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How To Find A Job You Love By Segun Akiode
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –
Confucius
VENTURES AFRICA – While trying to find an anchor for today’s post, the above
quote credited to Confucius, the great Chinese legend, came to my rescue. I
believe many of you would have come across the above quote at one time or the
other and would continue to ask how true is the quote? Can you really choose a job
or the job chooses you? On and on, you can go. The aim of this post is to attempt
to answer the question – how can I find a Job I love?
Permit me to start with myself. I have strong passion for knowledge and that drives
most of my offline & online activities a great deal. I love engaging myself in
intellectual activities per time; I simply love reading and sharing ideas! Can I make
a career around my interests & passion? Yes, I can sure do! But, is that what I do
on a full time basis now – partially yes! Why, you would ask? Truth be told, I didn’t
get to know all these about myself in time, I only started to discover myself as my
career in HR kick-off a few years back. Actually, I have a first degree in Chemical
Engineering and thanks to early career discovery; I’m close to doing a job I love!
My citing all the details above is for a reason which reading till the end of this piece
would justify.
Choosing what you love and making it your job, how true is that? Can it really be
achieved, irrespective of location & profession? I found a perfect answer, which I
would be sharing with you in a moment.
According to James Citrin and Richard Smith in their book called “The 5 Patterns of
Extraordinary Careers” (the book was based on in-depth, original research and
extensive experience of the authors), they proposed that there are three critical
elements responsible for finding the right fit in a career i.e. find a job you love.
These three elements are:
Playing to your Strengths,
Setting your passions free and
Working with the right set of people
They believed that when “you find your strengths, passions, and cultural fit, you will
be happier and more successful in your career. How simple indeed. However, from
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the thousands of professionals they surveyed ONLY 9% believed they are in jobs
that fully leverage their strengths, performing activities that they are passionate
about in an energizing environment and with people that they like and respect.”
After encountering the above research findings as presented in their book, I came
to the understanding of why every employee/job holder is always on the move to
change jobs! It is the quest to strike a balance between all three elements. I believe
this would hold true for those that make ‘career fulfillment’ their main goal and not
‘cash fulfillment’.
As an employee, ask yourself – does my current job role play to my strength? Am I
passionate about going to work each morning? Do I love to be with my colleagues at
work or say your boss at work?
And as an employee planning to change employers, ask yourself – will my new role play
to my strength? Will I be passionate about my new role? And will I grow career wise with
my new employer’s?
These are the main questions you need to ask and consider very deeply.
In closing, finding a job you love is not a day’s job, it requires a lot of balancing act
based on the three elements above – your strength, your passion and the people
you work with! When the balance is right, you can make bold to say you are doing a
job you love!
Till next time, we are all work in progress!
*Remember to drop your views in the comment section and let the discussion
begin.
About Segun Akiode: Segun is a Talent Acquisition Specialist | HR Professional | Career Coach |
Blogger | He is a work in progress… Connect with him | twitter: @segunakiode | FB Profile: Akiode Segun
Oluwatosin | Website: http://segunakiode.com | Blog:http://nuggets4nobles.com
Article was published April 24, 2012 on Ventures-Africa.com (http://www.ventures-africa.com/2012/04/how-to-find-a-job-you-love/)
