This is the fourth in a series of articles addressing the eight different stages of the job search and the tangible things you can do to navigate them.
A successful career trajectory is driven by learning. From this perspective, we can move forward with our career by figuring out what we need to learn from our next job, rather than attempting to discern which company would perfect to work for.
If you prioritize learning instead of the company you want to work for you will find perfect opportunities with unexpected companies that could allow you to be paid to learn, which will then bring you one step closer to your ideal job with the perfect company.
The first step to deciding which company to work for and to evaluate which job opportunity to pursue through this learning-based perspective is to make a simple list of everything that you want to learn. Here is how to skip the cliché answers and create a thorough list that addresses your unique career goal and the hard and soft skills you need to get there:
1. Make a list of 15 things you would need to learn to get your ideal job.
Include everything from minor detail-oriented skills, (such as point-of-sale experience) to global skills, (a working knowledge of the industry's current business model). Include all soft skills, (communication and negotiation) as well as hard skills, (financial reporting and analysis).
2. Add other interests that you are eager to learn.
What skills which would feed different parts of your character and enhance your competence in this field. What would make you stand our from the other candidates in an interview?
3. If you are having trouble with your list, create a fictional mentor.
Do this by choosing three people that you would hope to emulate and ascribing percentage values to each person on your list so that it totals 100 per cent. What skills, qualities or values of this fictionalized person would you want to tangibly replicate in your own life?
4. Consider the skills of your fictional mentor.
Be sure to add any skills that resonate with you.
5. Now prioritize the companies.
Look at the companies that you are considering working for and prioritize them based on which companies would enable you to learn the most skills on your 'to learn list.'
Working from the premise that each job is a stepping stone to get you closer to your ideal career is much more practical and inspiring than looking out to some distant, unachievable horizon. Clearly laying out the skills and knowledge you need to gain will give you a job hunting strategy, and will help you prove you are aligned with that company's mission when it comes to the interview.
Dev Aujla (@devaujla) is the author of Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money and Community in a Changing World, creator of the website 50waystogetajob.com, and the CEO of Catalog, a strategic advisory and recruiting company that works with companies that do good.