When it comes to landing your dream job though, pipe dreams and new year’s resolutions are all very well. Actually making it happen is a different kettle o’ fish. It’ll require a game plan.
Here are 5 practical steps you can take right now to position yourself to land that dream job in 2019.
Start Your Own Business
If your dream has always been to go maverick and run your own biz, why not make 2019 the year you finally give it a red hot try?
Starting your own business can be daunting but the good news is there’s ample opportunities out there if you know where to look. In fact, the problem isn’t so much the absence of opportunities as their overwhelming abundance.
But you have a secret weapon to separate the great opportunities from the demoralizing time-suckers. Research.
The key to starting a successful business is to gather as much information as you can about a potential opportunity—the good, the bad and the downright ugly.
A great way to begin is to spend time delving into sites which specialize in reviewing the various ways you can start your own business. You’ll find a bunch of impartial reviews which walk you through the strengths and weaknesses of the huge number of business models out there.
Skill Up
Before now, there probably hasn’t been a period in human history where it’s been so easy to learn new skills. It’s a veritable skill grocery store out there! Almost any skill-set imaginable is being taught somewhere online.
Better yet, online courses tend to be offered flexibly and for a fraction of the price of a bricks and mortar training institution.
While Google is your friend when it comes to finding niche-specific career training, there’s never any harm in sharpening up on the basics.
For example, check out this excellent course on advanced Excel skills. This roughly seven hour course fills your brain with tricky methods of doing near-miraculous stuff with data. It’s an incredibly handy skill to have in your back pocket.
If numbers aren’t your thing, check out this completely free 10 hour course in public speaking. Tame the number one fear in the Western World by mastering the ability to convey compelling and memorable messaging to an audience of any size. Sooner or later it’ll serve you well!
Network
Knowing people helps. It just does.
Business networking is probably the second oldest professional activity we humans have, and it’s every bit as effective today as it was when two cavemen first decided to exchange stone tablets.
Of course, putting yourself out there greatly increases your chances of meeting a senior exec from that company you’ve always wanted to work for.
But networking has a whole bunch of juicy side benefits. It’s an awesome way to wrap your mind around what’s happening across a broad range of industries, and the more you do it, the more career resources you’ll have to draw from.
For a definitive guide to networking opportunities (both online and face to face) check out this great guide.
You may also want to sign up to Meetup. Almost every big city has a dedicated group of professionally-minded networkers who meet regularly. Here’s where you can get started.
Get Good At Telling Your Story
Landing your dream job isn’t just about knowing what to say, and it doesn’t always require knowing the right people. Sometimes the most important asset you can have is a compelling personal story.
Having something punchy to say about yourself does one really crucial thing. It makes you memorable. There’s two ways you can get your hands on this magical juju.
Introverts, you’ll probably want to check out this fabulous resource by Price Waterhouse Coopers. The good folks at PWC have developed a handy workbook to help you focus in on who you are and what you have to offer a potential employer.
It’s very slick sure, but more importantly, it’s designed to guide you through the whole gamut of what makes you unique and valuable in the workplace—from your basic beliefs and work ethic right through to your personal elevator pitch.
More of an extrovert? Oh you’re going to love this! Mosey on over to The Story Studio. This cool team offers corporate workshops and one-on-one training in how to tell a story about yourself which pops.
They personally guide you through the secrets of grabbing attention, telling a structured and dynamic story about yourself and getting people on board with who you are and what you have to offer.
Sharpen Your Interview Game
Love them or hate them, interviews are here to stay. For the foreseeable future at least, they’re going to remain the classic rite of passage through which every prospective employee must inevitably pass.
Despite their inevitability, a lot of people make the mistake of leaving interview performance to blind luck! Not good.
Interviewing is a skill. If you practice it enough, you can become an expert in giving a killer interview. Check out this great guide from career-winning gurus, Monster. It walks you through everything you need to know to ace your next job interview.
You might also like to check out this Udemy course. It’s 6 hours of distilled on-demand knowhow and it’ll walk you through the latest thinking on what makes a great job interview.
Remember, practice makes perfect.
Landing your next dream job in 2019 won’t happen by itself. But you’re not on your own either! There’s a wealth of resources out there to help you refine your skills and greatly improve your employability.
One of the above ideas is hopefully going to kickstart your imagination and give you some thoughts on where you’d like to begin.
Good luck out there. Go win that job!