Motivation - The Key to Your Dream Job

Are you enjoying your work? If you aren’t, or if you don’t have a job right now, do you know what you would like to do? And if you do know what you like, do you know how to go about finding that job? Do you believe you can get it?

In other words, are you W.A.R.: nn- Willing (wanting to change),
- Able (having the resources: confidence, skills, network,…) and
- Ready (is it the right time/priority)?
All three parts are essential in any process of change, and it can be useful to be aware of where you stand for each element, in order to address the right issue.

Key elements in recruitment
I believe the hiring process is a process where (gut)feeling plays a major part, on both sides of the interview table. If you make a connection with the interviewer, and establish a real communication, talk person-to-person instead of one professional façade impressing another, be yourself, you have the best chances to be offered that job. I believe –and have often observed - that if you really want to do a certain job, and you can communicate this enthusiasm, you can get it, even if you don’t have all the necessary qualifications. Then the interviewer will become your ally in the hiring process, and may be willing to disregard that you don’t necessarily fit the job description perfectly.

After a number of years of both headhunting and career counselling, I have come to realise that in many cases the hiring decision is made more on an emotional basis (gut feeling, intuition, sympathy, connection, ….) than on reasoning and arguments. In my opinion, the key element in getting hired is your motivation, your interest or your passion for an activity or a subject, more than your qualifications or your expertise. You obviously should have some of the skills that are asked, but often you have already developed a number of those in other activities (the so-called transferable skills).

Being able to express why you want a job counts for more than being able to give all the reasons why you should be hired. That is the more rational part of the process, trying to ‘sell’ yourself’ - and in job hunting many people concentrate most on convincing future employers that they have what it takes, giving the reasons why they should be hired, showing the perfect image. But they don’t pay enough attention to being clear about their motivation, why they are keen to do the job. I see that a lot in cover letters: lots of paragraphs about qualifications, expertise, etc., and very little about what interests, or drives you. Such letters are often called ‘motivation letters’, but they rarely actually talk about motivation.

Feelings and beliefs
The decisions to look for a certain job and to accept it – once it is offered - also have many emotional elements, and are often based on any number of beliefs we have. Beliefs about ourselves, our value, our chances of finding better elsewhere (or finding anything at all), about our ability to work with a future boss or colleagues, about injustices (in the process, in the marketplace, in our lives,….), about what we should be doing – instead of what we would like.

Also, very often, jobseekers feel they don’t really have a say in the matter: they will look for what they can get (what someone might be willing to give them, for which they should ‘really be grateful’) rather than for what they want themselves. In that perspective, the hiring process is often a scary, and mysterious process, in which jobseekers often take a position as a ‘victim’. Other people will decide about your value, what you’re worth – or so it seems.

I like to help you find out what you would like, or love to do –to identify the dream job, or dream jobs. To open the horizon, to feel that lots of things are possible, to step out of the victim role in the process, and hopefully in life. To take responsibility, and to take charge - and to start saying what you would like, what is important to you, what you need. To support other people on the road to their dreams is in fact my own dream job.

Practical steps
In the process of finding your dream job, I use very simple tools to make a skills inventory, in order to identify your skills and personality traits. You can check it out on my website, www.dreamlife.be (heading: Nine steps to your dreamjob), it’s free. I propose a simple system but it is not necessarily easy to do. It takes time and commitment to do. In fact, it is one of the ways to test if you are ‘W.A.R.’. On the basis of your preferred skills, as well as the values that are important to you, you will get more clarity about what you’re looking for in a job. You can get support from friends with good common sense, and I can help you too.

On the basis of your preferred skills, and/or the ones you’d like to develop (further), the next step is to do a brainstorm to see which types of jobs in which fields would fit. Here again, you can do this yourself, or I can help you out. For the possible jobs, we see which resources you have (skills, traits, training, expertise, network,…). We also see which are the obstacles in your way (beliefs about yourself, the market, your lack of …whichever element you think is essential…, etc.) and how you can deal with those. At the same time, this whole process is an excellent interview preparation (when all these questions have to be answered).

It is also my experience that your confidence will improve, having an overview of your skills and abilities, as well as the possibilities that exist for you. Then you can start to believe your dream is feasible. Because that in itself will get you closer to where you want to go.

For each type of job, you then make a tailor-made CV, with an emphasis on the skills (transferable or not), personality traits, expertise, qualifications, etc. that you can offer. It is in fact an offer of services, a package, that may vary from one job to the next.

The next step is to find out if that type of job, or a particular (type of) organisation would suit you: you go and do information interviews (chats) with people who do the work you’re interested in. You use your network to help you identify people to talk to. If your network can’t help you, there are simple techniques to find out who to talk to. Information interviews are also a perfect way to get access to the informal job market, all those jobs that exist, and are filled, without ever being advertised.

The people you meet can become part of your network, and if you communicate your enthusiasm and your motivation, they will be happy to help you – giving names of other people to meet, informing you about job opportunities, being your ‘ambassador’ in their organisation,… There again, it is very important to be yourself, to be natural, so you have the best chances of being appreciated for who you are, and for what drives you. And in case you don’t make the connection with the other person, it generally means that you would not have been very happy working in their organisation. So it is always a useful experience, you can always learn something.

I also hope that my approach helps to demystify and to ‘rebalance’ the job seeking process. You are an equal partner of the interviewer (who is often as nervous as you are, afraid to make the wrong –costly- decision), you want to make a connection, communicate person-to-person. You are there to find out if you’re interested in the job and the organisation, and in the end it is up to you to accept a job once it is offered.

In conclusion, I hope that being more aware of the emotional and communication aspects will help you to approach the job seeking process differently, and that you can be an actor and a partner in the job game, instead of a victim.