How do you find a Job you would love?

Steve Jobs famously said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle”.

Sounds good, but Consider these facts:

You actually don’t know whether you would enjoy a job unless you try it

You already have been in a job for years and not sure whether you can break new grounds now

Companies want to hire only those people who have the relevant experience.

As a result, your career moves are driven by what you are doing and what salary the next company offers, not what you would love to do. It becomes difficult to find the job you would love, because you need to experiment to figure that out. I am going to tell what has worked for me. Hopefully it can help you too get some ideas:

1. Spend some time researching about the job you think you would love doing. Get a list of popular books on that topic and go through a couple of them. Listen to the influential people from this field on YouTube, read their blogs, and follow them on Twitter. This will give you an understanding of multiple aspects of that job.

2. There are Meetup or similar groups in most of the major cities where people from different professional fields gather informally to exchange ideas. The biggest benefit of these groups is that you are not under pressure as in typical cocktail networking events. These groups are very friendly. Join them, attend a few meetings, and see if you like what people are talking about their career.

3. If you like a particular speaker, try to approach him after the session and get his business card. If you are not comfortable approaching in this setting, ask the person on LinkedIn whether he would be willing to meet you to help with career related queries. Trust me that people like to be approached for their expertise. Prepare a list of questions beforehand, and go through them during the meeting.

4. At this point you have enough knowledge about what your desired job entails. See if you can take some online certification (online courses don’t cost much) that will give you the basic skills (and some credibility) needed for the job. Now start looking for internships (which are easier to find than jobs) with a Startup in the industry you want to work (there are multiple websites that are dedicated to opportunities with Startups). It will be easier to find an internship with a Startup than with big companies. So you go after them. Startup companies are disrupting every other industry; chances are high that you will find one in your area of interest.

5. Once you find an internship opportunity, use LinkedIn to connect to the hiring manager at that Startup. If there is no hiring person, connect to the founders and tell them the reason you want to work for them. Be honest; honesty is still an asset in Startup companies. Tell them how you can benefit their Startup with the skills you have learned in your life (both professional and personal). Request for a face to face meeting.

Use this internship as the opportunity to validate whether this is something you would enjoy doing day after day. If you like it, learn as much as you can. You can either stay with that Startup or interview with bigger firms in that industry (after the internship). And if you think this is not something you can do for long, Start Over.