How to find a job you love

Finding a job you love can be the key to a successful and rewarding career. Successful people often say that they love their work. Identifying a job that you will love might mean sacrificing childhood ambitions and taking a realistic look at your qualities and expectations. If you search with your head, rather than your heart, you will have a better chance of finding a job you love. Our guide below will show you how.

1. Take a look at yourself. Think about your interests, skills, your personal qualities – outgoing, for example, or more introverted – and write them down. Analyzing them will help you see career possibilities to suit your abilities and personality.

2. Research. Once you have discovered a few fields that interest you, read up on them, either by surfing the web or visiting your library. Be ready to take advice from others – parents, friends, and teachers – about whether you would be suitable for the jobs you have researched.

3. Know what you want. Search in a focused way for the opportunities that interest you, resisting the opportunity to be sidetracked. It may be easier to get a job you don’t love, but that will not be rewarding in the long run.

4. Network. If you cultivate acquaintances who already work in the fields that interest you, you will stand a better chance of hearing about openings. And keep in touch with people who can have a positive influence on your career, including referees.

5. Learn from your mistakes. Most people get some rejections on the way to finding the job they love - these can be part of your learning curve if you take the trouble to call people who have interviewed you and ask why you did not get the job.

6. Be realistic. The job you love is not always the same as the job that will make you rich. If you want to be happy at work, concentrate on the job rather than the rewards and perks. Most people think that a higher salary will make them happier but, according to statistics, they are wrong. At the same time, if you are happy in your work your enthusiasm will be conveyed to your employer and you will stand a better chance of promotion.

If you follow these simple rules you will be well on the way to finding a job you love rather than a job you hate.