I was having drinks with a really dear friend the other night and she said something that stuck with me because I'd heard it from clients before.
She said “If I'm not happy with my dream job, something must be wrong with me.” She had worked her booty off, gone through a grueling job search and finally scored her childhood dream job.
Now I am here to tell you that there are three reasons why when your dream job sucks... it's not you.
I find myself giving out this career advice, a lot. Of all the career opportunities out there, the right career, that ideal job, all that work towards career happiness won't mean anything if you end up not actually liking your dream job. But, even though it might be a fulfilling career doing meaningful work making a positive impact and a career path you entered on after years of soul searching, you might find that your "passion" was more ... one of your interests.
But honestly - it's not your fault for the following reasons:
Reason 1: No.
Reason 2: Nope.
Reason 3: Nuh Unh.
Reason #1: No. You couldn't know the reality of your “dream job” until you were actually living it.
You can ask yourself the important questions, dig in the data, research companies, ask your friends, study up on the industry, know all of the key takeaways.
You can get the right education, read tens of thousands of blogs about the field, explore jobs until you're blue in the face.
You can know the ins and outs of every one of the positions you're interested in, you can spend all of your free time concocting dreams of your future career track.
You can do a million and one informational interviews, you can work your way up through a company, you can volunteer doing the job, you can do all of the background research, you can be as prepared as you can possibly be... but you can not, in any way, know the true day-to-day reality of any job until you're in the middle of it. Not even if it's your dream career.
Even if it's your dream job and even if it's something you've been working towards for years - there's no way for you to know, and to truly understand, until you're living it.
And the truth of the matter is even dream jobs are still…. jobs.
Reason #2: Nope. Humans change their wants and needs all the time.
If you're working towards a dream job, and a dream job tends to be that idea of something we've hung our hat on that we are really working hard towards, your actual inner Needs & Wants may have changed without you really being aware of it.
So by the time you're finally into that dream job, that dream position, inside of you somewhere there is something saying that it's not right because your wants and your needs have changed and you've been so focused on getting the dream job that you haven't taken a step back to review where you are at personally.
If you've been so driven and focused on the end goal that you didn't take stock along the way that this is something you still truly want, than things (i.e. your wants and needs) may have changed without you realizing it. The job might be fine but it feels sucky because you don't really want it any more.
As you determine the realities of your life and this job, you may decide that a particular income is more important factor than the tasks you do at any point during the day.
You might be discover that you have more flexibility about your skill set and that you're more interested in work life balance than this full time job you got a new bachelor's degree and went through a career change to obtain.
Some careers that focus on your interests have the added bonus of paying you the money you weren't receiving at previous jobs.
Your childhood dream job (or any dream career) may not be what you actually want once you find yourself being paid to do it. And that's ok! It doesn't mean that your skills or past experiences are wasted. It simply means that your interest in this career track has waned.
Reason #3: Nuh Unh. Sometimes jobs just suck. Even dream jobs.
It was true for this particular friend. I knew the dream job that she'd been working for. It sounded, on paper, like the perfect gig. When she got the job she was really, really, crazy excited. She got in there and knew from legitimately her first day on the job that it was awful.
Your first day on the job (even your dream job) is usually filling out the paperwork, going to a nice lunch, meeting your co-workers as you get settled into your space. At her first day on the job she was there until almost midnight answering emails! She knew that moment that the job sucked but she couldn't admit it because in her mind she was saying “You know if I worked this hard to get this dream job and it sucks then it must be me, not the job.”
But no. Sometimes jobs just suck! Even dream ones and it's horrible.
It hurts to say, and I know there's so many of you out there working towards dream jobs! Some of you are going to have amazing experiences and some of you are going to get there and realize it's not all peaches and roses and unicorn farts.
Sometimes jobs just suck and it's the worst. Does that mean you need to give up on your dream job completely if that happens? No, not at all! You do need to take stock and see if it is this particular job at this particular company or if it is the role as a whole.
You just need to take a step back and really take stock of what's happening.
Remember - if you're not happy with your dream job something is not wrong with you! Just make sure, as you're working towards your dream job, that you have realistic expectations for what that job is going to be.
No job is going to fulfill you completely.
No job is going to make you happy all by itself.
Make sure you're checking in on your internal wants and needs, your priorities, your values and if you do get your dream job and it turns out to not what you want make sure you acknowledge that sooner rather than later without beating yourself up about it!!
So those are my 3 reasons why when your dream job sucks it's not you. You're just fine. You can get what you want and what you need - you just need to take a step back and figure out what that is. This might be the most important career advice about dream jobs I can give. You are just fine.
No idea what your 'dream job' is and still trying to finally figure out what work you're even meant to do in the world? Check out the course right here for a step by step system for finding your thing, your career path how to explore all the careers (dream or otherwise).
Yours in career dream job schmeam job goodness,
EBS
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EB Sanders
Career Coach for Creative Types
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Helping you figure out what you want to do and how to do it your way!
