If you’re wondering how to land your dream job, you probably have more questions than answers. Where do you even start? What does it actually take? And was Pinky really just a figment of Brain’s imagination?
The other day my nephew asked me, “how did you land your dream job?” It turned into a long conversation, and it made me want to share it with as many people as possible.
Throughout my 20-year career, I’ve traveled the world, interviewed celebrities, and built a life doing work I actually care about. My dream job has taken a lot of different shapes along the way. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to land your dream job, for real.
1. Get In The Room
The first thing you need to do is get in the room. Get as close to your dream industry as you possibly can.
Stop obsessing over landing The Job and focus on landing a job in the industry. Be competent. Meet people. That’s what puts you on the path. Then be ready when the real opportunity shows up.
2. Being Useful Lands You The Dream Job
Passion gets you noticed. Being useful is what gets you hired.
Never assume a job is beneath you. Honestly, it might be, but if it gets you in the door, milk it. Everyone wants the cool title, but real skill comes from firsthand knowledge of every part of the process. It’s better to be the person who gets things done than the person chasing a title.
3. Make Your Own Luck To Get Your Break
During the Knicks’ championship run, coach Mike Brown said something that stuck with me. He said, “In life, you got to have a little luck. But you can also go make your own luck too.”
So how do you make your own luck? You give luck every opportunity to find you. That’s how you land your big break.
Are you available? Did you show up? Go meet in person, even when it’s an hour out of your way. Send the email, even when you know their inbox is flooded. Most big breaks are really just the fiftieth small opportunity that finally turned into something.
4. Build Relationships
Networking is still one of the best ways to get ahead, but you can’t start begging strangers for jobs. Real networking is building authentic relationships with people you’ve actually interacted with, and helping them however you can.
When you help others, others help you. A friend of mine used to help his photographer friends on shoots for free. That networking eventually got him gigs of his own and led him to launch his own agency.
5. You Might Hate Your Dream Job
Sometimes you work hard to land your dream job, or really the movie version of your dream job, only to find out it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Maybe you wanted to be a journalist and pictured celebrity interviews and all-access passes. The reality is its a lot more standing around for hours, chasing quotes you could’ve already found in the press notes.
My advice: don’t fall in love with the aesthetics of your fantasy job. Learn what the people who already do it actually spend their day doing. Do that, and you might discover your dream job isn’t for you after all, and that’s useful information too.
6. The Power Of The Pivot
Pay attention and you’ll notice something: people often land in their dream job by doing something else first.
The wedding stylist starts out as a wedding planner and realizes styling is the part she actually loves. The baker only got into baking because she hated the ins and outs of running a restaurant. Don’t drive yourself crazy forcing a dream into shape when it’s not what actually makes you feel good.
If you want to land your dream job rarely happens in one big moment. It’s usually the sum of showing up, being useful, and staying open to the version of the dream that actually fits you. Then again, some of us are always trying to take over the world too.
FAQ:
How do you land your dream job? Get close to your target industry any way you can, be useful once you’re in the room, build real relationships, and stay ready when an opportunity shows up. Most people land their dream job through a string of small opportunities, not one big break.
What’s the first step to land your dream job? Get in the room. Take a job in your target industry, even if it’s not the exact title you want, so you’re positioned to meet people and learn how the industry actually works.
What if I land my dream job and don’t like it? It happens. The real job is often different from the version you imagined. Pay attention to what the day-to-day work actually involves before you fall in love with the idea of the job.
