We hear it all the time: it’s important to love what you do. With the frustrations, stress and difficulties associated with career building, is it reasonable to assume that anyone can find a job they love? We sat down with Patti Babyn, a Senior Recruitment Consultant here at The Headhunters, to find out what it means to love what you do and how she helps others find jobs that fuel their passion.
Loving your job begins with understanding your ‘why’.
Grounding yourself in knowing why you are in your current role will give you the drive to work at your highest level.
“When I lose my passion, that’s a sign that I need to grow in another area.”
Patti believes it’s a sign to “find something new that can help fuel my desire to succeed.”
Ask yourself what it is you are looking for in a job, what skills you have that you want to utilize and what type of environment you want to work in. This is a form of building self-awareness. When we truly understand ourselves, we can more easily identify career paths that reflect our goals, interests and values. Ultimately, this self-awareness will manifest into a career that you will love.
It’s important to love what you do.
“Life is short and finding a job that can help you be your best self is what creates value in the long run.”
Patti believes that if you aren’t happy in your current position, start looking. Start networking with people whose careers and lifestyles you’d like to emulate. Talk to a career advisor about how to best engage your skill set for a career you can strive in. There is something for everyone, it just takes time to find a needle in the haystack.
Loving what you do is realistic for everyone.
Patti realized the importance of doing your best early on:
“When I was younger and thinking about what I wanted to do, my parents told me ‘we don’t care if you decide to braid hair on the beach, just make sure you are the best hair braider on that beach.’ That always stuck with me through every career decision I’ve made. It translated into loving what I do because chances are, if you love what you’re doing, you’re going to excel at it.”
Not every day will be sunshine and rainbows, even for someone who loves what they do.
It’s important to remember the successes that you have achieved throughout your career. Hard work and determination are what have led you to this moment. What lies ahead are endless possibilities. Overcoming obstacles comes with every job and, at times, the challenges can seem like permanent barriers to success. But they aren’t.
Patti aims to instill in her candidates that hard work, determination and the desire to succeed will always help you overcome career challenges. And those three factors stem from loving what you do. If you don’t love your job, if that passion is not there, you may not have the desire required to overcome the challenges that arise.
If you’re going through a rough period in your job, it doesn’t mean the love is gone. Sometimes, a challenge is a form of ‘tough love’. Mistakes and obstacles are lessons that help us grow, be better and work smarter.
“When candidates go through the job hunt process with me, put in the work and do their best but don’t get the job, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t a good employee. Often, what it means is that it wasn’t the right match.”
We make use of our Workstyle & Performance Profile which helps uncover, amongst other valuable traits, the right cultural fit a candidate will thrive in. It takes time to find the perfect fit. But when you find it, when you feel the love for the work you’re doing, you realize that the journey was worth it.
Looking for your next great role? Browse our job board and apply online.
