How to Create Your Dream Job in Your Current Role
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When it comes to your own career development and ambitions, a little resourcefulness goes a long way towards taking ownership of your career path and success. Personally, I am very much an entrepreneur, and this idea that I’m going to share definitely comes from a place of entrepreneurial spirit; taking initiative, being a bit scrappy, and creating a path where one doesn’t currently exist that leads to where you want to go.
Specifically this: If there is a job that you want, or a career path that you desire and want to get into, you don’t necessarily have to quit your job and go start over on a whole new career to move in that direction.
I’ll say it again: You don’t have to quit your job to start to build your dream career.
And what I mean by that is this: One option for you, in a lot of instances, is to make your dream job happen inside your current organization, or inside your current role.
“Create a path where one doesn’t currently exist that leads to where you want to go.”
I’ll give a perfect example of this. People often come to me saying, “I want to be a speaker,” or “I want to do training and development with teams.” The first place I tell them to look is inside their own company. You don’t have to go quit your job and start all over. Especially because if you haven’t done that work before, you don’t have any job history or experience doing it. That makes it incredibly challenging to get hired or to start to gain experience.
However, if you want to do training and development, see what’s possible for you to begin some training and development initiatives in your own company or within your existing role.
Take the initiative and attempt to make it happen (here’s how).
This can apply to a whole number of different kinds of work or roles. For now, I’ll stick with that same example of doing training and development with teams.
Essentially, take it upon yourself to determine what kind of training that you want to do, and what kind of impact that you want it to have. Then once you have a solid plan, put it together in a compelling proposal to the leadership inside your organization. Don’t worry if you’ve never done that before, or the idea of that is terrifying to you, I’m going to lay out a step by step plan with some tips and tools here below that you can use to help you be more successful with that.
The goal is to see if you can make that happen inside of your job.
If you start up some programs and initiatives inside your company, they might end up being really successful. There is a chance that you could build something inside your company where a year or two from now, you’ll have on the job experience and success stories under your belt.
“There is a chance that you could build something inside your company where a year or two from now, you’ll have on the job experience and success stories under your belt.”
At that point, having actual experience doing that work puts you way ahead of the game and could be your foot in the door for another role in potentially another organization. You’d be way better off at that point than just leaving your job and looking for a new role doing something that you have no experience in and starting from scratch.
In this example it’s training and development. But even if what you want to do is something like video or photography, where at some point you might even want to start your own company, find a way inside your current job that you can gain experience and start to build a portfolio. Offer to make videos or photography that your company can use for social media or the website or marketing, etc.
I realize that there are several factors at play here that may cause a challenge with this. One of the main ones being if your leadership is open to or will allow you to do this. That is why proposing the idea has to be done in a smart and strategic way, which I will explain how to do. Overall there may be obstacles to making this happen, I am not promising that there won’t be, but I can confidently promise that at least taking a shot at it is extremely worth it.
Get scrappy. Do what it takes.
Here’s the thing about resourcefulness: You might have to do the work for free. You might end up having to do this as extra time on top of your job, and not get paid any extra for it. So be it.
“Do whatever it takes. If you have to do it for free on top of your work, who cares?”
Do whatever it takes. If you have to do it for free on top of your work, who cares? You’re gaining experience so that a year or two from now, you might be able to land a sweet job in that role at another company because or your portfolio, and experience and successes. You’ll be able to develop content, develop your skills, and do it while benefiting your current company and receiving a secure paycheck along the way.
I also feel like it’s important to mention that I understand that context matters. This may not work or be feasible at all based on what you want to do. If you want to become a dentist, don’t expect your boss to allow you to start doing experimental root canals in the break room to gain experience. All I’m saying is take a shot at it. Especially if you’re considering leaving your job at some point, you’ve got absolutely nothing to lose.
How to effectively pitch this to your boss.
The way that you go about pitching your idea to your boss or leadership is critically important. The success of this for you can depend very heavily on how you present it.
Don’t just ask your leader randomly in passing one day like, “Hey, I want to start leading some training with the team, is that cool?” Don’t you dare do that. You have to go about this process with intention and in a way that shows that you take the idea incredibly seriously.
Here are some tips to help this have a much higher chance of success.
Be thorough. Create a fully detailed, written proposal.
Be thorough, be thoughtful, create a whole program and an entire proposal that outlines exactly what you’re thinking and what it would look like. The more detailed, the better, it should be multiple pages long and be comprehensive and appear fully thought out.
Never done anything like that before? Hit Google, there are pages and pages of free guidance and templates you can use to build out your idea into a written, professional business proposal. You have to present it this way to show that you’re serious and willing to put in the extra time and work to have this be a successful idea. If it comes across as a flash in the pan idea, you’ll come across as not serious which will create doubt as to your ability and follow through.
Make a business case for how it benefits the company, not you.
The reason your company might say yes to your idea won’t because it’s something that YOU want to do, it’ll be because they see it as something that benefits the company. Make a case for the business. You can’t go in saying, “I really want to do this, I’d be great at it and I love it.” You have to present the idea as “This is the value and impact that this will have on the company or organization.”
Create a pitch. Sell it.
Appeal to them, you’re making a pitch and you have to sell the idea to them. You have to speak their language and talk about the impact on the bottom line, the impact on employees, the company’s image, etc.
Talk about the value that the work will bring to the company, AND also how much more value that you will bring to the organization as an employee if you expanded your skill sets in this way.
Trying to make this happen is no kind of guarantee that it’ll work. But if you take a shot at it and they say no, you’re no worse off than you are now. If you don’t go try, I can promise you with 100% certainty that there is no way that it’ll happen.
One final thought on leveraging your existing role
One last point for you to think about is also that if what you want to do requires some certification, or some training, or a class or some schooling, ask your company if they will pay for that.
“They might say no and then you’re in the same place you are now, but don’t assume that they wouldn’t say yes.”
They might say no and then you’re in the same place you are now, but don’t assume that they wouldn’t say yes.
Especially if you’re a good employee. That’s another benefit of being a valuable, intentional employee; if your company sees value in you, they will invest in you to grow your skills and help you move to the next level.
A lot of times employers are open to pay for courses, classes, or certifications if you show interest and some initiative in that direction. Organizations will invest in people who are great employees to develop them, so tap into that.
Take some initiative and ownership of your own career development and advancement. It is in your hands, don’t wait for your company to come ask you, don’t wait for the world to bring you the job that you want.
Go get it, make it happen, be resourceful.
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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