“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Oriental proverb
Chances are, the “perfect” job does not exist, but you can get as closed as possible to it.
It took me some time to realize it while browsing the results of my job search on LinkedIn, but ironically, the “perfect” job (the one that provides everything you want and need) is nowhere to be found in the job market, which makes sense because otherwise, it would be too easy. As a reminder: “do what is easy in life and life is going to be hard”… However, I remain faithful to the idea that it is possible to get something rather similar to it if you know what you are looking for.
One of my favorite Japanese word is “Ikigai”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ikigai as “a motivating force; something or someone that gives a person a sense of purpose or a reason for living”.
In order to get the best match in the job market, as usual, there are some 3 prerequisites, all you gotta do is to:
Find Yourself
I have identified 3 ways to get to know oneself better:
- Through yourself: this is the result of being selfish.
- Through others: asking questions to our surroundings can be tricky depending on the proximity we might have (or lack thereof) with them. To that matter, I must share one of my favorite resources at my disposals; I have truly enjoyed playing School of Life’s Confessions Game, which basically is a “Dare or Truth” game but just with the truth part, providing well-formulated, eye-opening and thought-provoking questions aimed at making us thoroughly reflect on ourselves in different categories such as: family, relationships, sex, career and money.
- Through the internet: what a time to be alive! We got access to ridiculous amount of knowledge, and here is another key resource of mine that I rediscovered in 2021: the 16 personalities test. It is not an exact science but if you take the time to do the test sincerely, with no preconceived idea of what type of personality you would like to end up having. Indeed, I always knew deep down that despite my few joyful social moments, I am introverted. I enjoy being in my own company. The year 2020 was the time I started to embrace my introversion. As controversial as it may sound, 2020 was one of the most delightful year of my life, being confined with no more imposed social events surely was a dream come true. In comparison with my then-flatmates, mostly extroverted or simply not as at ease with themselves as I was, I realized I needed to know more about it. Once you got your result, read thoroughly about your personality type characteristics as well as their recommended careers for such it, it can be a valuable source of knowledge to consider when it comes to choose a career path.
Date with your potential employer (not literally).
Indeed, similar to a romantic relationship, you first need to know what you are ideally looking for in a company and/or a job, for instance:
- Economically: do they grant stock options, how attractive is their (first) salary offer, what tax benefits can they provide?
- Socially: are they a certified B-Corp, where do they stand in social issues?
- Culturally: what is their remote policy, how diverse is their labor force?
- Ethically/ morally: not involved the tobacco/ pharmaceutical industry or Child labour or any other abuse elsewhere.
Find Your Tribe
“If you look at the people in your circle and don’t get inspired, then you don’t have a circle. You have a cage.” ~ Nipsey Hussle
The saying goes as follows, you are the average of the 5 people you spend most time with.
Work becomes more enjoyable once you are surrounded by like-minded individuals at the very core yet different, some will be fun to be around, others annoying as usual but if you managed to get hired in a company that exhibits what you are looking for by getting to know yourself better, you should be welcomed by your potential tribe. You might even get lucky and encounter someone in the same mission as yours: using a job’s salary to finance one’s freelancing project or (side) hustle; thus employment being a mean to an end, not an end in itself.
