Finding Your Dream Job

In my quest to land my dream job, I sought the help of online professionals. I first wanted to know what career was right for me? I am currently a Marketing and Management double major. But every career counselor I have spoken to said that my major doesn't have to define a career.

From my research, I realized that the first step in determining a career is looking at your hobbies and interests. More specifically, what about your interests do you enjoy? What are your underlying core values? (Slide, 2018). I love fashion and fitness, but I don't see myself as a fashion designer or a personal trainer. I love fashion because I can be creative. I love fitness because it challenges me to reach my goals. Now that I know I want a creative career where I am challenged, it's time to seek outside help.

Great outside resources are informational interviews and shadowing opportunities. These resources are great to understand the ins and outs of a job, and to see if a company's culture is right for you. (Slide, 2018). For example, after shadowing the CMO of a major corporation last summer, I realized that I definitely don't want to be a slave to my desk, but rather to excel. I want a job where I can be talking and interacting with people.

After meeting with those outside resources, the next step is to start networking for that dream job. A great place to start is volunteering at a local organization (Bernnett, 2018).While volunteering is not necessarily related to your career path, it's a great way to meet people and begin to build your more extensive network. The people you volunteer with could be your future co-workers.

Another awesome resource is Linked In (Bernnett, 2018). With Linked In, you can make connections with your favorite companies as well as fellow alumni from your school. Also, you can directly apply to specific jobs on Linked In and build your resume.

A tip that I have followed in my job search is to find a role model whose career path I admire. From there, you can research to see what steps they took to reach the peak of their success. Did they attend graduate schooling? Did they build their social media presence? What is the best piece of advice you can take from their journey? For example, one person I truly admire is Michelle Obama. I admire Michelle because she understood the impact she had and used her platform to fight against obesity and for education. From Michelle, I learned that the first step in creating a platform is to build trust.

Another amazing networking strategy is attending a networking event (Bruhstein, 2014). Career fairs are offered in all different professions ranging from finance to marketing to technology. When stepping into a career event, it is more important to be engaged, share your strengths, and above all, just be yourself. Brent Csutoras, who is the CMO of PeakActivity, believes that "One single meaningful connection is way more valuable than a number of insignificant connections you never quite feel comfortable following up with down the road"(Weber, 2018). I agree.

To sum everything up, take a deep breath, network network network, and remember that you are capable of anything you set your mind to.

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Work Cited:
Bennett, Paige. "13 Networking Tips That Can Help You Land Your Dream Job." INSIDER, INSIDER, 23 Aug. 2018, www.insider.com/how-to-network-for-a-job-2018-8#13-remember-to-be-genuine-and-keep-an-open-mind-13.

Bruhstein, Darrah. "17 Tips To Survive Your Next Networking Event." Forbes, Forbes
Magazine, 22 July 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2014/07/22/17-tips-to-survive-your-next-networking-event/#68f1b8e7cd4b.

Slide, Casey. "Confused About Your Career Path? - 16 Steps to Find the Right Career." Money Crashers, 23 May 2018, www.moneycrashers.com/confused-find-right-career-path/.

Weber, John Leo. "10 Business Pros Share Their Best Networking Tips." ProjectManager.com, ProjectManager.com, 30 Nov. 2018, www.projectmanager.com/blog/best-networking-tips.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.