Finding your dream career

I know this because I used to be one of those annoyed people who couldn't stand those who had found their "dream" job and who just loved what they did - because I was so incredibly jealous.

We spend 90% of our day (some of us more) working. It makes sense then to me that we need to have some sort of enjoyment during this time, otherwise how can we achieve overall happiness/contentment in our lives? I don't believe in separating work and life, it causes too much anxiety. I believe that in order to have your dream career - it needs to be something inextricably linked to in your life. So, for 10 years I battled with the elusive question of what to do with my life. I have cried, raged, given up a few times, and been more frustrated and miserable than I could have believed, all over the eternal pursuit of career happiness. And, finally, after all this time, I have arrived. I have my dream career. So then, I can hear you asking, how did I do it?

Below I have outlined my "Lauren's List" of questions to ask yourself, which may just help you get a little closer to where you want to be:

1. What do you remember easily?

About five years ago I was having a discussion with my husband (then boyfriend) about how amazing it was that he could remember so many business stats and facts. He looked at me and said: "Well it's easy, I find them incredibly interesting. Most people remember what interests them." And that obvious statement really struck a chord in me and I found myself wondering: well okay, what do I remember? And I realised that, for me, anything to do with health, wellness and psychology stuck in my brain like white on rice. I could recite and recall those facts at the drop of a hat. Ask me about the financial market? Zip, zero, nothing.

2. What parts of what you currently do, do you enjoy?

When I started becoming a little more self-aware about who I am and where I wanted to go, I remember sitting one day after work and making a list of all the things I loved about my job (this was - note - in a job I absolutely could not stand (in advertising) so this was a challenge). What became crystal clear to me was that I loved to listen. I was the person people tended to come to when they had a problem or they wanted some advice/insight. I was also really, really good at problem solving (people matters) and I could keep a clear head when dealing with tricky situations. In addition, I thrived on organising and running team engagement events - so any sort of activity where the team was tasked with having fun or working well together. I became well known for my skill in this area at every job I worked at, from then on.

3. What do you really, really love doing that you might not be aware of?

It took me a while to realise some of the things I enjoyed above and, in fact, it was a manager of mine who pointed out how good I was at team engagements - and a friend at work who pointed out that people always came to me to problem solve. Sometimes we have to ask others around us what they think we are great at in order to help us realise it ourselves.

4. What's out there that might contain elements of what you enjoy?

Once I had started to think a little more about what I enjoyed doing in my job and what I was good at, ideas started forming in my mind about possibility: the possibility of joining the dots and figuring out where to go next out of advertising and into my "dream job". I sat one Saturday morning in a little coffee shop around the corner from where we lived and I made a list of all the potential careers that I knew of that involved elements of what I enjoyed. I also used Google to search key words (e.g. team engagement + listening + career) and found some fascinating potential opportunities I never even knew existed. I kept a small notebook of all my findings and, over a period of about six months, whenever I came across something that interested me (by way of career) I noted it down. After a while I realised there were some strong recurrent themes that were coming through. These recurrent themes were: learning, teaching, working with people (teams); providing advice.

5. Who do you know who works in a line of work you are interested in?

I knew that I did not want to be a teacher and that I didn't want to be a psychologist (besides I couldn't go back and study again, I had already studied too much in my quest to find out what I wanted to do). But what I did know, through my research and through talking to people about what I was thinking about, was that there were some truly interesting careers around working with people in organisations and making teams work better. I didn't know too much about it so I started asking around, and when a girl my husband worked with at the time introduced him to her husband - things started to click into place. This guy (Rowan) owned his own consultancy (tick the box for me - I wanted to solve problems and help people); it was in the industry of human resources (tick the box for me - I wanted to work with people and teams) and it was specifically in the realm of learning and culture change (tick the box for me - I was interested in teaching and learning!). So I picked up the phone and I went to meet Rowan.

6. How can you get in there?

It was four years ago that I met Rowan, walking into his super-cool office space and meeting this really, really tall guy with sparkling eyes. How do someone's eyes even sparkle? I figured out later, of course, that they sparkle when you love what you do! Anyway, I met Rowan and learnt a lot about his business and I was fascinated. The interesting part here is that I didn't do anything about it though. I was about to go overseas and travel a bit, take a break, figure things out. I had quit my job in advertising for good and I wanted to go and have some fun. So I shook his hand and off I went to London. But, you see, I had a plan now. I knew the area of work I wanted to be in. Unluckily for me, though, I went to work in London when the recession hit and no one was interested in taking on someone who wanted a career change. So I had to hang ten for a while. I went to work in a small marketing consultancy where I had the opportunity - in my spare time - to study a leadership coaching course and practise what I learnt on my teammates. I knew this was what my calling was. How did I know? Because I was really, really, really good at it!

7. Have you saved up some cash for a rainy day?

It took me three years in London to get back to South Africa; we got caught up in earning pounds and travelling. But when we returned for good I was all excited to go out there and get my dream career. But I didn't have the money because we had spent it all travelling. So I got a job - guess where - in marketing and sold my soul yet again for money (don't do that by the way, it's not worth it). But after a few months my husband was offered an incredible job in Joburg and suddenly I had a way out. I spent the next few months seriously saving my money to prepare for the time I was going to take off during my career transition. And by the end of the year I had enough put away to take three months off to figure out what was next.

8. What is your plan?

Finally I could put my plan into action. After taking some time off to recharge, move city, move house and settle into a new way of life in Joburg, I was sitting in the car one day chatting to my husband when he turned to me and said: "I love you very much, but you need to get back to work now." Well, okay. So I decided right, time to set things in motion. I penned an email to Rowan (remember that guy from four years ago?) and I expressed my interest and passion in the work he and his consultancy were doing and if he had any advice about where I could start. Call it karma, but Rowan and I chatted and he offered me an internship with The Fresh Group. From the word go, I knew it was for me. Not only was the organisational culture of The Fresh Group the exact kind I had been looking for, so too was the job something I was deeply intrigued and interested in. And from that moment on, I have not looked back. I have put my head down and I have worked very, very hard. Now, a year later, I am fully integrated into my new career. I absolutely love what I do, I work with an incredible team and we do life-changing work. Not too many people get to say that they can do that every day, and now, finally, I can.

So the question for you think about now is: When are you going to stop thinking about how much you hate your job and start doing something about it? Remember - it can be done. Nothing is impossible and the only thing holding you back is you.