Dream Big…Think Real

When I grow up, I want to be…

I attend various career fairs throughout the year to source candidates and introduce others to Workforce Solutions. Quite often these career fairs draw job seekers who are on the verge of making the transition from college student to career professional. In one of my previous blogs, I affectionately referred to these types of candidates as “fresh meat.”

The most common job seeker that is young and ambitious will tell me, with quiet determination, that they have huge plans to work in a certain job making a big fat salary…and the occupation I hear the most is event planning or wedding coordinating. Sounds exciting right? Yes! Ambitions and aspirations about a job are great, however, I gently advise caution to those dreaming big and not thinking realistically. Usually my question is, “What draws you to this occupation?” The response is generally the same, “Because I love working with people!” A wise man once told me, never use the reason – you love working with people in order to get a job. Why? Because once you get into that job, you’ll hate people.

Event planners definitely deal with people, customer service, and organizations. I use the word “deal” specifically since you really are “dealing” with requests, concerns, complaints, etc. It’s not as glamorous as it first appears, and the job is definitely not for everyone. So, how do you determine if an occupation is a good fit for yourself? Here are some things to consider and ask about the position:

• What skill sets are needed to perform this job?
• What are the working hours?
• What education is needed?
• What type of networking does it require?
• What tools are needed to perform the job?
• What is the salary range?

A great tool that will help you answer the majority of the questions above is O*Net Online, a full-access, occupational network database  This online tool will help you research an occupation to get the basic information you need.  Go and check out this resource.  Three main important points to know about any given occupation are knowledge, skills, and abilities.

While it’s great to have a dream job in mind, it is also very important to have a very realistic plan.  My advice: research, research, research, then dream big and think logically!

Thoughts or questions?  Leave a comment to participate in this blog.