A very practical guide to figuring out what your dream job actually is.

Let's talk about figuring out what your dream job is.

And no, this isn't going to be an article where I give you fluffy advice like, "follow your passion" and "chase your dreams".

In fact, I hate that sort of advice. I find them way too high level and not very applicable. I mean, yes, they do charge me up and have me feeling really motivated. But, I tend to find that the motivational juices start running dry after a couple of hours.

Instead, I want to give you some super practical advice that you can take away and actually implement right after you're done reading this article. That's my promise to you.

Now, before I get into my actual framework on how to figure out what your dream job is, there are a couple of things I need to hash out really quickly here.

First, I hate the quote, "find yourself".

I'll tell you how this relates in a second.

During University I always felt pressure to find that perfect job, to find that perfect relationship, and to find that perfect group of friends.

Whether that pressure would come through quotes I'd find on Instagram, school pressuring me to get a job in the field of my study that I didn't even like, or my parents yelling at me to get my life together. It all felt just so stressful.

In fact, that messaging "find yourself" got so ingrained in my head that I didn't think there was any other alternative. It became so deeply engrained that every day I would constantly overwork myself in order to "find myself" whether it was stressing over what my dream job was, chasing after a perfect relationship and cutting off those that were less than perfect, or spending tons of money on personal development in order to be the best version of myself and inevitably find myself.

The truth was, this saying was doing way more harm than help to my mental health. I'd constantly stress and beat myself up if anything fell short from that perfect version of myself that I was trying to find.

Then a day came where I was grabbing frozen yogurt with a couple of friends and one of them decided to drop a deep quote that I've never heard of before in my life. I mean, it completely changed the way I saw things. The quote went something along the lines of...

"It's not about finding yourself, there's no such thing as that. It's about constantly being in the process of discovering new parts of yourself."

This absolutely blew my mind and changed the entire game for me.

The reality is, it's not at all about finding that perfect version of you that'll help you achieve some sort of enlightenment or something. It's about having a general direction of where you want to go, regardless of whether it's the "right" direction or not. And then enjoying being present with the journey as you work towards that general direction. Your direction might shift and change as your journey introduces more revelations about yourself than you originally thought but in the end, it all starts with having some sort of direction.

The same approach goes with finding your dream job. Many people think there's a magical job out there that they're literally made for and if they were to get it, it would finally make them happy in life.

I would actually highly disagree with that logic. I think that you can find happiness in a variety of different jobs, it's just a matter of knowing yourself enough to know what sort of jobs will keep you fulfilled.

And that's exactly the basis of my three-part framework to figuring out what your dream job is. The framework is basically three questions that I want you to ask yourself with the goal being that, for each question you answer, you get closer to figuring out what your dream job is.

Let's jump right into it.

What is your passion?

I know, I know, I said I hate advice like "follow your passion" and then I go on to use a headline with the word passion in it.

I promise I'm not a hypocrite. Just keep reading and you'll see what I mean.

When I say the word passion I'm not saying it in the sense of what you might see in a motivational Youtube video where there's a dude yelling at you to wake up at 5 am every single and then own the rest of the day like it's the last day of your life.

No, not that at all.

What I'm saying is, what is a general cause that you care for or have an interest in?

Here are some examples...

• Helping youth with their mental health
• Working with teams to make them hyper-efficient
• Making others feel great about themselves through fitness
• Being part of a technological revolution that's changing the world

You get the idea.

For example, my "cause" is helping millennials, like myself, feel confident and career ready.

(Also please note that your cause might change over time too and that's ok. I used to be super passionate about men's mental health, self-expression through dance, and leadership development. But now that fire has died down a little. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy that stuff it's just the dials have been turned down a bit and that's ok.)

Now, I want you to take your cause and find a handful of companies out there who's vision aligns with your cause.

In order to find companies that align with your cause, you're going to have to spend some time on Google.

Google is my personal best friend when it comes to this sort of stuff.

Keep in mind that it might take some digging around but once you have a handful of companies you know that fits your cause, great, you're 1/3 of the way there.

What is your working style?

I want you to think back to your previous jobs, your current job, when you were in school, or if you've ever volunteered anywhere. Was there some sort of work that you thoroughly enjoyed doing?

And if so, what parts of that work did you enjoy the most?

For example, for me, the parts that I loved the most about my previous jobs and volunteer experiences are the following:

• Constantly meeting new people, the perfect day to me would involve meeting a ton of new people and having meaningful conversations
• I loved managing relationships between people whether they'd be customers, interview candidates, or vendors
• My ideal working style would involve me running around to different meetings in different locations. I don't like being stagnant I wanted constant change

Now based on my criteria above I would probably be a good fit for roles such as:

• Sales/customer service representative
• Account director
• Relationship manager

Your turn. I want you to think about what parts of your previous jobs, volunteering experiences, or school life did you like the most? The answer here will dictate what type of job best suits you.

If you're still not sure what type of job best suits you, here are some strategies I recommend you implement to help you find that.

1. Go on a job board like Indeed or Monster and type in what you think the title of that job will be, then hit send. After scrolling through all the job postings that pop up, you'll notice the titles change for each role but the job duties largely remain the same. Read through some of the job duties and this will help you get a sense of whether or not you're a fit for the role
2. Take an online career test. You can find a ton by searching for them on Google. Just be sure you read reviews on how others found the test to be before you commit an entire 30 minutes to it only to find out it wasn't worth your time.
3. Take to social media. Literally make a Facebook post, LinkedIn post, Instagram story, whatever it is, and tell the world what sort of work you liked from your previous experience and ask everyone what suggestions they have for jobs that they think you'd be a good fit for.

What type of workplace culture do you see yourself in?

Figuring out your ideal working culture is the last part of the three-part framework for figuring out what your dream job is.

Would you prefer to work in an environment that feels prestigious, a place that required you to wear a suit, and maybe be at the heart of the city?

Or maybe you'd like to work in a culture that felt like you were hanging out with your college friends every time you walked into the office? The environment is casual, people wear jeans, and you can overhear bad puns being thrown across the room.

Here are some other examples of different types of workplace cultures, try to see if you can picture yourself in any of them:

• A techy environment where you're working hard with a team on a revolutionary piece of technology that's going to change the world. Everyone a hustler; it's common to catch colleagues staying until 8 pm in the office but no one minds because each and every one of you believes in the mission. There aren't many formal bureaucratic processes going on, instead, everything is just go go go. Got an idea? great, take it and run with it! If this excites you then you might want to consider working at a start-up environment.
• You'd prefer to have your own space and be by yourself. You're more the type where, once it hits 5 pm, you're clocked out. You like predictability with the work you do and be recognized for your efforts. Coming to work doesn't mean fun and a game for you, you're there for the work. If this sounds more like you then you might want to work in a well-established company that has a recognition system in place and rewards employees who do exceptional work. And maybe even a company that appreciates a business casual environment, not too casual, but not too dressy either.
• The 9 - 5 office life where you're sitting at a desk all day is not for you. You're more of a person that needs constant change so working 2 hours here then 5 hours there is something you're willing to put up with. You love getting physical and something about working with your hands really excites you. If this sounds more like you then you might want to consider working in an environment that requires more physical manual work than being a simple paper pusher who taps on their keyboard all day.

The above environments I listed are just a couple of examples for now. They're meant to get you thinking about workplace cultures that you think you'd be a good fit for.

Now that you have an understanding of what sort of culture you want to work in, I want you to take that handful of companies you have with you from step 1 "what is your passion" then head on over to Glassdoor.com to read each company's review in order to get some insights into their company culture and what it's like to work there.

If you didn't find Glassdoor to be helpful then search the companies up on social media. Based on the pictures you see and what they post you can get a general sense of what their culture is like.

And if you still didn't find that to be helpful then you can always reach out to employees who currently work at those companies and ask them to chat with you over a brief phone call. I find reaching out to them on LinkedIn is the best method of going about it.

Great, to sum it up, you've now identified which companies align with your "cause", you understand now what sort of jobs would best suit your working style in those companies, and you've filtered your selection even further by identifying which companies have a working culture that best fits you.

As you can see, you're starting to zero in on what that perfect job, company, and culture looks like.

I'm proud of you! It's definitely no easy task figuring out what your dream job is but always keep in mind that, it's not necessarily about finding that perfect job, instead, it's more about being present and enjoying the journey as it reveals new parts of you that you might never have known about before.

So rather than trying so hard finding that perfect job, use what I showed you as if it were a compass, a compass that gives you the general direction you want to head and then from there, who knows, maybe you'll uncover a revelation that'll make you do a complete 180. Regardless, make sure you enjoy the journey because that's what life's all about.