Dream Job: A Myth or Reality?

The idea of a dream job was first conceived by Confucius, the Chinese politician and philosopher, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”, he said.

Before we deliberate on the subject, let’s think through whether such a thing called ‘Dream Job’ does exist on this planet earth or is it yet another cliché? All these great motivational gurus tell us to follow our dreams, pursue our passions and be extraordinary. But what if we haven’t yet figured out what we’re supposed to do in the first place?

It’s a simple enough slogan, echoed through our homes, classrooms, and everywhere in the job market. For most of us, it has supposedly remained to be the singular most important aspiration of our lives but what happens when you get your dream job, and it still doesn’t address all your problems?

It’s crazy to expect we’ll know our path when we enter college at 18 or graduate at 22. The human brain doesn’t even fully develop until age 25, so cut yourself some slack. Understand these basic truths, and you’ll find the pressure ease a bit as you naturally move in the direction you’re meant to go. Here are some thoughts:

1. Practicalities of a job

During the course of our career, we’ll spend way more time at work than we will with our loved ones, travelling, pursuing hobbies etc. Therefore, wanting a dream job is a perfectly understandable desire.

Of course, our jobs are not just there to help us keep busy for a set number of hours every day. The vast majority of us are working because we have bills to pay, and we need to earn the money to do so. That doesn’t mean that our idea of a dream job is a silly one. But it does mean that we need to be practical in how we approach our work.

2. Passion & Practicality go hand in hand

Do you remember your childhood dream career? Were you dogmatic about becoming a doctor or an engineer (at least in this part of the world)?

These early dreams capture the zeal and passion many of us feel in our younger years when we envision how we’ll spend the rest of our lives. There is a lot of value in these dreams, and they can reveal interesting clues about our interests and capabilities.

Often, the people who find their dream jobs do so because they’ve taken the time to understand their own values and goals and mapped that against their deeply held passions. That doesn’t necessarily mean that someone lands up as an engineer, but it could mean that they find their dream job working in an innovative science-driven organisation (for example).

3. Hard work always Pays off

Most of us expect to work hard once we’re in a job. Just to be clear, when we use the term ‘working hard’, we’re meaning meeting deadlines, being a good team player, adhering to company policy etc. But few of us take a step back to consider the hard work that we need to put into finding our dream job in the first place. It’s tempting to think that our passion will lead us to our dream job. Or that we’ll one day just be lucky and our dream job opportunity will land in our laps.

These assumptions can be damaging when they don’t come up as a package. That damage can result in a loss of motivation and direction. And, even worse, stagnation in your dream job search. Taking a conscious decision to build self-awareness, and continuously flexing your self-awareness muscle, will also teach you another valuable lesson.

And that’s the lesson that the path to success is never linear. It’s highly likely that the path to your dream job will be filled with detours in the guise of not-so-dream-jobs. Learn what you can from all of them.

4. Let your dream job find you

One of the myths you need to detach from when it comes to finding your dream job is that is all you need. Passion will drive you nowhere if you don’t create a smart strategy to help you get to where you want to go.

Author Jeff Goins describes a strategy as a way of “building a bridge”, in The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant To Do. The advice in the book pulls no punches as it shares some hard truths around what it really takes to find our dream jobs. Its practical advice includes not rushing things, but taking time to really understand our true natures and what work would give the most meaning to our lives.

Further advice also includes working out how to market yourself. This may be volunteering for organisations, creating and updating a blog that shares content on the industry you aspire to work in, or getting yourself on the speaking circuit.

5. Dream Job Evolves

The dream job you have in mind when you’re 27 will most likely be completely different when you’re 37 or 47 or 57. The truth is that your dream job evolves as you do. No dream job ever remains stagnant.

Conclusion

So, today’s takeaway is to separate the myths from the realities of what it takes to land the job of your dreams, and cultivating a strong degree of self-awareness, you’ll be able to evaluate every opportunity that crosses your path for the value that it brings and it’s through that approach that your dream job could be within your reach.

Always believe that “If you want to be happy, find a career doing what you love.” And “If you want to be happy, find a career doing what you love.”

It’s great if your career is what you love, but that’s not the most important thing to everyone. What if your love is your family, what if you love is community involvement, then pursue it with passion. Happiness is much bigger than just how you make money.

Learn how sometimes smaller things in our lives make huge impact and you can take some learnings on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and on our official website. Also follow us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder, Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan. At Evolve HR, him and his team thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.