Why focusing on your career path is the secret to landing your dream job

Why focusing on your career path is the secret to landing your dream jobWhy focusing on your career path is the secret to landing your dream jobHardly any college student lands the job of his or her dreams directly after graduation, but these days young professionals are so eager to be employed that theyll take any job thrown at them, which can actually be detrimental to eventually landing their dream job.Ron Mitchell,founder, and CEO ofVirgil Careers, outlines why professionals should focus on their career path, pay attention to trends, and avoid the gig economy.What is a career path?A career path is a trajectory for professional growth within an industry, a company, or a functional area, according to Mitchell.Why should you focus on your career path?Professional roles are extremely more cross-functional than they used to be, according to Mitchell.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and mo reBack in the day, the accountants did accounting, the marketers did marketing, the engineers did engineering, and that was it, Mitchell said.In modern offices, people are expected to wear many hats, meaning that professionals need much more diverse skill sets to excel in traditional careers.Creating a career path allows professionals to look at the gap of where they are and where they want to be, find the skills they need to get there, and work towards attaining those skills. By outlining skills you need to develop in bestellung to land a specific position, you give your career a much more defined and clear path.Thats the way that you actually wind up being extremely valuable, Mitchell said.How a career path will keep you from falling into the gig economy trapThe gig economy consists of temporary jobs, like being an Uber driver, and while these can be great money generators for people in need, they often dont help a professional further their career.A clear view of roles you aspire to hold is necessary if youre looking to excel in your industry. If you have a dream jobin mind, you can map which roles you should hold in order to get to that dream job and identify which skills are required for each role. By listing which skills are necessary to get to your next desired role, you can then tell which you already possess and which you need to start working on. Gig jobs most likely wont help with those necessary skills.Those jobs arent fulfilling, arent career paths, arent a growth trajectory, and although people are doing that to pay their bills and meet some flexibility needs in the workplaceif you want to grow within an organization you really need to have some transparency and have the ability to develop a career path, Mitchell said.Due to inexperience, its hard for professionals to understand which skills they need in order to break into a career, whether at the entry level or when theyre looking to switch industries. Even harder, Mitchell said, is for individ uals to pinpoint which roles theyre best fit for based on the skills theyve already developed, which is why theyll need some tools to find out.Which tools can you use to define your career path?Virgil Careers.Virgil enables job seekers to assess their competitiveness for hundreds of different careers. Once Virgil has all your professional information, the ordnungsprinzip not only tells you how competitive you are for a particular opportunity or career path, but it then connects you to specific jobs. The system delivers you a personalized skill development road mapfor specific career paths and then connects you to the developmental resources that help address your skill gaps. Additionally, the system can also recommend previously unknown alternative career paths that would be good fits for you.LinkedIn.LinkedIn can be used to find professionals who currently or previously held the job that you aspire to hold. By researching these professionals you can see jobs they previously held, c ompanies they worked for, and the skills they have in order to old their current role. This can be an extremely helpful tactic whether youre looking to enter an industry or move up the ladder in one soon. LinkedIn Learning can also help you lose some of your skill gaps through various courses.Career advisers. Career advisers have access to information regarding different jobs and can be extremely helpful in helping you map your career path. Professional career advisers are trained to identifying skill gaps that you may have in regards to a specificposition, so they can provide the insight you may not receivefrom coworkers, current employers, or online research.How career paths have changed over the yearsMitchell notes that career paths used to be static, meaning that someone would get a job at a company and move up the corporate ladder, from newbie to manager to director, and so on.behauptung days,career paths are much more dynamic.Thats a real important differentiation, Mitchell sa id because that means todays professionals always have to be evolving and learning new skills.Additionally, this means that finding a career path isnt as easy as it used to be, and its not as easy to figure out where you are on your path.And by the way, figuring out your path is going to change because the job that you have today or the job that youre aspiring tothat job may not be around five years in the future, Mitchell said.This dynamic nature of todays workforce is why professionals need to maintain flexibility, track trends and continue to develop relevant skill sets.While Virgil Careers doesnt predict new job titles, it does stay on top of predicting trends in skills that will be in demand for specific industries.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people