Find a Job That Works for You and Be Happy

If you are either at crossroads in your career or still figuring out what 'ladder you really want to climb', a dream job may well be just what you should be looking for. Yet, many people unprepared to contemplate the idea - well, it's just a dream, isn't it?

The short answer is - it is entirely up to you, but I can guarantee that the job you yearn for is somewhere out there waiting for you to find it. First you need to know what it is you are looking for, otherwise you can keep looking aimlessly and, after a while, give up saying that 'it is simply not there'. Once you know exactly what your dream job is all about, you can then establish the steps you need to take to get there - do you need new skills, qualifications, experience?

Often, it can be a question of really know that whatever you have done with your life so far can be useful in a field you never thought was possible. For example, if you want a career in banking, that's a good start, but doing what? The banking industry is vast - in fact, there could be an argument here that whatever your background, you are probably well on your way to making your mark in the banking industry, even if you don't have the most obvious credentials. Someone with a background in anthropology or international development, for example, could make a great candidate for the industry's corporate social responsibility sector.

If you are a carpenter and your dream is to make films, the same applies. You just need to look at any film's credits to find out the range of skills needed to make that happen.

The journey to a dream job maybe bumpy, but that's doesn't mean the road is not there. If you need support, career coaching can help you define your career goals, plan your career path and make a realistic assessment of what you need to get there.

There may well be challenges ahead, but the easy road is not always the right road. A few months ago I attended a training course and was quite surprised to learn that about 80% of the people in the room - aged between 20 and 50 - felt they had made a bad career choice. Many had spent time and quite a lot of money building a career they later found to be unfulfilling. Many wished they could turn the clock back while others felt that, after all the effort they had put in, they had to bite the bullet and get on with it.

It is a matter of individual choice but it makes me question - what is worth more than waking up every day knowing that, even in a bad day, your job is something you enjoy, excel at and has meaning to you?

Tips for finding your dream job

• If there were no limitations or barriers, what would your perfect job description be? Be as specific as possible and don't think about labelling your job yet - many jobs with the same title can be quite different. What would you be doing? Where would you be working? What would your work environment look like? Would you work alone or in a team? What would your colleagues be like? How far would you commute? What would be your every day activities? What would be your achievements? How much would you work?


• Divide a piece of A4 paper into three columns. In the first one, write down everything you are naturally good at; in the second one list all the things you enjoy doing; and in the third one write down everything that's important to you. Don't think about it too much, just put your thoughts down on paper. There is no right or wrong, or indeed possible or impossible. Now look at the three columns and try to find a common thread. It may not be obvious at first. If that's the case, put the paper way and look at it again another day. You will realise there is a theme which runs through some your answers, which may point you in the right direction.

Searching for a job in Singapore, you can search a list of latest jobs at jobsbank sg.

A recruitment article by Dougles Chan - A recruitment coach that speciliased in recruitment training and recruitment mentoring in Singapore and globally.

Contact Dougles Chan @ +(65) 9388 0851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com for your recruitment training and mentoring needs.

How to Write a Winning CV

With unemployment on the rise and stiff competition for jobs it has never been more important to get your CV right. A well written CV is a powerful marketing tool, so what can you do to make sure that yours attracts interest?

There are some very simple ways to improve your chances of being invited to an interview. Always make sure that you proofread your CV thoroughly before sending it off. As a general rule, a CV should be no longer than 2 pages and it must be written in the 3rd person. It's also important to make sure that your CV looks the part and that it is well structured. Getting the basics right is a good start, but making your CV stand out takes a lot of time and effort. It is vital that you highlight your skills and experience appropriately.

Top Tips to Make your CV Stand Out:

Include a Professional Profile
A Professional Profile is a paragraph at the beginning of your CV that gives the reader an overview of your key skills and experience. It should be written in the 3rd person and no longer than 10 lines in length. Bullet points are totally acceptable if you wish to use them.

Tailor your CV to the Role
Carefully study the job advert or job description to determine the skills/experience required. Focus on emphasising your most relevant qualities throughout your CV.

Include Key Achievements
Highlight Key Achievements that demonstrate results. You can include Key Achievements in a separate section if you want. Try and back your achievements up with figures or feedback.

Ensure Readability
Recruiters like CV's that are easy to scan so use clear headings and bullet points. Make sure that you check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Obviously you don't want your CV to stand out for the wrong reasons. Make sure that you use a sensible email address and that you spell the company name correctly in your cover letter. It's also advisable to avoid including generic interests, most of us like watching TV and listening to music but such information is not CV worthy.

Searching for a job in Singapore, you can find a list of available jobs at jobsbank sg.

An article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - The best SEO company in Singapore and globally. Contact Dougles Chan @ +(65) 9388 0851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com for more information on how to make your website to be the top in Google.

Career Counselling - Finding a Career Suited to Your Personality

The most important aspect of finding your dream job is to look for the job or career that is matched and compatible with your personality. This may sound relatively simple, however often we often don't have a clue about what different careers really involve and too often people find themselves "ending up" in a career without ever having made a conscious choice to do so. Resources for career counseling, including career tests, can be a great help in giving people the power to make a career decisions. So what are some of the resources available to people and how can they be most effectively used to achieve outcomes?

Job Search Websites and Databases
The Internet is an exhaustive information source that allows us to select from an ever growing list of options. Most online resources help job seekers find a job based on their personal preference and skill. Unfortunately, as often happens candidates are forced to search for and take jobs that meet their requirements at that point in time based on factors such as salary, location, and often simply what jobs are on offer at the time.

If not careful however, once a job seeker takes a job or role based on such factors however, they have often unknowingly move further from achieving their true career goal. Job seekers using this methods to decide on a career may eventually feel they have found themselves ultimately unhappy and in a job or career that is not suited to their personality or to them.

Identifying What Is "Really" Important To You
A critical aspect of finding a career well matched to your personality is to understand what is important to you. It sounds simple but surprisingly few job seekers actually do this. There are a few ways one can do this. You could make a list of all the things you think are important to you in a job and then place them in order from most important to least important. You could then access a jobs database and review the many thousands of jobs and careers in order to locate those that suitably match your list of priorities.

While this process could potentially be successful, it would be extremely time consuming and fortunately there are more effective and time efficient ways of going about this process. One such method is for job seekers to take a career test, which when completed will review all their job preferences and personality traits before providing them with a list of all the jobs suited to their personality. Most quality tests, such as the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) also go a step further and provide a good list of detailed action steps to guide the person in taking the necessary steps to move toward achieving their desired career.

Ensure you use a quality Career Test only
Career tests aren't career tests, just as "oils ain't oils". What is meant by this is that there are many career tests or "Quizzes" on the internet today which, while fun to play around with, are along way from quality career advice and are often very unreliable. In order to use a career test to help you find a job suited to your personality you need to find a test you can rely on. This is easier said than done but the only reliable or trusted way of doing this is to select a career test or questionnaire which is backed by solid research data and one which hasn't just been created by the webmaster of the site you are visiting.

For example, as mentioned above the Strong Interest Inventory is a career test which has been used by professional career counselors around the world for many years, and has had many revisions and updates. It is based on years of research and its developers publish its reliability and validity data which is publicly available. Free career tests and quizzes on the internet may make many claims, but when was the last time you saw one that actually provided you with concrete reliability and validity figures and measures?

Searching for a job in Singapore, you can source a list of latest jobs at jobsbank sg.

A recruitment article by Dougles Chan - A recruitment mentor that speciliased in recruitment training and recruitment mentoring in Singapore and globally.

Contact Dougles Chan @ +(65) 9388 0851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com for your recruitment training and mentoring needs.