How to Marry Your Passion and Career in 2017 and Beyond

With most careers and jobs, you’ll find that you have days you love and days you hate. What if you could work at a job where the good days far outweigh the bad ones? Imagine how that might increase your productivity at work, not to mention your job satisfaction and overall happiness. Believe it or not, there are ways to channel your passions and hobbies into a meaningful career.

Take Time to Reflect

The first step to figuring out what kind of work will speak to your passion is to spend some time being introspective. Reflect things that really get you fired up and motivated. If you could take just the parts of your current job that you love and ditch the rest, what would that look like?

What types of work have you always fantasized about as your “dream job?” You may even consider spending some time journaling the answers to these questions to bring out what it is that you truly love. Focus on happiness over profit.

Build a Network

In today’s job market, networking is crucial, no matter what it is that you ultimately want to do. As you spend time gathering research about what potential job opportunities lie in your areas of interest, reach out to people who are doing similar work. Often, they can offer advice to get you started, provide feedback on your resume or portfolio, or even possibly point you towards open positions that fit what you’re looking for.

Boost Your Skill Base

If you identify an area of passion that doesn’t line up with the skills and experience you currently list on your resume, you may have some work to do. But that shouldn’t be an obstacle to landing your dream job – though it may require more effort.  Build up your soft skills along with your hard for the best chances.

If there are areas where your skills are lacking, consider taking a course or doing volunteer work to build them up. You can then add this unpaid experience to your resume to show that you’ve done the work before.