Abstract

What do you want your life to be like when you’re 25? 35? 55? Do you want a job that will feed you and your family or do you want a career that will be an integral part of your life—a career that will feed your passions, enable the lifestyle you choose, and be a continual source of engagement and pride?

But do you really have the luxury of even considering your dream job in an era in which more than 40 percent of college graduates can’t even get jobs that require college degrees, much less jobs in their field? Or can you even afford to go to college at all?

Not only should you think about your dream job—you owe it to yourself to do so. First, if done properly, the very process of deciding upon and preparing for your dream job can dramatically improve your employability, expand your employment options, and increase the value you can provide your employer or your clients. Better yet, you can apply this same process through your entire career, as your interests and life goals continually evolve.

Preparing for your dream job, however, requires much more than dreaming about the type of job that will make you happy. It also requires an objective evaluation of your strengths and limitations, a careful evaluation of the type of post-high school education that is best suited to you, and your specific career objectives and proactive management of your education to ensure that you develop the skills and personality traits you will need not just for your first job, but for your future careers and your life. And speaking of jobs, it requires a full understanding of the employment prospects and requirements for jobs in your field and intense focus on developing the skills that will be required to give you an advantage in getting that job. It also needs a contingency plan, including selection of and preparation for a safety career.

A lot of work? Sure it is. And if all you want is a job—any job—you don’t have to worry about it. But if you want a career (or multiple careers) that will engage your passions and put you in control of your life, you need a plan. And you need one now.

This book will help you develop that plan. It begins by examining how the careers of the future will differ from those of the past, where these jobs and careers will and won’t be, and the range of skills (many of which are not taught in schools) they will require. With this context, it then lays out a three-stage, 20-step plan that will help you:

• identify and prioritize your interests and passions;

• objectively assess and develop your skills and align them with your passions;

• assess the career opportunities that will best utilize your skills in pursuit of your passion;

• expand your career options and hedge your bets by identifying complementary safety careers;

• evaluate your post-high school education options and create an education plan that is best suited to you and your career choice; and

• prioritize the factors you should consider in targeting your critical first career-track job and use that job to expand your long-term career options.

Most importantly, it will show you how to take responsibility for defining your own dream; for identifying your own career objectives; for ensuring that you develop the skills and get the education required to achieve these objectives; and for managing your own career.

This is as it should be. After all, if you don’t take responsibility for your dream, your career, and your life, who will?

Keywords

career planning, college planning, education planning, job prospects, jobs of the future, skills requirements, three-stage plan, 20-step plan