The 4 E’s Of Landing The Career Of Your Dreams

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When it comes to landing the career of your dreams, you can get quite giddy. And who could blame you? Your entire future is out there, just waiting to be harnessed. So it’s time to work exact exactly how you’re going to do that. Whether you want to ensure you get started out on the correct path from the start, or you’re currently unhappy with what you’re doing and you want to make sure that you’re able to find the right career with a suitable change, you want to get it right. And to do that, you need to combine a few different areas.

Firstly, you have your education. Whether that’s currently where you are now, or something that you’re considering to going back into. But you also have your work experience to consider, and this can often play heavily into making your career work for you too. Then, you’ve got your enthusiasm, because your determination and drive often makes a huge difference in how well you can progress in your career. And finally, there’s your evolution, because landing that career of your dreams does often involve a range of progressive steps. So let’s take a look at how you’re going to combine all four to land the career of your dreams.

Education

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The Right Major

If you are just starting out with your career, and you’re still in college (or even about to start), you’re really going to want to drill down on the right major. Choosing a major can be tough is if you’re unsure of what you want to do. Sometimes, even choosing the right courses individually can be a hard task. But if you do have a rough idea of what career path you want to head down, you need to be able to make your major work for you.

Going On To Graduate Level

Then, you may want to think about what graduate education can do for your career prospects. If you are looking to change career fields, this can also be relevant to you too. You may wonder how long it takes to get a masters degree, but if you’re serious about the right career, the one or two years of extra education will benefit you immensely. It may even be a prerequisite for the career you want.

Further Training

Then, depending on what career it is that you’re chasing, you may also be interested in further training. Some industries require licensure or certification, which you may need to train for. Or, if you’re interested in something like journalism or marketing, you may want to look into vocational qualifications that can help you to stand out.

Experience

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Work Experience

Following on from education, you also need to have the experience. It’s hard to say which of the two weighs up as more important, as in most career fields the two go hand in hand. So you may want to think about getting some work experience whenever you can. Gaining job experience can be done in a range of ways, but doing this while you study, or alongside another job, will often stand you in good stead.

Internships

One of the key areas of getting experience will always lie within interning. Sometimes, you may not feel as if an internship is right for you. But, a lot of the time, you will find that internships can open a lot of doors for you. Finding an internship can be competitive, but the right one will often provide you with key experience and allow you to build valuable connections too.

Starting Out

Some people often assume that as soon as you’ve landed your first job, your days of getting experience are over. But really, they’re just beginning. You often have to learn a lot when you first begin your career. In fact, you do learn throughout your career. But at the start, you need to take in everything. You need to prove yourself and ensure that you can absorb knowledge from those around you, and start to make waves in the industry that you’ve gone into.

Going Above And Beyond

You’re also going to find that you need to go above and beyond to get to where you need to be. Regardless of the industry, you’re in, or the job role that you go into, if you’re a mediocre employee, you may not go far. But when you have big career dreams, you need to chase them with all that you have. And that will often mean that you need to go above and beyond what is asked of you, in order to stand out.

Enthusiasm

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Combining Your Hobbies

Your enthusiasm is often what pushes you forwards in your career. Without it, you may struggle to get to where you want to be. One of the ways that you can often show your enthusiasm for the job, and ensure that you’re able to contribute as much as you can, is to combine your hobbies. Although they’re often there for enjoyment, you’ll find that sometimes your hobbies can make you better at your job.

Starting A Side Hustle

At the same time, you may find that having a ‘side hustle’ is invaluable. When you’re trying to commit your all to your job, you may not think you have time to operate anything alongside it, but you should find that it can help you to stand out and even progress in your field. Whether you start a blog or sell a product, it could be the edge you need to keep you moving in your career.

Going The Extra Mile

At the same time, you should also be thinking about how you can go the extra mile. Your enthusiasm helps with this. Yes, it is in some ways similar to going above and beyond what it asked of you, but sometimes it can be something that you come up with on your own – like giving ideas, that can help.

Taking On Extra

Finally, you may also find that offering to take on extra work can benefit your career in a range of different ways. Not only will this look good to your bosses, and go under the idea of ‘going the extra mile,’ but you will also find that you may be able to learn new things and get yourself experience in areas that you wish to progress into in the future.

Evolution

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Knowing Your Goals

The last ‘E’ in the list concerns your career progression. Because if you’re ever going to get that dream role, you need to be able to harness your own growth. To do that, you will need goals. Because it’s hard to advance without knowing where you need to be. Setting career goals may be tough to start with, but as soon as they’re in place, you will have a guide that can get you to where you need to be.

Following The Stepping Stones

Then, you need to be able to follow the steps that you’ve set out for yourself as a part of your goal setting. You may find that this is going to take you time, it could even be ten years or more, sometimes even twenty. But you need to be able to know what promotions you need, and what roles you’re to go through in order to reach the final step.

Using The E’s To Get To The End

And finally, you need to understand how you’re going to use all of the three other ‘E’s to get to this stage. By ensuring that education, experience, and enthusiasm can work together in harmony, you should find that you’re able to not only chase after your dream career path, but pass through it with ease.