Are you currently loving your job? Or are you in the dumps, searching for the next step in your career? Hating your job or work environment can feel like being in a prison. Trust me, I’ve been behind these bars before, but I really tried to see the silver lining and focused on learning and gaining as much experience as I could, knowing it would help me land my dream job one day…
In this post, I just want to encourage you to keep working towards your end goal. Starting this blog has been one of the most important things I’ve done career-wise, and here’s why.
How Blogging Helped Me Land My Dream Job
I took a little bit of new knowledge (SEO and website design) and combined it with a passion (sharing recipes and the Southern lifestyle).
With the drive to make it successful, I researched and worked really hard to continue learning about the marketing and blogging space. Driving website traffic and growing online influence quickly became my passion project, and I would find myself working on it long after my antagonizing day at work. It was a release, not work, even though it was, but somehow didn’t feel that way. That’s when you know you’ve found something.
Here’s are 3 major points to focus on when trying to find your purpose, with the end goal of landing your dream job:
1. Niche Down
Find something you are extremely passionate about then find a way to make it your side hustle.
Story: a friend of mine started making jewelry because she saw pieces online, knew she could make better pieces for herself, and save money rather than buying similar items from high-end boutiques. This gal grew her jewelry business and ended up making 5 FIGURES while in COLLEGE! This same girl is now my business partner and we own collectedforthehome.com
2. Invest in Yourself
If you have the time and patience to do tons of research on your niche, that’s great. If you don’t, you’ll want to invest in some specific training to help you accelerate towards your goals a little faster. Maybe it’s a photography course online or at a community college. For me, I invested in branding and pitching course that was $500. Yes, it was expensive, but it gave me great knowledge of the blogging industry, and an action plan that would allow me to be on that road of success, I so desired.
Sometimes it was hard having my full-time job which did not allow nor give me time to implement some of the strategies I was learning, however, it did give tons of useful professional and business tips in general that really came in handy when accelerating in my corporate career.
3. Find Your Worth and Own It
When you grow something organically — 100% on your own (and tracking the data), you know the strategies are working!
This gave me the confidence to now go and look for a job that would fulfill me in all aspects of my personality. Tracking the progress, the metrics, and the growth of my project was HUGE! This was my opportunity to go to a prospective employer and say, “Here, this is what I’ve done (super part-time) for my brand, let me tell you how I can do this for your company!”
There is no better feeling than finally gaining that confidence after a few years of feeling lost after college graduation. It’s hard to know your worth sometimes, especially for those wading and wandering through your first couple of post-college jobs, all while that coveted degree is still fresh in your mind; asking yourself,” Wasn’t there supposed to be more than this?”
So, if you’re just out of college, know that hating your first few jobs is totally normal. Stick it out. Learn as much as you can. Learn what you’re good at, what kind of leadership you prefer to work with, and the types that you completely cannot work with.
If you’ve been in the workforce for a while, but still haven’t found that dream job, find a side hustle that aligns with your passion. Build something that could add value to one of your dream employers. Then, go and OWN IT!
Inspiration: Outfits for Work
Awesome post, Meredith!! Also, HUGE congrats on your new job and everything you’ve done with The Southern Source!! (P.S. Yalls bed looks super good all made and without Ty’s wedge pillow for his leg 😂)
hahah Thanks Claire!
Thanks for the tag, Meredith! Proud of all of your success!
Thank y’all so much for your continued support!