I am coaching a friend in transition who has held professional sales positions in pharmaceuticals, the copy machine industry, and as an alumni relations professional with a major university. Most of his searching has been directed at finding another pharmaceuticals position.
Another fact about my friend – completely unrelated – he has a real passion, and a real talent for improving the appearance of his home. He’s not only handy, he’s talented. He and his spouse have done some phenomenal work – did it themselves – beautifying the homes where they’ve lived – award-winning-beautiful.
He attended a job fair recently where he discovered a quality-oriented replacement-window company looking for a sales professional. He pursued an interview with this company, and in his research, realized it’s in an industry, the home-improvement industry, that offers a lot of opportunities. His gut tells him ‘this is a dream job for me. I would love to help people with their home-improvement plans,’ and those of us who know him and his incredible natural abilities to enhance his home’s appearance agree.
Last week he learned that he came in second for this hire, that he is not going to land the ‘job of his dreams.’ My question to him, and to you, ‘why does not getting that job mean he cannot get the job of his dreams?’
Short answer: it doesn’t.
He has learned by examining this option that, for him, working in the home-improvement world would be a blast. And he’s in transition – perfect time to go talk to every quality-oriented, home-improvement company in town! When you are seeking your next gig, one of the fun parts is renewing a capacity to dream. If you keep going when it feels like the door is slamming, you will land the ‘job of your dreams.’