The First Month of My Dream Job by YEUK Youth Ambassador Baiba, 23, London
I have always craved more; more creativity, more fun and simply more communication. Obviously, dream jobs do not come that easy, especially for a young person with not a massive life/work experience. We have to look for them and in the meantime get as much experience and acquire as many different skills as possible.
This was my plan – to look for something perfect, but keeping busy at the same time.
While I searched for the job I would love doing, the one job that would blow me away, I did some casual work, some mentoring, a little bit of paid research and general proofreading. Sometimes it bored me to death or made me angry, but it also helped me to develop skills I never knew I had. Then I found it! I found a job where I get paid to do what I love. Now, after almost a month in my new position, I can honestly say, this is pretty close to what I imagined my dream job would be. I mean, obviously there are still boring parts of a work day, you do get tired and my eyes are probably not thankful for the hours spent looking at the screen. But… I think it is worth it!
Whenever you get a new job, you immediately start thinking about your skill set and how to use it efficiently. There are all kinds of skills – hard skills, soft skills, unusual skills and common skills. What I had to do on my first week was to combine all my skills and create the perfect skill set for this particular position; I had to decide on what I can bring to the table. I used my research skills to find trends and insights, I used my proofreading skills in editing and I used my hobbies to find the great collaborations for our clients. And I came to conclusion that all my skills are relevant in some way, either it is fast typing, proofreading, research, creative writing or just a general love for YouTube videos and internet browsing. And I think this is how it should be when you find a job perfect for you, it should be combining the professional interests and hobbies, it should make you feel like the work that you do is something you want to do and have passion for, it should feel easy even when the work is hard. It should never be about the grades, only professional skills or totally disconnected from your personal interests.
I guess that I would like young people to learn from my experience that every skill you can grab along the way is important, even the casual ones such as knowledge of Microsoft Office or use of Internet Browsers; there are no bad experiences, you can only learn from your own success or mistakes. What I would like to suggest employers by this is never to cut down on the creativity and young person’s mind; you might miss out on a great potential by ignoring the personal skills they got – always ask what they can bring to the table and do not hesitate to use it!
Where would you like to go now?
- Read about Taking action with your passion!
- Read about Volunteering with YEUK
- Read up on #Employability in Seven Steps
- Sign up as a young member for FREE
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