8 tips to land your dream job

Jun 7

Dream jobs don’t just fall out of the sky and land in your lap like manna from heaven. You need to actively plan and work toward your goals to make them happen. This article breaks down the process of manifesting your dreams and making them reality with 8 tips to help you develop your career and gain success.

1. Know thyself. “To thine own self be true,” as advised in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Businesses analyze their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT). Knowing your own SWOT and purpose will make it easier for you to attain your goals, especially when you find help to deal with your weaknesses and threats.

2. Plan your path. Some people plan steps forward to their goal; others set their goal for a future date and work backwards to lay out milestones back to the present. You do what works for you. My father advises, “plan your work, and work your plan.”[i] Since he completed a timely PhD, served 36 years as a chaplain in the army reserves alongside an active career in denominational leadership, and put in the work to retire as a “full-bird colonel”, the man knows what he is talking about.

3. Build your network. Seek out organizations and people that align with your plans by building and contributing to relationships in your target profession or industry. Ask questions and share your goals with your network. In fact, serving as a mentor and mentee enables you to share your experience and learn from others. This exchange of support and ideas, and your “netgiving”[ii] builds goodwill for your brand. You will hear about more opportunities when people know you and what you offer.

4. Raise your profile. This could be through speaking engagements, writing articles, increasing your social media presence, participating in industry association leadership, and/or becoming a leader in your field. And, while content may be king, remember, it’s not just the what, but also the how. Kindness matters. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

5. Get the chops. So, you know who you are, who you want to be, and who can help you get there. But that only takes you so far. You need the skills too. To identify what you need to advance toward your goal, look at job postings in your areas of interest. If you have gaps, fill them by taking the courses, getting the credentials, seeking stretch assignments, and not only keeping up with, but staying on the leading edge of developments in your profession or industry of interest. This gets you ready for your dream job when it comes up.

6. Target your resume. Hiring managers want to know what you can do for them, or what one friend describes as WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) When applying for opportunities, tailor your resume to the job description and what you know from your research. Focus on describing your impact and quantifying your most relevant expertise, experience, and achievements. One way to do this is to keep on hand a document that includes all your experience; it might be several pages long. Then select from this to craft a 1- to 3-page resume (length appropriate to your target) specific to the role in question – be that your dream job, or a role on route to it.

7. Prioritize your job search routine. Finally, when in active job search mode, remember “organization is the key to success.” Doing the work to change jobs can be a full-time job itself. Prioritizing your job search routine and working your plan will enable you to work smartly to optimize your time to move things forward.

8. Prepare for interviews. To better understand what the organization is seeking and how they will be evaluating you, research the company, role, and people you will meet. In addition to the role itself, this includes researching the industry, competitors, profession, trends, and concerns. Consider in advance what kinds of questions they will ask you. Are you a bull’s eye candidate or are you “out of the box”? Be able to describe specific relevant situations in your past, speak to how your achievements translate to their organization, and explain how you would approach their concerns.

If you feel stuck on one or more of these steps, through coaching, you can identify and tackle the issue(s). For details, kindly see https://stefferandpartners.com.

[i] Cited from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich (Tarcher Perigee, 2005 reissue of 1937 bestseller)

[ii] Cited from inspirational speaker Tim Cork’s G3: The Gift of You: Leadership and Netgiving (BPS Books, 2013)

Thank you to Randy Tarampi (https://www.randytarampi.ca/blog) for the lovely image found at https://unsplash.com/photos/dream-big-text-U2eUlPEKIgU