Have you ever felt stuck in your day-to-day job? Burn out from your job can be devastating to your personal life. After all, you are at work some 8 hours a day or more. That is a very long time to be unhappy.
Now, if you emphatically feel stuck, here are suggestions to get the one you like:
Brainstorm on a sheet of paper – Take a pencil and a notebook to jot down what you want in question form. After that, simply list out 20 answers to your question. As an example, you may choose to write “What should I be doing with my time and life?” Then after that spend the next hour or so coming up with answers to that question . The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers – don’t quit until you have 20 answers. You may very well perform repeatedly, perhaps once a day, until you find the right answer (at least on paper).
Ask 3 close friends – From time to time our friends and relatives understand or know us as compared to ourselves. While meeting with one of your friends, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and career. Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing. You might be surprised at how easily they can narrow down your strengths and abilities and come up with a good suggestion.
Talk to people at work – Sometimes, just like friends, people you work with have a unique view of you. Think about this for a second, people at work have seen what you’re good at in a professional sense. Compile all the answers you get from them and determine if there’s a hint of what can be your new direction.
Call a headhunter – Most professionals, like you, have resumes handy. Quite often you can catch a job placement specialist in between recruiting schedules and discuss with them your career goals. I’ve done this a few times before and the people seem open to talking with people. The advice they’ve given me are usually good.
Complete a career assessment evaluation – Take note: each professional discipline have its requirement. For example, registered nursing career have a different route from a firefighter. There are several sites on the Internet that these tests are available to you at your convenience. Also keep in mind that, from above, most recruiters and headhunters own a career testing program and don’t mind you taking the test in their office. I’ve taken these tests two times in my life and they usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough. They ask you to click on answers to questions regarding your professional expertise and goals. It’s a good evaluation to get an objective point of view of your goals.
Maintain a notebook of ideas – It’s always good to browse for past observation of what you did right or made you smile. Look out for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like. Also, what you don’t like is just as important as things you don’t like. As an example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position.
Learning who you are professionally can be puzzling, yet very critical to you. After all, we spend a big portion of waking hours working. So figuring out the right career is important to keeping that 1/3 of our lives happy and productive.
