How to figure out what jobs you will love

In troubled times such as these, it might seem too indulging to go after jobs you enjoy and love. It's not; there is competition for most positions, and recruiters specialize in weeding out candidates that are not fully engaged. Unless you're a great actor or apply for underpaid jobs that nobody wants, your chances of landing positions you dislike are slim. You might as well go for the ones you love.

If you look at your life, you'll see certain work situations you like better than others. You may engage and feel intrigued by several new things, and it might be hard to stalk out the right direction career-wise. Rather than jumping from job opportunity to the next on impulse or interest, you will get a better understanding of the types of jobs you'll thrive in and where you will be happy.

We don't know what kind of positions will be available in the future. Career and job opportunities will change, and new types of jobs show up continuously. Developing and sticking with the skills and processes you enjoy is more important than ever. Figuring out what you should do is not as hard as you might think. According to research, you will find most work enjoyment if you focus on what skills you like to use. Boston Consulting Group found that the #1 factor (of 26 total) for employee happiness on the job is appreciated for their work.

Let's say that: 1) you love cars but are not into flowers, and 2) you have skills and enjoy doing marketing but don't like selling. Unless you get to market cars, research shows you will be more happy and successful marketing flowers than selling cars.

Let the skills you love trump your interests when developing your career.  Choose to developing and leveraging your natural strengths aka, super-skills. Your super-skills may be transferable and used in several careers and jobs. 

Finding your natural super-skills

While we develop and adopt new job skills through new experiences, our preferred skills and core comfort zone may be expanded but do not change. Job satisfaction comes from doing things that come easy for and around people that value your expertise. When seeking the perfect job, you are best off pursuing opportunities that entail doing tasks and processes you love, AKA, your super skills.

This does not mean that you will love every task in your potential job. You may find that you need to develop certain skills to leverage your super-skills. 

It is vital to understand yourself and ensure that job opportunities entail assignments and tasks that you will enjoy and master. There are at least two ways of finding your super skillset:

Personality preference assessments 

Look at the Personality preference description below based on Carl G. Jung's research. There are also other free personality assessment tools online that can help you.

A personality preference type assessment will help you assess what energizes you and your natural strengths and what tasks you like to perform. It may also help you decide what supporting roles you need to succeed, what environment you'll thrive in, and what management style and corporate culture you prefer. Your personal preference assessment should give you some clues to what kind of working environment you need. If you also get to enjoy the people working there, you will start welcoming Mondays.

1. Self-assessment with input

Look at your list of skills and the self-assessment questions. Do a self-assessment and ask your friends and colleagues you trust. 

Ask yourself and people that wish you well these questions, and it may help you figure out what your natural strengths, aka super-skills, are and what skills are not:

• What am I good at that I love doing? 
• What did I have fun doing today, this week, or this month?
• What do I do for free at work or in my spare time?
• What types of tasks and assignments feel effortless to perform? 
• What skills would be within my strengths and that I would like to develop further?
• What do others tell me that I'm good at doing?
• What do I do that other people value?
• What are the things I dislike and would love to delegate asap if I could? 
• What do I value that others are doing for me? 

MATRIX OF SKILLS & DEVELOPMENT 

Fill in how well you master and enjoy using skills to overview natural strengths and potential. Focus on your super-skills and your potential when looking for work. Those are the ones that will give you the most satisfaction. You will enjoy and feel engaged in your job when using natural strengths and developing your potential skills. 

Filling out the matrix may take some time. 

 My best tip put up a matrix-form on a blackboard or the fridge and fill it out as you get ideas.

Betting on jobs doing tasks you dislike may be the recipe for burnout, boredom, and future layoffs. Most skills must be updated periodically. It may be draining to maintain or develop learned skills that you don't like performing. 

Note: These days, you can learn job skills in training programs at work or for free or very cheap with online courses at home (ex. www.udemy.com or www.alison.com).

Getting clear on what skills you love and want to develop might be a life-changing exercise. - Sleep on it to make sure that it makes sense and that you feel right about it the next morning. To find the organization for you, you may ask what mission you want to be a part of or what major problem you want to help solve. 

Summary - Define your super-skills and fill out the matrix

1. Assess your skills to find the ones you love to use
1. Do a personality preference assessment.
2. Do the self-assessment with input.
2. Make a list of your super skills - the skills and processes you love to do. These are your natural strengths.
3. Look at your potential. Are there processes you don't matter where you get to use the skills you love? What talent do you have traction for developing, and what skills would you like to develop in the future?
1. If you are a natural organizer, you may want to learn project management. 
2. If you are great with people, you may want to learn customer service. 
4. What tasks do you master but get no energy from doing? 
5. What are the functions that you do not master and want to avoid learning? These are skills that you should avoid.

Apply to jobs where you get to use your natural skills most of the time, and the chances are that you will love your job.

There are other

1. Appreciation for your work
2. Good relationships with colleagues
3. Good work-life balance
4. Good relationships with superiors
5. Company's financial stability
6. Learning and career development
7. Job security
8. Attractive fixed salary
9. Interesting job content
10. Company values