08 Sep 2020

At Year13, we talk a lot about landing your dream job. We’re always in your corner for finding your passion and chasing it – even if you have a bunch of naysayers saying otherwise. And we like to help put you on a path towards a career you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life.

But alas, not knowing the exact destination and what it may be like is certainly an anxious thought a lot of us share when it comes to our dream job.

How do we really know our dream job will be what it’s cracked up to be? What if you actually hate your dream job? What is my dream job if it’s no longer my dream job?

If these concerns are something you can relate to, read this:

It’s okay.

As humans, we change a lot. Our beliefs, values and points of view are affected and altered by many of the experiences we have.

Sure, not every experience you have is going to shatter your current view of the world. But if you think about yourself from five years ago, you’ll notice that you’ve changed in more ways than just a few new hairs in those places we don’t like to talk about.

So maybe a past version of yourself was perfect for a certain career, but as time goes on that career might not necessarily be such a great match for the “new” you.

“I could go my whole life being what everyone else wants me to be, to do what people want me to do, to say the things that they want me to say, but it’s not me and I never want to be anything other than myself.”

That’s Rachel Bacon, an International Sales and Business Development Manager who thought she knew exactly what to do to achieve her dream job of being an Engineer. But when she trekked it off to university, it wasn’t long until she realised that her passion was dimming.

                                   

 

“The moment when it clicked for me was really when someone told me to pursue something that I was really passionate about, because if I had to do something for the rest of my life and it was something that was going to be a chore, then I didn’t enjoy it.”

Defying her parents’ expectations, Rachel knew her passion was working on aircrafts so she left uni and looked into VET courses and training to put her on the right pathway.

Now in her newly found dream job, she feels like she doesn’t work a day in her life.

“Most people would be like “oh, can’t believe it’s Monday”, but I’m there thinking to myself “I can’t wait for the new week to start”, because I get to do what I love every day.”

Neat, right?

Rachel certainly isn’t the only person either, there’s a bunch of people out there that landed their dream job and it isn’t what it was all cracked up to be – whether it be during their studies or after.

In fact, if you asked anyone from the Year13 office you’ll certainly get a fair few of us say that we had it all figured out once we left school. Boy, we were so, so, so wrong.

The point is the feelings you may have about hating your dream job is quite common. But like Rachel, you can turn that around even if it seems like a lil’ bit more work because it pays off tenfold.

One way to prepare yourself is by considering the development and education of skills. Learning skills – whether it’s through your shifts at Maccas or answering Mum’s work phone when she’s doing the washing – are a sure-fire way to feel prepared in any situation due to their transferrable nature.

Our dream job is a massive part of our lives. But research tells us we’re gonna have a lot of jobs over the years, so it’s normal for our dream job to change or not be all that jazz we so imagined it would be. Thing is, you can turn hating your dream job around by picking up on skills throughout your studies that can be applied absolutely anywhere. Jump over to NCI for information about learning and training, getting job ready, gaining career ideas and resources on all things careers.