From the Comments - Advice on Uncovering a Passion to Turn Into a Career

Earlier this week I wrote a post entited, "You've Fallen - Now Get Back Up". I got a comment, and because my response was rather lengthy, I decided to put it into its own post. Also, I wanted to provide you all with an opportunity to share your advice. Here's the comment:

Just stumbled onto this blog as a new effort in my 10-year unsuccessful search to uncover a passion that I can turn into a career, preferably an unconventional one.

Any advice for someone who is not afraid to try and fail, but who is desperately afraid of failing to find something to try?

First of all, thanks for leaving a comment.

10 years is quite a long time. Without knowing much about you personally, I can only offer some general advice and come from the perspective of job seeker myself. I guess it's really good that you're making steps toward looking.

When you say that you're "desperately afraid of failing to find something to try," I have to wonder what you've already done in your quest to learn more about yourself. I know of several types of career assessments available (check out the blogroll or search around here or via your favorite search engine).

I believe that the key for any job seeker is really knowing himself. You have to know what your where your interests and aptitudes lie.

I also believe it's important to do some "market research". Find a need and fill it.

I also believe that a single blog is not the end point. There are many others out here with other points of view and their own wisdom. So read what others are saying.

Lastly, and you'll read this elsewhere, get tied in with other people. I'm talking about networking. I encourage you to try out JibberJobber (see the link on this page). It's a great tool that I've started using to manage the details of my job-searching relationships, and I've found it to be very helpful so far.

With that in mind, don't be a stranger! If you'd like to contact me directly, send me an email: danimal0416 [at] gmail [dot] com

Related tags:

getthatjob get+that+job job+hunt job+search career+advice networking professional+development dan+johnson