by Patrick Combs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two college students are sitting in a library talking. One asks the other, "What are you going to do after you graduate?" The reply is, "I'm a biology major, but I'm not exactly sure what kind of work I'll do with it." B.U.T. stands for 'behold the underlying truth.' The underlying truth is that college doesn't teach you how to determine the job you'd love. Tom Peters, the most sought-after management consultant in the United States, was addressing college students. His most potent words of advice were, "You've got to get a kick out of whatever you're doing. I'd rather see you as a happy UPS driver enjoying your customers than a miserable senior accountant at a Fortune 500 company making $75,000 a year. You only get one trip around, so you've got to enjoy what you do and who you do it with." Since no college course is going to teach you how to figure out what jobs you'd most enjoy, I'm going to take you through that process right here and now. There ARE dream jobs out there for you, no matter what anyone else says. Discovering them is a two-step process: 1) get clear on your enthusiasms, and 2) find the jobs (many of which will be unadvertised) that speak to these enthusiasms. Grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and let's start. 

FIVE WAYS TO DISCOVER YOUR GREATEST ENTHUSIASMS 

Way #1: Go to the very deepest part of your mind and admit what you are enthusiastic about. According to American Heritage dictionary, enthusiasm is "a subject OR activity that inspires a lively interest, eagerness or excitement." At end of his sophomore year as an industrial design major the University of Cincinnati, 20 year old Scott Leberecht felt like becoming a product designer would be a "safe, practical and decent job choice." But deep down he knew his greatest enthusiasm was for making movies -- and he courageously decided to go for this seemingly riskier venture. Whether he knew it or not, by committing to his greatest enthusiasm Scott set himself on a path where he would have the most energy for succeeding, and he directed himself into the industry he'd enjoy working in the most. One year after graduating Scott is happily employed as a concept artist at Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas' movie making company. 

Way #2: List your talents, list your bliss, and list your possibilities. Nothing is better for clarifying your thoughts, expressing your dreams, and focusing your personal power than reflection and writing. You can learn a lot about yourself by making three lists: First list all of the gifts, abilities, and strengths you currently possess. Don't edit or censor yourself--just start writing down everything you feel you have going for you right now. Call this your Talents List. Next, make a list of all things you enjoy doing. List everything, whether it seems practical or not. If you enjoy watching old movies or brewing your own beer or building human pyramids, write it down. Call this your Bliss List. Finally, list all of the things you'd like to do if you could have nine careers before you died. DON'T just be practical here--be outrageous, be courageous, be lighthearted. Call this your Possibilities List. (Personally speaking, I love writing these lists while listening to good music and eating good food). Keep these lists in a very visible place for a week or so, and add to them whenever a new item comes to mind. (It usually takes people's brains about a week to think of everything.) At the end of the week, look over all three lists. Circle your favorite items on each one, and prioritize them. (Prioritizing is easier if you pretend that all the items on a list are drowning and you can only save five. Which ones would you most want to save?) Feel free to add other items later on as other talents, likes, and loves reveal themselves to you. You don't need to find any single, conclusive, absolute Thing To Do With Your Life at the end of this process. Making these lists and pondering them is enough. The point is simply to know yourself better. As a senior, 23 year old San Francisco State University student, Tuese Ah-Kiong, found himself suddenly worried that his skills and talents were going to go unused if he pursued a career in the field of his major, biology. He made the three lists above and the process convinced him to refocus his career on three talents: boxing, song writing, and making a positive difference in the lives of young people. "I had boxed for many years and I can say boxing was my first love. I'd written some songs that were sung by an acapella group I was in, and I'd worked at a daycare center and coached youth football. Of all the things I've done and enjoyed, these were the three activities that breathed the most life into me." It was a good move. Two years later, he's an Olympic hopeful in boxing; he's working with a gang prevention program teaching kids life skills and boxing; he's constantly speaking to youth groups about positivity; he a screen printing business that manufactures his own line of T-Shirts that are emblazoned with positive messages aimed at male youth. And he's writing more songs than ever before. Way #3: Go to the biggest, best-stocked magazine store you can find, and start looking and choosing. What magazines you choose to read for enjoyment say A LOT about your interests and potential dream jobs. Martin Washington, a recent graduate from Sacramento State University, was at a total loss for what kind of work he'd enjoy. His girlfriend kept suggesting that he'd enjoy financially-related work because she noticed that financial magazines were among his favorite reading material. However, Martin believed firmly that working with numbers wasn't something he'd like. Chance stepped in, however, because while he was working as a temp for a temporary agency, he was assigned to a job in the finance department of a small sportswear manufacturer. Almost immediately he found himself thrilled with his financial tasks, and praised widely for his work. Plus, he was soon thereafter offered a full-time job with the company. 

Way #4: Ask yourself these high quality questions: What classes fascinate and absorb you? What do you most often want to converse, hear, or read about? What do your friends tell you you're interested in? (Ask them.) What activities can you easily lose track of time while doing? What talents seem to come naturally to you? If you knew you could not fail, what would you do? If you were financially independent and money was not a factor, what kind of work would you do? Howard Figler, author of THE COMPLETE JOB SEARCH HANDBOOK, offers these powerful questions as well: What have you not yet done in your life that you really MUST do? What are some of the best things you've ever done--and what do these activities suggest you need to do next?

 Way #5: (In case you still don't know) -- Ignite, fan, and fuel your internal fires. If you're at this point and still feel like you haven't identified an enthusiasm, then you may be just beginning to cultivate your passion. Enthusiasm is definitely like a fire that needs to be built, fanned and fueled. Ignite your enthusiasm: Read biographies of great people. Get and read books that describe some principles for success. Take pride in your current successful endeavors. And remember this bottom line: if you want to find work you love, start by choosing to be an enthusiastic person.

 THREE METHODS FOR DISCOVERING UNADVERTISED JOBS THAT NEED YOUR ENTHUSIASM

 Method #1: Hit the bookstore as well as the want ads. Chances are that your dream job is not going to be advertised in the newspaper. Approximately eighty-five percent of all job opportunities are never advertised. Instead, head for the career and college sections of a good bookstore. Look through books that list and describe jobs related to your major or enthusiasms. Some of the best are: The career exploration series by Julie DeGalan & Stephen Lambert entitled GREAT JOBS FOR ________ MAJORS. There's a book for English majors, one for psychology majors, one for arts majors, etc. MAJOR OPTIONS: The Student's Guide to Linking College Majors and Career Opportunities During and After College by Nicholas Basta ADVENTURE CAREERS: Your Guide to Exciting Jobs, Uncommon Occupations and Extraordinary Experiences by Alex Hiam and Susan Angle 

Method #2: Start talking to people about their jobs and careers. Ask them for details, for how their jobs fulfill or disappoint them, and for what makes their jobs most wonderful and/or challenging. Lisa Marlow graduated from San Francisco State University in 1988, and after working as a recruiter for a temporary employment agency for three years she decided it was time to find a job that she would enjoy more. But she had no idea what kind of job would make her happier. She began asking nearly every person she met about jobs that might match her interests and enthusiasms. She arranged informational interviews and attended business networking meetings. She talked to friends, and friends of friends and she called on professional associations. Along the way she heard people describe their careers as a interior decorator, a chef, an event planner, an executive recruiter and even a professional organizer. But none of them sounded right for herself -- until she spoke to a woman, who also worked in the temporary employment industry, who had a very unusual job that Lisa had never before heard of. Most people working in the 'temp' industry spend their day on the phones placing 'temps' into temporary jobs. This is what Lisa had done for the past three years. But this woman's job was to recruit more temps to the temporary agency. And her job duties were more expansive: recruit at trade shows, design and place advertisements, give promotional speeches, network with employment organizations, and more. When Lisa heard the variety of responsibilities in this job description, she proposed to her own company that they create a similar job function and promote her to the position. They did and she now is happily employed as Area Coordinator for TAC/Temps, Inc. The moral is: The best way to figure out your dream job is by hearing other people describe theirs. Here are five ways to get information about job and career opportunities: talk to your favorite professors; visit your campus career center; go to hear a guest speaker at a campus club; go to business networking meetings arranged by local professional associations or community groups; go on informational interviews (it's fine to call people right out of the Yellow Pages, and it's amazing how many people are very willing to grant these interviews). Ask enough people, and one of them is probably going to suggest a great job that you never knew existed. A word of caution: Many people may discourage you with statements like, "No such job exists" or "It's not possible to do what you're thinking." Thank them for their input and move on to the next person. You don't want to be held back by other people's limited vision and personal fears. (After all, even if no such job DOES exist, what's to stop you from creating it?) 

Method #3: If you're still not sure what your dream job is, switch from asking "What's my dream job?" to "Why don't I want to acknowledge my dream job?" Usually a person doesn't want to acknowledge their dream job because of 1) fear, or because 2) someone in their family expects them to do something else. When it's fear that's holding someone back, Suzanne Rubel, Career Consultant at San Francisco State University prescribes that you move toward your dream job in tiny increments, one small step at a time. She also points out that "We're animals and when faced with fear, we're either going to choose to flee or fight. Most people choose to flee when their heart beat accelerates from perceived danger, but some people have discovered that fear is False Expectations Appearing Real and they fight for their dreams." If it's someone else's expectations of what job you should do that's holding you back, Neil Wilson, Director of Career Services at New England College advises, "Negotiate with the person who expects you to go into a certain career, and tell them that you want to be as successful they want to be, and that success for you requires a different path. Often you'll find they're more flexible than you believed." One More Thing. Learn your enthusiasms and discover your dream job and you're poised to advance. In your next steps, seek information on how to qualify yourself for your dream job (speak to experts and get yourself how-to books -- because they're both available in abundance, and your next ticket to success). Henry David Thoreau, one of the best-known American writers and thinkers of the 1800s, put it best: "Advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life which you have imagined, and you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------