How to Find a Great Job in a Lousy Economy or any Economy – Find what you Love

Famed author Harvey MacKay once said, "Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life.

This may sound a bit idealistic but there is more to it than meets the eye. When you are out of work or searching for a new job, you may feel you cannot be idealistic about finding a job you will love. But that is exactly when you should be looking for and winning the job you will love. There are a couple of corollaries to this saying.

First, you are more likely to win the job when you are going for a job you will love. When you interview for a job you will love, your enthusiasm comes through in your interview, and you are much more likely to be hired. Interviewers are experienced and can tell when you have the “I don’t really want this job, but it’s a job and I need a job” attitude. Hiring decision makers want people who want to work for them and it is easy to tell in the interview. When they interview someone who really wants the job, they can tell and they are much more interested in hiring you. It is part of becoming the “preferred candidate.”

Second, you are more likely to be successful in a career you love. You will be more passionate about your work and it will show in the results. You will be more engaged in the day-to-day tasks as well as the long-term goals. Your passion will inspire and motivate those around you too.
The temptation when you are looking for work is to find “what’s out there” and submit your resume. Sure, go ahead if it makes you or your family feel better but you should limit the time spent on this activity until you determine what career or position you will love. You are more likely to win that and be successful in it after you start.

Now the question is how to determine what career or position you will love. There are many tools out there to assess two key attributes: what you like and what your good at doing. I won’t cover those tools here (maybe a future post) but the key to finding a career or position you will love is determining the intersection of these two sets of key attributes. It does not have to be a long list of either and the intersection can be just one things but the process is as important as the outcome. Doing the research, analyzing your strengths, weaknesses and interests is the key to narrowing your search and becoming the “preferred candidate”.