Confucius said it beautifully and simply: “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Finding that magical job that you love is not an easy task, but I think it’s a great goal. Perhaps you will never find a job that you love every aspect of, but it seems human nature to love in spite of disagreements and petty problems. With that in mind, that fulfilling job you have always wanted may not be as far out of reach as you first thought.
While you’re in the quest of finding that job that is a perfect match for you, job match testing may be very helpful. There are a lot of different options online that examine your abilities, interests, and preferences, and try to match you with an appropriate job. Considering that you could be spending forty hours a week or more at work, it is more than worthwhile to closely examine all of your options. Take some tests, talk to people, and call about positions that you might be interested in. Early contact could serve as a great way to “get your foot in the door,” allowing you to establish a connection that could make an application in the future a much better experience.
When I was looking for a job, I met one of my grandfather’s friends. She had been a career counselor for years and is now retired. When she found out I was looking for a job, she got very excited and made me sit down to talk to her. She made it very clear that she saw it as a great opportunity to pursue the career of my dreams– we just needed to figure out what career that was going to be. She talked a little about job match testing but had her own little exercise that she wanted me to try.
She asked me to come up with several experiences that I enjoyed and that I am proud of. It was not as easy a task as I had hoped but I did my best. She asked me to tell her about each of these experiences. As I did, she and my brother copied down verbs and adjectives that I used to describe my experiences. By the time I had finished, there were several qualities that clearly linked my experiences and a pattern was very clear. Although her little exercise did not give me a specific job, it gave me a tool. I now knew what qualities I was looking for in a job and I now had a way of judging if a job would be a good fit for me. She even suggested that I use some of the adjectives and qualities in my cover letters and resumes.
When I thought of job match testing, I thought it would yield a specific job, and many tests do. But this exercise, I think, was just as rewarding, and probably more practically applicable. I found that how I did something was just as important as what I did. I need to learn, I need a challenge, I need the opportunity to exceed the expectations of my employers and achieve my own goals (there are several other important qualities). I realized that there could be a lot of jobs that could satisfy at least most of my desires. It was a reassuring feeling. I was not searching for a needle in a haystack. It was clear that it was not going to be easy to find a job that I could love, but it may at least be possible.
In short, what I have learned about job match testing is that acquiring self-knowledge is the first step, and perhaps the hardest step in the search for a satisfying job. But it is a step that is worth taking. I am going to be working for years to come and doing something that I love is going to make all the difference.
By David Wade