Many people carry dream jobs around with them. For example, they imagine being the owner of a beach bar, running a B&B, leading photo tours in Africa, opening a take-away and distributing it via franchise. These dream jobs often have the function of an island dream as a mental escape from the current professional situation, which is not satisfying enough.
Most people never challenge their dream jobs throughout their careers. They may not really take them seriously or they want to keep them as a kind of mental emergency reserve for bad times; and this de-spite the fact that most dreams may turn out not to be worth pursuing on closer examination.
The following example shows that it is worthwhile to analyse a personal dream, even if it subsequently vanishes into thin air:
A few years ago, a young woman came to me for coaching. She was 32 years old, had studied economics at a leading business school, had worked for a well-known consulting firm for several years, had completed a top MBA in the USA and at the time we worked together was working in marketing for a luxury goods company – a highly successful career by common standards. However, she was dissatisfied with her professional situation and it was her wish to become a film director.
Dreams represent needs in life
As part of the personal and professional assessment, I asked her what exactly interested her in becoming a film director. I noted down her statements on the flipchart: working independently, being able to realise their own ideas, being creatively active; doing something special and thus having a unique selling proposition, social prestige, etc. I was surprised that she mentioned relatively few points. And she mentioned nothing about scripts, cameras and actors. None of the expressed needs would have suggested a career change into the film business. When we then looked at possible tasks and challenges of a film director, she realised that this supposed dream job did not really interest her. But the needs that were articulated as a projection in this dream had to be realised in the job search.
The client finally found a job in which she could satisfy these needs: She became an area sales manager for a specific region in the USA with her current employer.
This story is also an example of how the ideal next job is often not far from the current one and some-times even in the same company.
Face your dreams
Dreams are very helpful for career guidance. They give us insight into our wishes and needs, because our subconscious can only communicate with us through dreams, visions and inner images.
Therefore, dare to deal with your dreams. It is better to evaluate a dream today and then bury it, than later, when looking back on one’s life, to mistakenly regret not having done something that, on closer inspection, one would not really have been interested in.
#Personal and professional assessment, #Career, #Strategic career planning