit confused or unsure about the career decisions you have to make, reevaluate your strengths. This knowledge will help you find your way easier.
There are a lot of books written on the subject of finding your personality strengths, character traits, skills and talents and building your life around them.
One of them is Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. It is a book about discovering who you are, what you’re naturally best at and how to apply it in a business or life sense.
Main Things To Remember For Your Dream Job Search
We have read the Now, Discover Your Strengths (so you don’t have to!) and selected the top 4 things you should keep in mind:
Focus on your strengths, not weaknesses. In order to have the energy to improve your work performance or become great at what you do, you have to do more of what makes you feel strong. Don’t waste your time or energy on something that makes you weak. Focus on utilizing your strengths and do more of something you feel passionate about.
Strengths vs. disposition. Some career guidance and aptitude tests will suggest that you choose a career based on your temperamental makeup. Our dispositions, character or personality traits directly influence our actions, however, they are not always the most important thing when it comes to our behavior. Its significance varies from situation to situation. Strengths, on the other hand, is a much more powerful and less complicated concept. It is defined as things we are naturally good at.
Which strengths does the dream job role require? Look past the usual role or title to the actual nature of the work, so you can see certain patterns. E.g. some work is very creative. Some – very people oriented. Some – very predictable, while some – very much change driven. Once you break it down to the nature of the work, you will have a much better idea about the character strengths needed to succeed in that field. It also helps you uncover how you would spend the majority of your time at work.
Don’t link the strength themes directly to the roles. Certain strengths do not equal certain roles. Think of your strengths as a roadmap that could guide you towards your success.
When we were younger we all have been asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” a lot of times. Some people made up their mind at a very early age and stuck to it. You probably have at least few friends or family members who always knew they were gonna be a doctor or a musician. They grew up knowing exactly what they wanted to pursue and did not change their mind over time.
Some people find the career choice and search for a dream job a bit harder due to several different reasons. They might be multi-passionate and have multiple talents, skills, traits and interests. They could also be the ones less aware of their actual strengths. When overwhelmed with options available on the job market, we often choose none. With so many different paths, how do we pick and choose just one enjoyable and fulfilling career?
So What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
To answer this question, you have to think about choosing the right field and role for who you are. Do you think you would enjoy a career in healthcare, IT, engineering, fashion or education? Also important to consider is the role that would be suitable for you. Would you be better of as a salesperson, a manager, a designer or an administrator? Would you be better at working in an office or in a remote team? It could also be some sort of unique combination of a few roles.
As mentioned by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton in Now, Discover Your Strengths, there are several tools that could help you make up your mind and find your dream job:
Try career guidance tests that match your disposition to a certain career field. Like CliftonStrengths for Students, these tests will match you to certain jobs based on your character and/or personality type, assuming that people with a similar personality can perform the same jobs. They study each personality type, compare it to each field in their database and put you in a box with the ones you resemble the most.
Find the connection between certain roles and certain strengths. It is apparent that people who excel in the same role do possess some similar themes. E.g. people blessed with adaptability might be suitable for a journalist role, while people focused on stability would be better suited for a governmental job.
Don’t draw strict conclusions between a particular strength theme and a particular role. It’s only a roadmap that should guide you in the process of understanding different roles there are and distinguishing the ones that would be more suitable for you. You should always keep in mind that people with very different theme combinations can play a certain role equally well.
Most importantly, follow your strengths. You have to know yourself and your strengths in order to make better decisions about your dream job.
Know Your Strengths, Find Your Dream Job FAQ
How do I identify my strengths?
There are many strategies that you can use to identify your major strengths. One straightforward way to do this is to simply ask those around you, such as your colleagues or boss.
Ask for an honest evaluation and take notes on what they say, as well as why they think you have certain strengths. Think about the qualities that helped you succeed. Also, consider taking an online strength identification test, like High5.
What does it mean to know your strengths?
Knowing your strengths means understanding which qualities help you succeed. It is being able to differentiate which strengths you have and when you should and should not use them.
Knowing your strengths involves acknowledging that a positive trait may help you in one scenario, but not another, and understanding why that is so.
Why is it important to know your strengths?
Knowing your strengths is crucially important. For one, it helps you understand which tasks you should focus on. This boosts efficiency and improves your productivity.
Plus, it can help you understand which career path is best for you. Additionally, knowing your strengths saves you time and money. You will not waste resources trying to do things you do not do well in. Finally, strengths can also help you choose a compatible partner, colleague, or team.
How do you find out what your dream job is?
Finding your dream job can be complicated and confusing. You should start by trying to understand what you are passionate about and what drives you. After you recognize this, think about the skills that you have.
Consider your strengths as well as your education, degrees, and experience. Then, try to find a job that connects most of these elements, with passion being the most important.
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