How do you go about looking for a job?

Most people use this process:

Step 1: See what is available
Step 2: Apply, go through the traditional process… eventually get an offer
Step 3: Make that job fit their world and figure out how to be happy in it.

As much as this process will address the challenge of getting you into a job, it creates new challenges along the way, including dissatisfaction at work and taking your career in a direction that you weren’t intending or, perhaps, even wanting. And these are all reasons why people go in search of yet another new job all too quickly.

If you want to find a job that you actually want and will be happy in, I recommend that you reverse the order of the typical job search process:

Step 1: Get clear on what you want: What will make you happy?
Step 2: Use those criteria to find jobs that you apply for… eventually get an offer
Step 3: Notice whether it makes you as happy as you thought it might, and use that information to continue to progress your career in the direction you choose for yourself

Going back to the beginning… The thing that undermines the whole job-search process is desperation. We get to a place where we need the job urgently. And I understand that! Sometimes, life is that way: We need a job, and we need it now.

So, I recommend that you do this work as soon as possible so that if things do get urgent, you already know these answers.

If you’d like some help figuring out what would make you happy in your career, download my free guide, Set Your Intentions for Your Career. It will walk you through a series of questions that will help you understand where you actually want to go in your career.