How To Find Your Dream Job FAST

Today’s post is a guest post by Abel Cane. You can connect with him at his website or Twitter.

“I want to be an astronaut!”

“I want to be a doctor!”

“I want to make video games!”

When you were younger, you were so sure of what you wanted to be when you grew up.

Now here you are, looking at job postings on billboards and newspapers, on the internet. Whether you’re thinking about changing careers or you’re just starting out in the workforce, wouldn’t it be great to have a job you love?”

But if you’re not sure which career to choose. How can you know whether you’d love the job or not?

In this article, we’ll look at two ways you can find out — two ways to determine which job is right for you.

Looking for the perfect job match? Take a test!

Let’s start here. If you’re really not sure which way to go, then taking a career aptitude test is a great place to start!

What kind of test is that?

Career aptitude tests are a series of questions that determine your natural prowess and ability to do a job. They are designed to collect information about your personality, the kind of tasks you like, and how you react to certain situations — all in order to determine which job is “right” for you.

How do aptitude tests work?

Many career aptitude tests are available online. They can take from 10 to 30 minutes to complete, depending on how carefully you consider the questions.

They can be divided into these categories: personality tests, interest-based tests, and work style tests. Some aptitude tests combine all three.

A personality test looks at your nature or temperament. It takes into account how you “think, act and interact”, the most one prominent being the Myers-Briggs personality test which segregates everyone into one of 16 types of people, from extroverted or introverted, sensing or intuitive, and feeling or thinking.

An interest-based test takes into account your preferences and categorizes you into artistic, conventional, enterprising, investigative, physical and mechanical, or social work, all depending on what things you like to do. The O*NET interest Profiler is one of these interest-based tests.

A work style test tries you in the way you prefer to complete your tasks. It highlights your “motivation, work habits & quirks, work attitudes, work ethics…” along with other work related characteristics you can think of. It’s very much like a personality test, but it focuses on the work environment.

All these aptitude tests can give you a good approximation on what sort of job fits you depending on the data you give them.

Do they give the same results?

Not always, no. This is because the jobs you’re interested in might not exactly line up with your work ethics, work style, or personality. Work style tests and personality tests will have much more work suggestions in common than those with interest-based tests.

But in the end, only you will be able to judge.

To find out for sure, take temporary work in your chosen field

The best way to know what you like is to test it out. Get a temporaryh job in the field of work you’re interested in. Sure, you can’t just hire out as a physician before you get your license, but you can work in the medical field and rub shoulders with those already doing the work.

You can learn a ton like that.

The really cool part is that you don’t have to start and quit, start and quit, to test jobs out. That can give you a poor reputation. The key is to hire on through a temporary staffing agency. You can build references at both the agency and with the companies you work for as a temp.

According to Symphony Placements, matching you with the right job is exactly what placement services do … and at no cost to you. If they can’t place you in the job you want, you don’t owe them a dime!

Temporary staffing firms send help to companies that need them according to those workers’ skills and aptitude. Usually, temp agencies specialize in certain kinds of workers. Some specialize in healthcare workers, others with factory works just to name a few. So be sure to approach the temp firm that best fits your work ambitions.

Many temp agencies even offer benefits to their workers and provide opportunities to move up from temporary to permanent work. That’s a pretty good deal, especially if your main goal is to try your hand at starting a new career!

How to find the job you love

So, which should you do: take a career aptitude test or hire on as a temporary employee to test the waters? Here’s the best answer to that question: Do both! Temp work and career aptitude tests work great hand-in-hand.

The career aptitude test is good for getting you started on a particular direction and narrowing down your options. Perfect for answering that burning question you’ve had from the beginning: “Where do I look for a better job for me?”

And once you have your sights set on a career path (or set of career paths), getting a temp job in that field is the best way to pounce! It’s relatively easy to get, doesn’t make you commit to anything just yet, but still helps you get a foot in the door for your new career.

Leverage those two “perfect job finder” tips, and you’re well on your way to living the dream.

The author used the advice here to get a job in the medical field … and hated it. She tried again, this time landing work with ADUadvice.com and loved it. Don’t just guess about the job you’d love. Use these tips and be sure.

About the author:

Abel Cane lives and works in the great Pacific Northwest. Connect with Abel on Twitter @BoomAlive.

I help solopreneurs get MORE PROFITABLE in WAY LESS TIME, grow and scale their one man businesses into time independent 7-8 figure machines that make money even when you’re asleep. Learn how in my Renegade Solopreneur Profits Bootcamp.