▶ You make everyone you speak with feel like they’re the most important person in the world.
▶ You stay positive in the face of disappointment.
▶ You thrive on finding creative solutions to the toughest challenges.
▶ You love bringing together people of various talents and perspectives to approach projects collectively.
These are examples of valuable and prized defining qualities. And you no doubt have many of them. Together they comprise Your Magic.
Your Magic is what makes you unique among the 8 billion people on the planet. And Your Magic is what you need to infuse into your job search, career change and all the materials that support both. Without it, your approach will be bland and lackluster and your results ho-hum.
The 3 Ingredients
In Part 1 of this three-part series “Your Essential Dream-Job Recipe,” we discussed the three ingredients vital to successful career transformation work: Your Mindset, Your Magic and Your Mechanics. All components need to be top quality, well balanced and integrated in the proper order.
The first ingredient we explored is Your Mindset. It needs to be mindful so you feel calm and focused, and it needs to be committed to growth and success so you stay eager, open to new possibilities and geared toward achievement.
The biggest challenge with this ingredient is that about 80% of the time it gets completely overlooked. Professionals eager to launch a job search or update their resume tend to delve into those activities hastily. When people plunge in without addressing their mindset, they often do so feeling stressed, scattered and unfocused. Clearly not the best approach.
More Magic, Please!
By contrast, the chief problem facing ingredient number two is that most often, its quantities are too small. That’s right, there’s not enough of Your Magic infused into your career change or job search approach. Without a sufficient amount, your job search materials will be generic, and you'll be unable to distinguish yourself among the competition. You won't be able to showcase exactly how amazing you'd be to your potential new employer and your dream job.
Take a look back at those four examples I laid out at the start of this article. Unless we are really tuned in to what makes us special and exceptional, we might not even be aware we have traits like those and that they are valuable and valued. It requires us to dig deep to identify what we add to a position or project that makes it successful. What did we bring to the table that someone else wouldn’t have? What combination of insights, personality traits, approaches, soft skills, hard skills and points of view do we have that are truly special and uniquely us? Which ones should we tout?
In order to create job search materials and ultimately find work that brings us great meaning and happiness, we need to get really clear on several things first.
How To Discover Your Magic
To help you figure out Your Magic, consider factors like the following:
Your why!
What lights your fire.
The issues and causes you care about most.
Your values.
What you friends and family rely on you for.
The areas/fields/sectors that interest you.
The skills and talents you have that you really enjoy using. (If you feel you could use more clarity, consider taking a few skill assessments and get feedback from friends and family.)
How you want to spend your time.
The type of mark you want to make on the world.
Your personal mission.
Your top priorities.
Your definition of success.
Your ideal career vision.
What you want out of each key aspect of your life.
These are really exciting ideas to explore. Some may be ones you’ve never considered. Or they may be ones you can answer right now without hesitation. Everyone is different, and for most people, your answers will shift dramatically over time.
The answers you come up with will form the basis for Your Magic. You’ll understand yourself better, what you are after and how to express everything you have to offer. This clarity will help you determine which positions you pursue, how you will elucidate and express your personal brand and how you’ll stand out in your search.
You’ll be able to create a robust resume featuring a personal branding statement that’s compelling and extremely in line with whatever job you’re applying for.
You’ll be able to stand out in interviews because you’ll be able to provide specific examples of how your skills and efforts drove strong, measurable results.
You’ll be able to get that much closer to landing the dream job you’ve always wanted because Your Mindset and Your Magic will be poised to make the final ingredient of your career transformation all the more potent: Your Mechanics. We’ll explore that element in Part 3.
P.S. For more on how to pursue your dream job and develop your dream-job resume effectively, check out the brand new release "Resume Reglow: The 7 Principles You Need To Know For A Powerful, 2023 Dream-Job Resume."
Trie Angeleva LOVES helping people Reimagine Monday. A mindful Dream-Job Career Coach, she's a proud adopted-dog mom, former CIO and COO, travel-happy yogi and founder of The Love Monday Method. She developed and taught Career Success Preparation for The Media School at Indiana University, where she taught 21 classes. Trie has two Master's degrees, six coaching certifications and a certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University. Follow her on instagram at @reimaginemonday for tips and strategies on how to land work you love and thrive personally and professionally.
If you're stuck in YOUR dream-job search, Trie's got you covered! For recent and soon-to-be college students, she's got a free checklist you will LOVE. For pros in their prime, who need a little clarity figuring out what to do when in their search, Trie has a short, sweet and super succinct free roadmap that maps out all the steps to take in what order. Best wishes and reach out with any questions.