How To Find A Job You Love

under Careers, Leadership

“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 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 fulfilment  their main goal and not ‘cash fulfilment’.
- 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!