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Working the Dream: Steps to Take When Your Job Isn’t Your Passion

Rachel Becker, LMSW on January 8, 2018

tags: At Work, Career Advice, Career Change, Job Hunting, Job Search, Jobs, Meaningful Work

For many of us, the start of a new year spurs thoughts of ways we can improve ourselves and our lives — including our work lives. And if our primary, money-making job isn’t our “dream job,” the interest in enhancing our work situation can be even greater. These feelings can be particularly potent for cancer survivors whose experience has created a desire to transition to doing more meaningful work. However, having the desire to be better engaged with your passions doesn’t always mean having clear thoughts on how to make that a reality. Below are a few actionable steps from Idealist.org that can bring you one step closer to “living the dream.”

  1. If your day-to-day job doesn’t match your passion, consider volunteering with or becoming a community advocate for an organization whose mission makes your heart sing. Doing so can help you build new skills for your resume as you move toward an eventual career change. At the very least, it can give you something to look forward to as you’re working your less-exciting 9-to-5 gig.
  2. If there was a point at which you had more interest in your your current role but that seems to have cooled, ask around your organization to see if there’s a new project in development that you might work on — or a different team you could join; doing so could reignite your enthusiasm for your job. Setting up an informational interview with someone in your same field might also help to renew your interest in the work you currently do.
  3. If you want to do something you’re passionate about but don’t know exactly what that is, take inventory of the tasks you do at work that you most enjoy, and think about signing up for some professional development courses to help you build out related skills. Oftentimes people find that their passion for something has evolved over time, after realizing that they developed an expertise in a particular area almost by accident. Trying something might reveal a previously unknown talent.

To read the full article on Idealist.org, click here. And be sure to check out the following CAC resources for more on how to find meaningful work:

  • Article: “Cancer As Inspiration for Career Changes”
  • Article: “Finding Meaningful Work”
  • Upcoming Webinar: Career Change
  • Cancer and Careers’ Job Search Toolkit

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