Managing Your Career (Finding Your Passion)
A few weeks ago we talked about the difference between a job and a career. We identified jobs are part of your career journey but just having a job is not enough to call your work a career.
You go to work, you are excellent at what you do, and you'd like to further your professional steps in a certain direction to advance your career, but how to do you so?
First you need to identify your passion level for what you do or what you think you want to do for a career. It doesn't have to be super prestigious, like being a doctor or lawyer. I work in higher education and I have all of my adult life. It brings me joy to help people achieve their personal and professional goals through furthering their education. I have worked in higher education in various roles over the past 12 years and will continue to do so. Higher education is my passion. It is working in a field that brings me great joy that keeps me going when things get tough around the office.
However, I stumbled upon higher education as a career path more than I knew this is what I wanted to do. Chances are, you either love some aspect of your job now that could lead to you discovering a passion you didn't even know you had or you can't stand what you do enough to know that's NOT your passion, and the search continues. Either way, the first step to managing your career is going to be deciding what revs your engine and where you are trying to go with it.
Each industry works differently and the opportunities available in your field will require a different set of steps to get ahead than others. For example; working in higher ed, most of the people I worked with had advanced degrees, MA/MS, JD's, PhD's......you name it, they had letters behind their name and I knew to be taken serious I would first have to further my education.
Not every industry is the same. In the mortgage industry it doesn't much matter if you have a bachelors, masters, or terminal degree. However, there is a unique set of training and skills required in the form of certifications and probably more continued education needed to stay up-to-date with a continually changing housing market.
Don't fret if you don't know what your passion is now or don't figure it out right away. Start by observing the things you like, not just as it relates to work but in your everyday life. Finding my passion started from wanting to help people. I knew I wanted a job that allowed me to help people, however, many jobs offered me that so while helping others was a great place to start it certainly took trial and error to find what career field allowed me to help others, while also provided me some personal satisfaction.
As I often suggested to help my students find out what they should study when enrolling them in college; keep this in mind, everything is a business, everything. If you like model trains, it's a business. They need everything to run this business as any other business, they need HR, an accountant, IT and customer service reps. In a sense this is how I was able to mesh too of my passions into one career. I love higher education and I've always liked planning events. As an alumni relations employee I get the best of both worlds. Now that's what I call a win/win.
Over the next few weeks my blog will focus on managing your career and steps to create a professional development plan. If you would like additional assistance finding your passion, managing your career or creating a professional development plan please call MSU Denver Alumni Career Services and schedule an appointment with one of our experienced career coaches, who is eager to help you plan, execute, and stay on track towards accomplishing of your personal and professional goals.
Click here to learn more about me and my role at MSU Denver
=======================================================
For other career advice and resources we encourage you to visit MSU Denver Alumni Career Services. Many of our career resources are free or deeply discounted for MSU Denver alumni. Services are also available to community members in the alumni and career service office. To book an appointment call us at: 303-556-8320 or send us an email at [email protected]