Are You Working in Your Dream Job?

Are you working in your dream job?

Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.

Do you remember why you picked the course or university programme you studied? I would hazard a guess that it was either because of a consuming ambition (you had always known you wanted to major in Psychology) or you were pushed into it by peer or parental pressure (Dad said you couldn’t go wrong with an accounting or engineering degree).

For the former, you might have graduated with a sense of achievement and dream of finally finding your life’s calling. Until that is, reality hits and you realise the great disconnect between your ambition and matching job – that is, the dream job has somehow turned out to be more of a nightmare!

For the latter, well, if you haven’t already mutinied, you would have likely found yourself in an even more numbing state in a stale, stifling and sterilising job in an industry you had no passion for to begin with.

Thousands join this mass every year. The gap between their dream or what they thought working life would be and the reality of their current jobs is simply too far to bridge – through no fault of anyone, employer or employee.

If you are young and have parental support, you could throw in the towel early in the race and go searching for that elusive dream. That’s how the term “quarter-life crisis” came about. Of course not everyone can be so lucky. There are bills to pay, student loans to service and aged parents or siblings to care for. So what happens? You stay on. It’s the right and responsible thing to do, you tell yourself. As time passes, the commitments grow so there is simply no way out.

I feel for this group. They, unfortunately, represent a bigger population of workers – the responsible men and women with families, children, houses, cars, and a long list of commitments. Like frogs in a slow heating pot, their dreams are gradually done in. They mutter philosophically, “That’s life” as they soldier on for another day.

Then there’s another group I call, the Others.

The Others

Let me be clear that there is nothing wrong with staying on in a crummy job because you need it to survive. I have the utmost respect for these people. But I do think it is wrong to remain in a lousy job (bad pay, no career advancement prospects, lousy boss, etc.) without any valid reason.

Why do people choose to remain in jobs/companies they hate then? Because the fear of change paralyses them. So they hide behind justifications like, “Nobody’s hiring for my level”; “I don’t have the right qualifications or experience”; “I’m too old to be changing industries now” or on the other end, “I’m too young for this position”; “I’ve tried but I didn’t make it. It’s probably not right for me”. Sound familiar?

Some worry that the grass really isn’t greener on the other side so why rock the boat? After all, they like their colleagues, make a decent living, get good benefits and so on. “It’s just the job/company/boss, but everything else is good.”

Maybe for those who have chalked up tenure, it is the tiresome thought of having to prove themselves again to a new management team. Or perhaps, secretly they doubt they are good enough to “hood wink” a new boss.

And I have heard this one quite a few times: I didn’t start out in the right company. Granted there are benefits in beginning your career with larger, more established companies (a higher starting pay for one), but it is a weak excuse to fall back on when things don’t go your way mid-career. A lot of people leverage on small company beginnings and do really well by moving up or building the company they are in.

To be fair, career changes are not easy decisions to make, whether you are switching jobs or venturing into a completely new industry or path. But the fact remains these are merely excuses that you have given yourself to stay put. As American motivational speaker and author Les Brown puts it, “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”

How badly do you want it?

See, the difference between those who succeed in following their dreams and those who suppress them is taking action. The former want to change, recognise that change has to happen before things can get better, and believe that they do deserve more.

Sometimes it’s not even about securing a new or dream job. Perhaps you are already in a job you love but you know you should be paid more, have better opportunities or more support.

How do you get what you want? I couldn’t agree more with comedian Bill Cosby who said, “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.”

Being a marketer, I would like to borrow from a marketing principle: Positioning. Sorry folks, but “selling” is a reality of life and if you want to get from zero to hero in your career, you better be ready to start peddling You, Inc.

Portray yourself in a way that clearly shows top management you deserve to have that promotion, increment, project or job. Communicating effectively and with influence and congruence is a seriously under-rated skill. From the way we sound off each word to how we structure our sentences, we are constantly creating an impression with others.

A lot of people believe they can’t do it, that this is some innate talent separating the haves and the have nots. But mastering effective communication is achievable. There is a method behind the greatness of inspiring orators and communicators like Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King Jr, which anyone can learn.

The results can be quite stunning. As both a favour and experiment, I once coached a small group of executives and managers on how to communicate with interviewers to get better positions and much higher salaries. Within six months, all eight of them secured new jobs, each with higher pay and better benefits. One person in particular quadrupled his income, excluding perks. The only thing he did differently was to change the way he communicated with his prospective employer.

If the thought of blowing your own horn makes you cringe, let me offer another perspective. Think of it as accurately showing your true value. Would Apple, Nike or McDonalds intentionally underestimate their brand value? Of course not! Likewise, why should you undersell yourself? When you recognise and represent your true value, you will be appreciated at your true market rate by your company – and potential employers in the industry.

The beauty of self-propagation in the age of social media is that you can be quite discrete and classy about it, thanks to various social media platforms. In fact, the playing field has been levelled. Can’t talk louder than the next guy? Don’t worry; let your LinkedIn or Facebook do the work. From my experience, all you need is a one-day training or guide and you’ll be more than ready to set up and position your social media brand for professional and career advancement.

I teach a course where in a mere two to three days, participants learn to use social media as effective, professional career advancement tools.

The point I want to drive across is simply that there are techniques and tools you can use to bring out your best – not to change who you are – so you can get the job, salary and position you think you deserve. So if you think you’ve been short changed, I would like to hear from you.

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