By Rhonda Campbell
“I don’t dream at night, I dream all day; I dream for a living,” Steven Spielberg, one of the great directors of our time, shared. Yet, dreams alone won’t help you fulfill your goals. To achieve your goals, you have to take action. As Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Whether you realize it or not, you have a “dream job.” It’s this job you really want. But, do you have the experience to step into the job? Even if an employer promoted you into the job you really want, do you have the skills to perform the job successfully?
Focusing on the right organization could help your job search efforts
Even more, if you’re unemployed and searching diligently for paid work, could your lofty job goals be hurting your career search progress? Be honest. Do you gloss over job ads for jobs that align with your current skills and experience, but study job ads for gigs that are two to three levels above your current skill set?
You could be hurting your career in the short and long-term. Rather than wasting time submitting dozens of employment applications for jobs you don’t have the required certifications, education and experience to step into “right now,” study organizations you want to work for. Focus on organizations that have 10 or more different job types (i.e. sales, accounting, marketing, legal, administrative, customer service, research, public relations, training) and 5 or more levels within each job.
Get hired into these organizations and you can move up, stepping into more senior jobs, throughout your career. You might not start at the top. It might take you 15 or more years to reach your loftiest career goals, but you’d be on your way.
It beats refusing to apply for jobs other than senior level positions when the highest level you’ve worked at so far is as a customer service representative or as an executive assistant. Again, this isn’t to say that you can’t start out working an executive assistant job early in your career then step into a first vice president job years later.
The first vice president job is your long-term career goal. For now, focus on getting in the door, starting to move toward fulfilling your career goal. Get the education you need, gain a mentor, join a professional network and/or read quality materials (i.e. books, articles) about trends, etc. impacting the career field you want to work in.
You can fulfill your lofty dreams. You just might have to work your way toward achieving major career dreams. Get in with the right organization (or start your own company in the right field), and you could enjoy each step you take to the top.
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