Olga

The problem is that it wasn’t my main passion and I really felt like I was in “The Office” or “Office Space.”

Most importantly in today’s society, finding the job you love, like Paul Graham said, is not easy.

Many times, especially in corporate environment, you are left with grunge work until you “earn your way up the ladder.” Seniority, which I personally feel is discriminatory, plays a big role

My advice (somewhat borrowed from “Getting Unstuck” by Timothy Butler) is to sit down at your computer screen with an open new document, or a table with pen and paper, and begin jotting down images and ideas that come to mind when you think, or have thought, about your dream work. The key, I think, it to include anything and everything, from people, places and things, to vague notions about your passion/s. This exercise can prove very powerful, especially after reflecting on the list to uncover common themes and/or conflicts. I think this is especially useful for someone like me who is more prone to try to “figure out” what would make them happy.

Another suggestion is to visit a financial planner, accounting firm, etc., and have an informational interview–learn about what they do, and critique it based on what you already said you “love” to do…
1. Work with people
2. Work with numbers
3. Put together budgets
4. Skilled in math, accounting, and have a knack for the financial side of business (which support what you “love to do” listed in 1 – 3)

You’re already there–you’re trying now to “occupationalize” or form the pieces into something that make money.

I’ve suggested a start (someone else may have also; I didn’t read everyone’s response). Go for it!

As a full time balloon artist, I twist balloon art live at special events. Well, after 4 years I am ready to try something else. It’s a good thing that balloon arts job doesn’t take much of my time. I work only 3 days a week, mostly weekends. I have some free time explore all other options.

I say, to find what you want to do, first you need to become aware of all the options that out there.

Read, read, read, read trade magazines in your library and search the internet.

Go to trade shows once in a while, if possible. I recently went to a franchise trade show NOT because I want to buy a franchise. I wanted to learn about different business systems.

And, boy, did I learn! My cost – $20, the experience – priceless. I am still digesting what I learned in one day on that trade show floor. If you ever have an opportunity to go to a franchise show, GO. You can even find an interesting job there, if you are looking for a job. Someone has to work in all those new businesses that franchising creates!

I’ve always felt the need for a purpose and a plan regarding my career path. It wasn’t until I realized during my second semester in college that I wasn’t interested in medicine that I had to face my first “career crisis” moment. I picked Electrical Engineering, why? Because I had family who enjoyed it and were financially stable, I was interested in the subject matter, but I definitely had NO IDEA what being an Electrical Engineer meant. And after working as an Engineer for 6 years for a couple of organizations I don’t think any amount of investigation could have helped me understand what it meant to be one, day in and day out.

I’ve since moved into a position that I describe as “Being the best job I could have working for someone else”. (Can you sense I have a strong entrepreneurial side that wants to come out?)

That being said, I agree with previous insight that choices made today will give you opportunities tomorrow. I also believe that it’s possible to work at a job you can tolerate to provide an income to allow you to do what gives you fulfillment on the side.

Who knows, maybe when I “Cash Out” of the rat race I’ll be financially stable enough to do that fulfilling activity full time.

If our jobs support our basic means of living and help us save while letting us pursue other activites and projects on the side, and those outside activities make us happy, then why wonder if we’re doing the work we love?

I don’t know if my comment makes sense. If we’re happy overall, the rest is just minor stuff isn’t it?

In college I was confident and determined I was going to be a newspaper journalist. After several internships I was ready for my journalism career. But after a rocky first start at a small newspaper and realizing I had some shortcomings as a writer, I bailed for a corporate stable job with benefits.

Not that I like my job since I’m grossly underpaid, but I find my outside activites, freelance writing about music (something I love more than anything) and mentoring kids who were like myself at one point bring me a lot of happiness. I’m still developing my goals of writing about music trends and bands while working on other projects in my current career. So in the meantime I may not be completely happy but I’m content and don’t feel like I have to keep soul searching.

But the person in the example is driving a delivery truck said any person can do their job so that’s understandable. Maybe that person can volunteer, meet other people in the community or reach other by sending emails or having lunch with people in careers they’d like.

I started out a large part of last year asking my mentors who knew of people that would be interesting to set up intial meetings for lunch or cofee. I got to learn directly what I liked and didn’t like. While I didn’t end up pursuing jobs in those industries, just making that contact gave me many ideas.

Through those, I was able to narrow down what I liked doing and what I was good at.

Then came the planning part. Once I’d figured out the area I wanted to work in, I set about figuring out how to get a job in that field.

So, I got lucky at first then I worked hard at staying lucky.

Refusing to lose direction, I chose (hah now I get to decide for myself) to work as a corporate slave instead. But while crafting memos, my passion for writing was resurrected. So I freelanced for a while and soon found out that I have enough determination and clients to go full-time. So now I’m here working full-time as a virtual assistant with focus on online marketing particularly blogging. A job that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE.

[...] And there’s a great discussion about finding your passion in life and doing what you love at GetRichSlowly.com. He quotes the same Paul Graham essay. [...]

I’m still in college, so reading the responses to this post have been both enlightening and deeply disturbing. I keep oscillating between wanting something I love and something that both fuels my desire to challenge myself academically and supply me with a decent salary. Realistically it should be both. (This is part of the reason I keep going back and forth about law school as well – do I want something I love, or something that I might be good at?) Wanda’s post at Well-Heeled was both thought-inspiring and cheering.

I don’t know. I guess I’ll just keep my feelers out until I find something I like. Right now I work part-time on campus as an office slave, which is teaching me a lot about different software.

[...] Thrift shops and used book stores are outstanding places to find self-help books of all sorts. If you arm yourself with a list of the titles you want, you can usually find three or four good books for about ten bucks. I made a fine haul today, including Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life?, which several readers recommended during our discussion about choosing a career. [...]

[...] about money long enough, and the question inevitably comes up. And it [...]

But recently, I have been asking myself what I would like to do “for the rest of my life”. The answer is: be a lawyer with my own practice. I have already cut out my niche. I am very intelligent and sometimes I feel bad that I am where I am in life. But working in a law consulting firm has not only left me feeling somehow as an under-achiever but has also reignited the fire that I had when I finished high school very many year ago. I have what it takes to be a lawyer. Do I love what I do now? Yes, I am a researcher (I love reading and writing)…..but I easily get bored “being someone else’s helping hand”. So, my plan is to save, set up a real estate business and hit law school, hopefully part-time, in 2011. I’ll be 39 when I leave law school but working intellectually for myself is what I would love to do for the rest of my life. With frugality and a healthy-conscious attitude towards life, I’ll be a happy camper at 90-years.

May you all achieve great personal finance levels this year!
Victor

Computers turned out to be where my talents and interests intersected. I was fortunate in that my skills started really building during the height of the PC industry growth in the late 80s and the 90s. I transitioned from bench tech to field tech to network engineer to software developer over the years. Now I’m getting into project management and leadership roles within the enterprise software development and support space.

When I turned 40, I started giving a lot of thought to what I would like to do for the rest of my working life and how I would like to transition to retirement. I don’t want to punch a clock until 65 and end up vegetating in front of the TV for 6.3 years until I die. As I was thinking about this, I discovered the now well known Tim Ferriss Four Hour Work Week. Tim’s mini retirement concept really hit home with me. My wife and I love to travel. Other factors in the mix are that my wife is from the Philippines and that the IT industry is tending toward outsourcing to Asia.

When I put together all of those interests, concerns and trends I was able to work out a career path that should address those issues. I plan to transition to IT project management with an emphasis on cross-geo teams. That has become a way of life in many Fortune 500 companies today, including my present employer. After a few more years of skills development and saving to ensure enough emergency and transition funding, I’ll leave the full time job to become an independent contract project manager. I will look for projects of 2-6 month duration with the expectation of allowing 1-4 months between projects for travel, skills development and spending time with my family. As I near retirement age, I’ll just add take on fewer and/or shorter projects according to my level of interest, motivation and health. The idea is that I will never retire per se.

At the moment I’m finishing up my Bachelors degree and will start a Masters program this fall. I plan to take the Portland State Masters of International Management program that is focused on trans-Pacific business. That aligns nicely with my interests and with the industry trend towards outsourcing to Asia. I’ll also pick up PMP certification during the next year. I’ll be 45 when I’m done with the Masters. I hesitated quite a while before committing to the Masters program. I seriously questioned whether I would get more bang for my buck by starting a part time business. I still wonder sometimes if I’m making the right call, but on the balance I believe that it will work out. I am finding that as I near completion on the Bachelors that I had some subconscious feelings of inferiority and lack of confidence toward my more educated peers. It’s a great feeling to put that behind me.

I strongly agree with several of the other commenter’s point that it’s very difficult to accurately assess your interests and passion at 18. I didn’t really have a clue until I was in my 30s. Fortunately there are more opportunities than ever to re-educate yourself both formally and informally. The internet is a tremendously powerful tool, and new distance learning opportunities continue to become available. Don’t forget that many, if not most employers have some form of tuition assistance.

Take your time, give it a lot of thought, and look for opportunities to experiment with different roles at your current job. I was convinced that I was not a good manager and would not like project management, but after I got a couple of projects under my belt and overcame the initial learning curve I found that I was wrong in both regards – I like it and I’m good at it.

Yet experiencing more fulfillment, being more energized, and knowing we’re making use of our natural talents, skills, and strengths to contribute value through our work is something that pulls most of us on a path towards this goal.

Early last year I wrote an article on the subject titled, “How to Make Big Career Decisions a Little Easier.” I’ve included a link below: http://www.srpcareertransitions.com/images/Article_How2makeDecisionsEasier.pdf

While there’s no guaranteed formula for success, there seem to be some common factors among people who are enlivened by their work – these factors are highlighted in the above article.

And, here’s a link to a blog that includes some related topics on this subject: http://srpcareertransitions.blogspot.com/.

You might send the reader (or any of your readers) to the page about my company and this Detroit News article about me and my company.

I use a set of tools that synthesizes a number of methods, based especially on Appreciative Inquiry and a strong knowledge of personality types, development and communication techniques, to guide clients through a process that helps solidify their identity, which is the key to finding your career path.

If he likes it, then keep in mind that H&R Block is a franchise with each owner running his/hers slightly differently. And as anyone who has worked before knows how much of a difference your boss/co-workers make, not just what kind of job it is.

For myself, I’ve found some extremely fulfilling jobs both through:

1)traditional volunteer work
Got a hiking grant! Took people hiking for the envionmental cause I believed in.

(2) non-traditional volunteering
Helping in my tae kwon do classes lead to 8 years of being a paid martial arts instructor.

(3) Community College classes
Right now, I’ve had to switch from physical activities to more mental one due to being older and having a young child. So I took a personal fulfillment class in calligraphy.

Unlike traditional college classes, it’s inexpensive. The instructor is terrific, experienced and very involved. I’ve since taken several more calligraphy classes, and now I’m getting job requests from traditional calligraphy to logo design.

It sounds like Shaun should definitely take a financial advisor course, or a tax-prep course, as it would be a really good fit.

I think finding the perfect job or field takes trial and error and experience in the work world and with yourself. I’ve had jobs I loved and jobs I hated, and I only started working for myself a couple years ago (I’m in my mid-30s). Most people don’t know themselves deeply enough to make decisions like this in their early 20s, nor do they tend to know the sheer variety of jobs that exist. I also don’t believe that people need to be tied to one profession or skill for their entire working life.

And what’s wrong with that? Everybody should have to pay their dues. I don’t see doing the less desirable jobs during this time-period as “wasted time” so much as gaining wisdom through experience.

When you get through your 20′s you begin to actually get a little perspective on the world that you didn’t have before. Before that, with the rare exceptions of course, most people think they know what they want, and most of them are dead wrong.

For me, the difference between yuck and love were:
– working in a small company with smart people who want to do things right
– having a unique niche in the company where my unique blend of skills and aptitudes helped me excel in my job responsibilities
– having job responsibilities that fit into several job categories

I worked for a startup for about 5 years several years ago where this was what my job was like. I knew at the time that it might be the best job I’ll ever have. The problem with startups is that they either get big (growth or acquisition), or else they die. That makes them rather scary when you’re the family breadwinner.

My true love is singing, but there’s no way I’d be able to do that for a living. I’m neither that good nor that brave. I’m glad to have enough time and money to pursue it as a hobby!

What is the purpose of you having a job?

Kinda stupid question isn’t. Like stupid obvious. But I’m not kidding – Why do you go to work? Everybody here can say I work to live, that easy. And ya living requires food and shelter. These we know. My response is then “And……”

How you answer, dictates how you should look for your job.

Your answer could be “I want make a difference in the world.” Nice solid answer! And lots of people do that everyday, most in professions that are typically considered underfunded : Teachers, Nurses, Environmental, Police, etc. And most acknowledge the “costs” of this choice.

Your answer could be “Something I am good at and enjoy”. This seems to be the most common answer. And one that makes people alot of money. No not just you employed stiff but book writers. Its ‘easy’ to make lists and questionnaire. Its hard to rank real priorities.

Here’s mine – “To be able to travel when and where I want and provide an ever increasing level of comfort and security for myself and family.” Nice and wordy, aint it. But concrete. It doesn’t say what I want to do, but does place limitations on my choices. As for your answer? No concern of mine or the worlds. The only people you have to defend the statements are those who are beholden unto you. Children. Spouses or Significant Others.

So why don’t I follow interests. Cause I find those can change over time. Over my life so far, I’ve wanted to be a farm hand, outdoor guide, astronaut, game designer, IT guy. And that’s if I’ve followed my passions. I’m done better at building up my knacks. Things I either have talents in or built up experience doing. And using those knacks, I’ve gotten jobs. Each an improvement over the last. If I followed my interests, which have a tendency to be vastly different, I would have to start back over at ground floor and work my way back up. And that goes against the security part of my statement in a long term sense.

Now again this is all based off of how you answer that question – What is the purpose of you having a job?

Am I saying stick around if you hate your job? Not just No but Hell No. I would say find your pleasures and enjoyment elsewhere. Be it sports, arts, family, church, whatever. There is a difference in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. In relation to that I think a sub question needs to be asked here, :

Do you define yourself by what you do?

Deep Philosophy I know, but bear with me. How do you identify who you are? Are you a sport fan? A follower of ______ religion? Or an Elk/Bear/Moose/Squirrel? And its not an easy question to answer.

In my mind nobody is just one thing. They have different interests and desires that pull at them. Each bringing different pleasures in their life. You just have to find the right balance for you, acknowledging cost and joys of each.

[...] Rich Slowly has an article about How to Find Work That You Love after which dozens of commenters offer share their frustrations with that search and offer tips on [...]

For example, I plan conventions. I got into this because I was always having unsatisfactory job experiences in theatre which was “what I’d always wanted to do.” Since an extremely young age. Conventions were enough like theatre that I was still happy, but I didn’t have an innate love of something that was being challenged by reality.

Even from there I did what should seem logical, I started planning conventions for things that I loved. Things I did in my spare time. This was also terrible. I couldn’t do things that I enjoyed (reading certain things, watching certain things, going certain places) because they reminded me of work, no matter how much I liked the work. Also, I had illusions about idols shattered because I got to work with them, escort them, deal with their assistants, have promises broken by them. I needed the mystery in order to be happy. You don’t want to look at your favorite book and be reminded of work, and some icky thing that happened while doing work. Then it isn’t your favorite book anymore.

So for me, the recipe has been finding work that uses my skills, that I find challenging and innately interesting. But if I originally loved anything about it, it’s BAD! So now I plan conventions about things I find interesting in an environment that I love, with people that I like, where I have authority and a very good boss. I love my job, I love my work, I love what I do. But I need a disconnect between what I love as a person outside of work and my paying job.

For books, I love (so I should never do work revolving around it) Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life?

“The people you choose to work with are the most accurate predictor of job satisfaction I’ve ever found.” (Jeff Atwood)

Combine that with many of the above insights