Dream Job Blog

This is the time of year where we start to reflect on everything that happened throughout the past 12 months. What are the things you are happy about and most proud of? What were the highlights? How did you grow? And switching gears—what are things that didn’t go well? What do you want to do differently next year?

These questions apply to many aspects of your life, but let’s take a look on your job. How did this year go? On a happiness scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the highest), where are you? I hope it’s at least an 8, but if not, could it get better next year? And if the answer is no, then it may be time to move on. 

Instead of dusting off the resume and going straight to applying, take some time to determine what you really want to do next—and significantly increase your number on the happiness scale! 

Here’s an exercise I recommend doing:

Take a piece of paper and create 5 columns at the top: Likes, Dislikes, Strengths, Weaknesses, Other

And list the roles you’ve had in rows on the left-hand side 

Fill out all sections—freewrite what comes to mind and then look at performance reviews, job descriptions, LinkedIn recs or other docs that can jog your memory

Review and assess the results

Answer these questions: do your likes correspond to your strengths and things you like to do? Do the dislikes outnumber the likes? What else do you want to learn and do? Do you have the opportunities to pursue your interests in your current role? These insights should help you decide if it’s time to make a change and help set the criteria of your ideal role

Research job descriptions that you like

These may not be the jobs you apply for, but can help you determine what role you’re looking for at target companies 

Use these questions as guidelines: 

• Do they align with your strengths and likes?   
• Do you have the required skills? 
• Do you have similar or relevant experiences?

Another fun activity is to take the 16personalities test. It’s free and only takes about 10 minutes. The results will be surprisingly accurate (for the most part). And it’s different from Myers Briggs test—although it uses the same traits such as Extrovert/Introvert. It’s covers strengths and weaknesses, ideal careers, work habits and personal aspects. This test has helped many of my clients glean insights and articulate their core traits. And it’s often revealing in how they behave and why.

When you take a good look at your career from a high level and give yourself time to review and assess your path to date, it pays off. You can take control of your career and your happiness!

If you want to increase your happiness level, then watch our video to see how we help people find and land dream jobs in record time.