Questions to Find Your Dream Job

In an earlier post, we explored the topic of how to find your dream job. Basically, we have notions of what it might be, but we don’t know what it entails until we sit down with someone who is already doing that work.

To even reach this phase in career planning, we need an inkling of what it is we think we would like to do. Much like a pirate map, we have to figure out where we are going before we can reach the treasure of a dream job.

Use the below questions to help you find your dream job.

Questions to Find Your Dream Job

1. What is my Tennis Ball?

“Identify ‘the thing that pulls you’…that holds the potential to engage you as single-mindedly as a dog chasing a tennis ball.”

Warren Burger, from The Book of Beautiful Questions

This question is asking you to think about what you think about daily or would like to be thinking about every day.

What is the one thing that excites you and gets you up every morning? What do you wish you had more time to do? All these questions are trying to nail down that idea of what you would love to chase like a big-yellow lab when it is playing fetch.

2. What Makes Me Forget to Eat?

Akin to Abraham Lincoln, what leaves you so engrossed everything disappears? Another way to think of this is, when do you enter the flow state the most? What kind of work absorbs all your attention?

3. What Did I Enjoy Doing at the Age of Ten?

Think of the topics that interested you and how you spent your free time. Chances are, there are at least a few topics that you enjoyed as a child that you would love to do more of today. It could be art, playing sports, or even the types of games you would play with the neighborhood kids during the Summer. Re-kindle those interests and see if you can make a career out of one of those childhood passions!

4. What are my Superpowers?

It can be a struggle to think of some key strengths for ourselves because of negativity bias, but once we overcome that problem we can see, as Warren calls it, “the combination of personality traits and aptitudes you bring effortlessly to any situation.”

Practice self-compassion when finding your superpowers. Treat yourself like a friend. See yourself objectively, what do you do better than most people? Is there a job you would like that relies on your skillset?

5. In What Way Do I Wish the World was Different?

 “Be the change you want to see in the world” as Gandhi said. This question helps you see where there are areas that are lacking, and where your key strengths could make a difference. This question also shifts the mindset from ‘what I want to do to‘ to more ‘how can I make the world better’. It is an empathetic shift focusing on areas of improvement you care about instead of just finding another job.

6. What is my Sentence?

Distill your purpose into a single sentence. This sentence provides something to refer to when lost, or unmotivated.

This sentence should capture who you are and what you are aiming to achieve. For example, my sentence is, “I will use my abilities of structuring, researching, and distilling information to make a blog community where people get a one-stop shop in all areas of building a better life.”

Main Take-Aways

Finding your dream job isn’t easy. It requires a lot of forethought, self-reflection, research, stepping out of your comfort zone, and facing some setbacks.

But is also fun, and incredibly rewarding. We will be working anyways, might as well work towards something you love contributing to the world!

These questions can help guide the brainstorming of what it is you think you’d like to do. It can be many things, just start to get the full scope of what those jobs are to avoid picking one that doesn’t align with you. Also, we change as we grow-up. These answers can change and that is normal!

 Even in the above example, my questions revolve around teaching (could be a professor), conversation (could go work in conservation), and strategy (business consultant). Each of these reveals different potential careers I could pursue, but they all align with my goals and values. The tennis ball question narrows this down even further. 

Action Item

Ask yourself one of these questions for the next six days. Write down your answers. On the 7th day, analyze your answers. What are the big take-aways you learned that will lead you closer to your dream job?