One of the mistakes I see job seekers continuously making is perusing job boards and sending out lots of resumes BEFORE knowing want they truly want in a career. You have to look inside first before you do the outside work.

Finding the career that’s right for you is a matter of not just knowing what to do but most importantly why you want to do it. Otherwise, you’re destined to keep repeating the hamster wheel of unsatisfying jobs and perpetually looking for where the grass might be greener.

Here are tips for designing a path to get from where you are now to landing a job that aligns with your long term career goals:

AUDIT YOUR CAREER

1. What do you not like about your current job and want to stop doing totally or do less of? Write it down.
2. What do you like about your current job and want to do more of and improve at? Write it down.
3. Rank each of the above so you know what’s most important to you, especially when reading a job posting. It’s doubtful you’ll find a job that’s perfect and gives you 100% of what you’re looking for but even 1/2 of that is a big improvement from where you’re probably at right now.

IDENTIFY YOUR PRIMARY CAREER PURPOSE

1. Once you know your Primary Career Purpose, identifying the steps to get there becomes much easier. This is where work is so fulfilling and in synch with your life that it doesn’t feel like work.
2. Visualize yourself years from now reflecting back on having achieved your ideal career. What were your shining moments? What did you achieve? What motivated you? What activities were you engaged in? What were your coworkers like? 
3. The above will get you to the Why of your Primary Career Purpose by working backwards from this visualization.
4. Craft and write down your target job description incorporating your Career Audit and your Primary Career Purpose.

DESIGN YOUR CAREER PATH 

1. Create a strategic path from what you want to do most to your Primary Career Purpose. That’s the Big Goal.
2. To achieve the Big Goal, break down the Path into smaller, manageable, and achievable tasks.
3. Write everything down. At the top of your page, write down your Primary Career Purpose.
4. At the bottom of the page write down the title of the job you hold now.
5. In between the two write down each step you need to take to get to the top. Prioritize them. Give each one a due date. Understand the Why of each step.

IDENTIFY YOUR IDEAL COMPANY 

1. Write down your Area of Focus. Mine is Career Coaching. Yours might be Sales or Nursing or Teaching. Whatever it is, write it next to your Primary Career Purpose. The hitch: You can only have one Area of Focus. People who send out hundreds of resumes don’t know their Primary Career Purpose or Area of Focus. They send out lots of resumes with the hope that a recruiter will figure out where they fit.
2. Start tackling each step you’ve listed working from the bottom up so you can progressively acquire the career value you need to become a compelling candidate for your ideal next career. Once you’ve accomplished this:

NOW, CREATE YOUR RESUME

1. Pull from your experience, achievements, credentials, and education those things that support the new direction you’re going in.
2. Make a list of the Top 10 Target Companies where you believe you can do your next best work ever.
3. Use LinkedIn to research these companies and identify people to connect with, whether or not they have a job posted that fits your ideal. Send your new resume and cover letter that explains the role you’re looking for and convey your career value.
4. The Hidden Job Market makes up 82%+ of jobs that never get posted and where your ideal next career step most likely resides.

FUEL FOR YOUR JOURNEY

1. Performing skills-based job searching versus searching by job title can often yield results more in alignment with your Primary Career Purpose.
2. Try a  Google search string similar to this: “jobs ” “zip code” “sales” “business development” “closing”.
3. Replace “sales” “business development” “closing” with the 3-5 skills you most want to use.
4. Alternate your search string.
5. You may be very surprised at the types of jobs that come up that you never thought of.

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