How my dream job was not my next?job

When I realized I’d spent months planning towards my next career move without doing any actual work to move forward, I knew I had a problem.

Every now and then, in the course of our professional lives, there comes a time when we begin to look at the next step we take due to a wish for better pay, medical issues, or even a life crisis that shifts our priorities. Sometimes, it’s not always internal factors because there might simply be a better opportunity waiting for us, and we decide to grasp it. Are you doing it for the right reason?

Reasons are plenty. We can find as many as we need to convince ourselves to do something or not. If the reasons are not strong enough, we tend to fabricate some just to tilt the balance the way we want it to go.

When I was planning my next career step, I was guided by my gut feeling about what I wanted to do and what I thought would be cool. Of course, I took into account my current skills and how much work would be needed to get where I wanted to be. I was more than willing to put in the work. However, I left out some critical parts of the equation. In no particular order, here are my mistakes and what I did to correct them.?

It goes without saying this is not career advice. I’m just a human sharing my experience in the hope it will resonate with others and help them. Without further ado, let’s jump into it.?

Planning vs. Overplanning

You need a plan first, and then you start acting on it, rather than endlessly revising it. The key is to have a plan good enough so that the hard work can get you moving forward. The important part is that the plan needs to be just “good enough.” Why not perfect? Because while you are working hard and making progress, you gain new experience and hopefully new knowledge as well. That transforms into insight, which in return means perspective. You begin to see things a bit differently, and so you start to see that the plan must be adapted to where you are now. The plan becomes a living entity that adapts, just like we do.

If you spend a lot of time on the plan, making it as close to perfect as possible, it will be almost perfect based on your knowledge at that point in time. What do you think will happen once you know more? The plan won’t seem that perfect anymore, and you will want to change it. Why bother spending all that time in the first place when, just a few steps down the line, it will be changed? It does not make sense, and this is something I have come to realize late, almost too late, but late is better than never.

I was trapped in an over-preparing and planning loop. I would always revise my plans and prepare over and over again, but I was never doing the actual work toward the goal. It was almost as if my goals had become the plan or to plan indefinitely. It felt productive. I was reading, watching, learning, analyzing, comparing, you name it. It was work in its own way, and it was important work on that note, as well. But I got stuck. I was supposed to pass that point a long time ago and begin following the plan I was obsessed with making perfect.

Looking back, my needs and aspirations were driving my financial desires to improve my position. So, logically, I set my eyes on the best job I thought I could obtain and made a plan towards obtaining it.?

I started with a plan, of course. I was good at it, after all?. However, this time, I set limits. I took everything I had and said that I would have one day to figure this out. That is it. One single day to scan through all I had, recycle what was good, and make a high-level overview of what I wanted to do. I would make it in such a way that it will accommodate changes. It won’t be fixed and definitely not gold-plated. The version of the plan will be expendable this time, and I will start working on it the following day.

I spent an entire day going through papers, notes, documents, emails, mugs filled with coffee or water, and drawing with a marker on the biggest window of my apartment. Lucky for me, my neighbors don’t know the movie “A Beautiful Mind.” At the end of the day, I had a plan with a few goals outlined. Those goals had some hints and suggestions, but nothing was explicit on how to achieve them.?

The next day, I was at it. I was actively doing something that did not involve the plan. I started reading relevant materials and doing the work I needed to do. It was like learning to ride a bike. It was tough at the beginning, clunky, and ugly at times, but it gradually got better, and in time, it became second nature. I was getting better at work and doing things much easier because I was working on developing myself now, not developing my plan.

Did you notice the minor yet very powerful change I did this time that worked? I’ve set limits to how much I will plan and set a time when I will start the actual work, regardless of how prepared I am. This was my key to finally overcoming that mental blockade, and I had to have everything ready before I could begin. In a nutshell, I incorporated a “just do it” clause into my plan.

Dream Job vs. Next?Step

I was looking at what the requirements were for my dream job, not my next step. The idea was pretty simple: I looked at the job that I ultimately wanted and started to gain the skills needed based on the requirements of that job. Straight and forward, but I was preparing for something later down the line, and not the next best thing.?

The requirements I knew of were attainable, but I hadn't looked at enough jobs to better define what I truthfully needed. Because of that, I started to learn things I did not need, or that would not necessarily help me in my next career step. After looking at more job postings, I understood I was previously looking at an odd sample.

A stark realization hit me. The initial requirements are beyond what I can offer, and the position is out of my reach for at least several years. The problem was the academic requirement and the nature of the expectations. I would simply not comply just by experience or tried and tested skills. The second problem was the HR filter. One must comply with HR requirements before getting further, and it might prove very hard due to bias in experience, skills, previous or current job, and others.

That being said, skills are not all. Sometimes, there are time and experience requirements. The reason for this is that specific roles require you to have been through various scenarios so you are able to cope with the requirements for the role. For instance, a senior role requires you to have spent some five to seven years in the middle-level role. You might have the skills after just a year or two in the middle-level role.

However, as a senior, you will have some complex tasks to fulfill, and it is more likely that someone with five to seven years of experience in a middle-level role can fulfill them or at least fulfill them more quickly than someone with just two years. It is possible that less experienced middle-level professionals can resolve those tasks, but it will take more time. That is just one of the tick boxes. There are more, and each job or career path has a list of tick boxes you need to check. My problem was that I was not paying enough attention to them.

Being Honest With?Yourself

“If you work hard enough, you can do it!” This was ringing in my head over and over again when I would look up job requirements when I was learning or practicing my skills to tick another box so I could add another line to my resume. Don’t get me wrong, you need to stay motivated. It’s vital. But I was blindly following the idea that working alone can solve all problems.?

In reality, I was disregarding the barrier between me and what I wanted to do: academic requirements. Those cannot be removed or compensated with skills and experience in most cases, regardless of how much. They need formal education, which is an entirely different type of experience and work.?

There is a caveat. Some companies might turn their heads and consider the experience in favor of the academic title. But that would come down to the decision of the hiring team, and you first need to pass the HR filter, which, in most cases, would consider the academic requirement paramount in the application process for specific roles. For me, the risk of failing this filter was extremely high.?

I wasn’t willing to commit to years of study in an academic environment because I could’ve gained the skills faster on my own and through my job. Correct, but I would have likely failed the HR filter. In my mind, four to six years of school again just to change jobs was not reasonable. Two years of learning at my own pace sounded better, so I was utterly denying the academic requirement. Unfortunately, I soon learned that hard work alone wasn’t enough, and frustration paved the way.

Frustration. Burnout and borderline depression. I was essentially self-isolating myself before it became a thing (due to Covid). I had a second job, which involved digesting massive amounts of data. Needless to say, I could not keep up the pace to hit my self-imposed deadlines because the fatigue settled in at some point, and everything snowballed from there.?

It wasn’t until I hit a wall and said, I need to break this pattern because I am not getting anywhere. This was when I decided to look at myself with all the honesty I could muster and try things differently. The plan I initially devised changed because I had to adapt myself to the conditions I was facing.?

How I Broke the?Cycle

What followed were about two or three months of reflection and trying to understand myself better. I had to be real and honest with myself and only so I would have a shot at moving forward. I did precisely that.?

?First, I realized that there was no way I could fulfill the academic requirements unless I went to college again. That was something I wasn’t willing to do. Secondly, I found a domain where my background was not a deal-breaker. Moreover, I used it to my advantage. My experience was relevant and was a plus. How did I do that?

1. Be objective about yourself. I looked at myself as if I were screening a candidate for a job. I looked at the background, current skills, my goals, and so on. I thought of domains or industries where I could fit in as I am now.

2. Be honest with yourself about what you want. I thought my dream job was about the work that I was doing and what I was good at. But what you are good at and what you want don’t always come hand in hand. Ultimately, what I wanted was something I was and still am passionate about, but I was not very good at that moment in time.

3. Take the next step forward and avoid jumping to the end. Once I defined who I was and what I wanted, I carved out a path for myself. One was made, this time, with the research to back up the decision with a large sample of data. The next step for me would be very attainable based on my skills, experience, and background. Afterward, the next step would have come in a couple of years or so, and then I could, with luck, begin to look toward the final job. The idea is that if the target is far away, break down the journey into chunks that can be done one at a time. You’ll rarely be able to hurdle yourself over a massive distance in one go. It’s better to split it into realizable chunks, but how many might they be?

Armed with a solid resume and aiming for jobs where everything I had was relevant and a plus, I started applying. After a few weeks, I got the offer I accepted and started working. I felt ecstatic. I did it. I made the first step towards where I truly wanted. Even if it is not what I initially set out, it’s what makes me happy. What I can say is that this strong motivation, such as finding joy in what you do, will surely get you through the day a lot better than not knowing why you are there in the first place!

Before looking to your next career step, your new job, your next role or promotion, think long and hard about what you want to do. With honesty, finding your next step will be a lot easier. The point is to find something where you can be good at and where you feel good. There must be a balance between these things. It’s no use in pursuing something that will bring you only partial joy, none at all, or just money or status.

To advance, you will need some solid motivation, and the best way to ensure that is to have several reasons for doing something. Thus, if one of the motivation engines breaks, you will still have another one, two, or three left to support the drive. The best thing to do is be honest about yourself. Reasons can be selfish, altruistic, or anything, but they must be strongly rooted in what is true to you. Otherwise, they will easily break.

Out of all my jobs, I found the best ones are the ones where you can grow. It’s not merely about giving tasks that are progressively harder to do and are challenging enough to push a little bit further each time, but also giving time to do them correctly.

Getting overloaded with tasks is not a great position to be in. Having too much free time with not enough guidance is not something great either because you might soon be getting some bad news because your job is not in demand enough for the current company or find distractions to fill up that spare time.?

Of course, there are various reasons, and you might just have an easy week. However, if that turns into months, then it might be something to start considering. There is also another important aspect of the job and fulfillment in life that needs to be thoroughly taken into account. This will be the takeaway.

Career vs. Personal?Growth

Remember: Developing your career is not developing you! Focusing solely on your career will leave you behind as a person, as a human, and as a soul. You will be good at what you do, but you might not be good at what you are. It happened to me. I was getting better and better at my career, but I was lacking self-awareness. I needed to take time to focus on myself and my mind.

I started to know what I wanted. What my interactions with others were like. How they interacted with me and why. Obviously, I was focusing my free time on learning for work, getting new skills for my future promotion, and hustling a side business. However, I dedicated some time to introspection.?

The result of that is that I knew what I wanted to do, and my life slowly started to have a better structure. I was more mentally healthy and more honest with myself, particularly with what I wanted out of my career. I ultimately decided to align my true self, or at least my honest view of myself and what I wanted, with the work I was doing so that I could develop myself alongside my career. Once I had done that, everything was more streamlined, and the light at the end of the tunnel, slowly but surely, started to reveal itself.

Since the time I fell down the rabbit hole of planning and overthinking, it has stuck with me to plan ahead. It gave me some sense of control over my life and the work that lies ahead. The problem with these plans is that they make everything ahead seem daunting and some kind of Greek labor worthy of the gods’ praise. In reality, it is not like this. It must not be like this. If the plan is meticulously thought out in advance, you would be reluctant to change anything about it because it would be something unknown. It would bring risks that are not accounted for, and that is something we all try to avoid.?

Conclusion and Takeaways

To sum up the entire article in a few short takeaways:

1. Be honest with yourself. Stay true to your values and goals.?
2. Plan, but stay flexible. Let your plan evolve along with you.
3. You know enough to start. Learn new things along the way.?
4. Timebox. Set deadlines and stick to them no matter what.
5. Don’t forget about you. Personal well-being is equally important as career growth.?

Life is inherently unstable. It changes very often. The job requirements are likely to change from one quarter to another. You can be moved from one project to another, and then your priorities in learning might shift or change entirely. There are benefits to leaving room in order to be agile and to take advantage of the changing tides.?

Certainly, something can happen that will awaken a hidden talent or something you fall in love with doing, and that will make all of your planning prior to that point redundant. But, by being honest with ourselves about how much we can or cannot do, we can align our professional development with our personal development.?

That honesty will help you plan with the information you have at any given time. As time goes by, you learn more, and with the new information, you can update your plan. This should be possible: staying flexible will allow you to make the best decision with the new information you have at hand and profit from the various opportunities that might arise.?

Life is not about being steadfast and prepared all the time but maximizing the reward from the efforts you put into it based on your goal.