The second sign to look for when it comes to recognising your dream job is discovering your PURPOSE. Fulfilment and purpose are your inner drivers – catalysts navigating you on your career journey. They will help you make the decisions that work for you (not only for your employer).  

 In this article I will share with you what I learnt when it comes to finding purpose in career and how it helped me to define my dream job. 

My first eye-opening realisation was this

Defining my career purpose had nothing to do with generating income, financial security or gaining skills. Discovering my career purpose was about exploring: 

  • How do I want to serve others?  
  • How do I want to make a difference?  
  • What do I want to be remembered for? 
  • How is my job allowing me to achieve that? 

 

This is something I was learning as a starting entrepreneur. Setting your purpose and mission is a common practise for emerging businesses, but never ever in the last 15 years of my working life someone would ask me in the interview “What is your purpose in your career?”

It’s a job that makes sense to you and that gives you purpose

Figuring out your work purpose can feel difficult and overwhelming at first. Again, it’s one of those things that you won’t be able to figure out only with your logic. It requires observing yourself, your state of being at work and some self-reflection. It’s nothing you couldn’t do though. It only means being less in your head and being more present to how you are experiencing your working life. 

 

1. Your purpose at work has to make sense to you

– there is no point in copying someone else’s purpose from their LinkedIn Profile just because it sounds cool or it’s fashionable right now. Your purpose is something that is unique to you – it will make sense to you. Every job that you have will present you an opportunity to discover your purpose – the reason why you’re doing it. Apart from money, your colleagues and all those usual things that come with every job like learning new skills, what is the reason why you actually go to work?

 

2. It does matter how big or small your purpose is

– you may have heard that your purpose has to be really big, something like a noble cause. When you look at how you’d like to make a difference to others, what comes up for you? It honestly doesn’t matter how big that purpose is, what matters is how it makes you feel. If you discover a purpose that feels too big or too impossible to achieve, it may be harder to act on it. Start with what you can do now and take action that will pull you towards achieving that purpose.  

 

3. Purpose it’s not static – it can evolve with you

It took me a few years to really define my work purpose. I thought that purpose is something that is set in stone for the rest of my life. In a way, I felt paralysed when I was defining my purpose thinking “What if I get it wrong and end up wasting years in a job without feeling fulfilled?” I learnt that every job and every volunteering helped me discover something about my purpose and after time I was able to put it together like a puzzle.  Discovering your career purpose my take a while but when you’re guided by a professional Career Coach it doesn’t have to take you years. From my experience I can see it takes people between 3-6 months, which is nothing compared to years being stuck in a wrong job, isn’t it?

 

Your Dream Job Purpose Statement 

To define your career purpose, you can create your own dream job purpose statement – it will serve you as guiding principle for selecting jobs and career direction aligned with your purpose. 

 

Creating Your Purpose Statement isn’t something new. Many companies are creating their own purpose statement, it describes their overarching reason for existence, how it should conduct itself and the impact it has on who they are serving. Companies use purpose statement to help drive the mission and set company goals. 

 

You can apply the same principle for your career. Your Dream Job Purpose Statement will help you: 

  • Define the reason why you want to work (apart from money or learning new skills) 
  • Impact your work creates on people and organisations you’re working with 
  • Drive mission and set your professional goals 

 

Here are some EXAMPLES of purpose statements for dream job: 

 “I help employees realize that they can build dream careers instead of feeling like a number on a payslip. I guide them to set empowering career goals and to achieve them.” – this is mine for example as a Career Coach 

 “I help companies to attract more sales through building relatable exclusive online brand.” – Brand Expert 

 “I create unique and innovative design solutions that respond to each client’s aesthetic and budgetary needs.” – Architect 

 “I get customers where they want to go, when they want to go, promptly, efficiently, comfortably, and safely.” – Taxi Driver 

 “My mission is to provide an enjoyable experience in front of the camera as well as timeless photographs that you will treasure for a lifetime. As a photographer, my goal is to capture stories in the form of images.” – Photographer 

“My mission as a registered nurse is to provide competent and compassionate care to every patient and family member. I vow to remain educated, honest, and professional for the duration of my career. In going to work as a nurse every day, I am loving to people of all backgrounds and ethnicities.” – Nurse 

 

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Author: AdriAna Kosovska

Professional and certified coach & founder of ZERO TO DREAM JOB ACADEMY

 

I work with employees, managers and organisations that care about

Dream job & Career Development  |  Stress reduction |  Talents development |