Looking for your dream job?

Why you may need to be more specific…

As professional recruiters, it’s our job to work alongside our clients to help them source the very best talent for a role. As part of a recruitment process, recruiters are out in the market conducting a targeted search to identify potential candidates, based on the person specification related to a role vacancy. This involves many, many conversations to gauge a person’s interest and suitability for a particular role, as well as understanding their current situation or “where they are at” in their career.

We’re speaking with active candidates who are looking for a new job, the tiptoe candidates who are thinking about moving positions, the passive candidates who are employed but open to new opportunities, and the super passive candidates who are employed and would not consider a new opportunity.

According to online networking site LinkedIn, passive candidates make up 75 percent of the global workforce. These are professionals who are already employed but will consider the right opportunity if and when, it presents itself.

Unfortunately, as individuals we often don’t spend time to truly think about what that “right” role actually looks like. Why does this matter? A recruiter can only help you find your dream role if they know what “perfect” looks like for you.

The reality is that often these situations are thrust upon us – whether you unexpectedly find yourself unemployed or are contacted by a recruiter out of the blue – and without deeper thought and reflection, you may be unprepared.

“The grass is greener” or “moving towards something new” are not really adequate reasons for you to pursue a new role opportunity. And may just lead to you making the wrong career decisions.

So, how do you determine what is most important to you when it comes to career decisions?

There is an endless list of motivating factors that drive people to change jobs. All you need to do is prioritise what is important to you. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to have a more meaningful conversation with a recruiter and also, be ready to evaluate opportunities that come your way.

Here’s a list of factors to consider. Start organising in order of most important to least important – you may also want to assign a code to those variables that are non-negotiables for you.

• Business name/type (including who you want to work for and who you don’t)
• Flexible working
• Industry or sector type (including sectors you want to work in and those you don’t)
• Job title (including seniority)
• Location of office (also think about office related perks)
• Non-financial benefits (parking, life/health insurance, in-office catering, childcare support etc)
• Opportunity for progression
• Paid leave
• Personal and corporate values alignment
• Remuneration or salary (base salary or wages, incentives, commissions, overtime, bonuses, stock options, signing bonus etc)
• Reward and recognition (also consider expectations placed on workers)
• Training and development opportunities
• Travel requirements
• Wellbeing benefits
• Work arrangements (part time, full time, contractor etc)
• Working from home or hybrid working options
• Workplace culture (including relationships with colleagues, team, manager etc)

You may have noticed that we haven’t included in the list, following your “passion” or “doing what you love”.

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Mark Twain

Finding fulfilment and achieving work-life balance is important. But don’t over-idealise a job. No matter how great it is, you will not love every aspect of it.

Remember that there is no right or wrong way to create your own list. You might be in a position where you can sacrifice some variables in order to prioritise others. Chances are, you’ll continually reevaluate what’s important to you, throughout your career.

Self-awareness – understanding your strengths and weaknesses – can really help you in terms of setting some parameters for your career journey.

In the everyday hustle of working life, we often don’t get a chance to, or prioritise, self-reflection.

Start by answering the following questions.

1. What are your core skills, strengths, and areas of expertise?
2. Can your past experiences be reframed to fit new roles or industries?
3. What do you enjoy doing and what kind of work excites you?
4. What are your personal values and long-term career goals?

This could include a major rethink of your career path and what’s important to you, or simply a change in field. It might even mean a step forward or backward in salary/seniority.

On the flipside, it’s also a great way to start thinking about areas for improvement and ongoing development.

Find out more: Embrace change and take control of your career

Forget about finding your “dream” job, instead think about your journey to achieve a fulfilling and rewarding career. And that starts with understanding yourself and what matters most to you. When the time comes, you’ll be able to have an open and meaningful conversation with a recruiter that just might result in a positive career outcome.

At Decipher Group, we take your career as seriously as you do. We’ve been connecting talented people with exciting opportunities for over 16 years. Our team are fully committed to making a positive impact for our candidate communities – empowering and enabling talented people to meet their career ambitions. Let’s talk.

To stay on top of current recruitment trends and hear about new role vacancies, follow Decipher Group on LinkedIn.

There’s a common misconception that employees leave jobs due to money. Compensation is important and may be a motivator for employees to pursue new opportunities, but it’s generally not the real reason for their departure. Research from online job site SEEK into why people leave roles shows that work conditions/the environment (53%) and management/leadership in the business (31%) rate higher than salary and compensation (30%).

Search and recruitment firms provide a service to assist businesses with filling role vacancies. External recruitment providers broadly fall into one of two categories: retained search (work on an exclusive basis for a particular role vacancy) or contingent recruiting (firms compensated upon candidate placement; transactional recruitment, often multiple providers working on the one role). Find out more about the recruitment process here.

The career we choose for ourselves does matter. But finding a career we ‘love’ or are ‘passionate’ about is a lofty goal; often for reasons beyond our control that is simply not a reality for many. Instead, prioritise finding fulfillment at work. That means finding a role that aligns with your skillset and what motivates you – this will deliver a sense of accomplishment, contentment and achievement.