Want a career that makes you happy? Here’s the good news: work is out there and someone has to do it—it might as well be you,right?
The first step to being happy with your life’s work is to make the choice to work for it. Getting where you want to be and staying where it’s comfortable are two different things. Which one is right for you?
Completing a degree or certificate has great value. It shows you can complete something you start, have perseverance, passion, time management and critical thinking skills and care about the topic you studied.
“Employers want to know what you can bring them. Enthusiasm and passion for the position are important,” said Tracy Dula, Career Services Coordinator of Central Oregon Community College.
Passion and enthusiasm come from knowing who you are and what makes you happy. Getting there takes hard work and time. Beside an education, there are a few other steps important to acquiring that dream job.
Work experience
- Importnt things to consider when job-hunting: How present yourself at an interview.
Volunteer work is an opportunity to learn valuable skills and to network. The more people you know in your field, the more likely you’ll hear of a job opening somewhere or gain valuable work experience.
College students invest time, money, energy and resources into an education and/or training. The same is needed of work experience. Students fear they will graduate with a shiny degree and after all that hard work, time and money, they’ll have no job.
Volunteer Connect is a Central Oregon matching agency that pairs volunteers with organizations in needs. They list some of the many benefits of volunteering for those who donate their time to help out their community.
Make important networking contacts
Learn or develop skills
Teach your skills to others
Enhance your resume
Gain work experience
Build self-esteem and self-confidence
Meet new people
Communicate to others that you are ambitious, enthusiastic and caring about the community
Work ethic: Whatever you do, do it well
Actions speak louder than words.
“Work ethic is respect for your employer and your place of business,” said Tracy Dula.
Prove you are a well-rounded employee by communicating professionally and being clean and well groomed in an interview. Speak clearly, illustrate your expertise with a professional resume (that means clean and no eraser marks, tears or stains) and be confident in your abilities. Employers want employees who are confident and able to work without much supervision.
“Whether they know it or not, they pretty much tell you what their work ethic is during an interview.” said Wendy Provencio, Human Resources Representative for Fred Meyers of Bend.
Personability and honesty are also traits employers looked for, according to Provencio.
- Have a tidy resume.
Do what you have to do
The bottom line is you gotta do what you gotta do. You are not above flipping burgers. A great career takes time, and you’ll probably have to do something you hate to get there. It requires lots of unrecognised and unpaid hard work. You’ll want to quit 75 percent of the time, and probably feel like you can’t make it the rest.
Fortunately, you have this to your advantage; lots of people quit. And you’ll still be standing.
- Volunteer to gain job experince.
Drive and motivation
Afraid to fail? Giving up means it will never happen. Choose to try because that’s the only way it will happen. Once you make the effort and decide, it gets easier. You’ll have to work very hard. Most people give up on their careers and choose a different path because they are afraid to fail.
Take a chance, be brave, and go for your dream. There’s no time for embarrassment. Do what you must and do what feels right. Don’t rush it. You have your life to do this but don’t put it off and give up. Worse than working hard and hanging on is living with regret.
A place of employment that will make you happy must fit in with your personal values. What are they? If you are unsure, think of the things you really enjoy doing. What is stimulating about those situations? Is it the quiet? The excitement? The rush? Write them down, then look through the classified or a career source reference and see what you think might supply those elements. It might be something totally unexpected. Apply for it. The worst they can say is no. Exciting, isn’t it?
You have everything you need to make your future a wonderful and fulfilling adventure.
Do it.
Keep going.
For more information on career services at COCC, contact Tracy Dula, Career Services Coordinator [email protected]
