May be you are looking for your first job – or maybe you are well up the greasy pole to career success? And you feel it’s time to move? But to where and more specifically to what?
Have you ever stopped in your personal rat race to decide where you want to be in 5 or 10 years’ time? On the beach might be great; but on the beach with no income – maybe not.
Some career advice starts with “What are you good at?” And channels you down that path. Good at maths? Usual career question. Like meeting people? Who says ‘no’ to that? What about good engineering ? Maybe. But how about questions like “Good at caring for people?” “Good at encouraging people?” “Better at listening than talking?” “Good at inspiring people?” What can you be better at?” These are the kind of questions you don’t get asked in traditional career interviews.
These questions are all about what you are actually good or not so good at.
Far better question is – what do you want to be good at? What things does it not matter if you are bad at?
And these questions should help you answer the big one – what do I want to be doing in 5-10 years time?
You should then be able to discover the skills you need to be good at; and what is not important.
So here is an exercise – write these questions down.
- Identify what kind of jobs will enable you to develop those strengths?
- And what don’t you have now?
Now you can find the jobs which will help you onto the next big step – and if you can’t find – volunteer to get the experience to practice those skills.
To quote Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Successful People “Begin with the end in mind”.
By David Rigby who is running an energising and inspiring Personal Branding workshop in the UAE, – Abu Dhabi on 16th February and in Dubai on 18th February.