Over a 40 year period, I, Kathy Berman, have worked in eight different careers including teacher, education specialist, insurance/investment sales, addiction counselor, marketing specialist, manager of parks, and manufactured home sales and author. The greatest gift from having had such diverse jobs is the reality that no one knows a job before they begin. We learn jobs on the job.

Several excellent sites offer guidance in finding your life work. The best advice I could give someone looking for career fulfillment is to do the job/career you would do for free. That job is your heart’s desire.

The best blogger for careers or career advice is Penelope Trunk. Her blog is a treasure chest for all info about your career/work life. From her current post, “How to Pick a Career You’d Like”:

“Don’t overcommit.”

“Testing out lots of different jobs is a great idea. Job hopping is the sign of someone who is genuinely trying to figure out where they fit. Quitting when you know you’re in the wrong spot is a natural way to find the right spot. A resume with lots of wrong turns is not cataclysmic. You can hire a good resume writer to fix the resume so it looks like you actually had focus and purpose. (Really, I rewrite peoples’ resumes all the time. It’s about telling a story and everyone has a way to tell a good story about their career no matter how many times they’ve changed jobs.)”

“The important thing is to not overcommit to one path. Graduate school, for example, is overcommiting because if you don’t end up liking that field, you will have spent four years gaining entrance into the field. Taking on college debt is overcommitting because you are, effectively, saying you will ony take jobs that are relatively high paying in order to service the debt.”

To start begin collecting data about you likes and dislikes. List the 10 aspects you feel comfortable with on a job. on’t be afraid to change or modify your list. Put it in a conspicuous place and check it over every day. Check out here for finding your life mission.

Another great resource helps us to look into the possibility of career counseling. Although I believe this inner search to find one’s heart desire is better done alone, I understand that someone may have the ability to motivate us on the search.

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