Have you heard those stories about people who follow their passion and by doing so end up finding their dream job? Yeah, me too, although I never actually thought it would happen to me (not to say that I gave up hope and stopped chasing my passion).
Well, guess what? It actually did happen to me this past year! Now I want to share my story with you in hopes that it will help inspire you to chase your passion. The best part… the job I have now didn’t even exist within most companies as recently as six months ago!
I’ve been a recruiter for over 10 years, both on the agency side and the corporate side. I love networking and connecting with people and I also like keeping updated on the latest trends for great ways to connect with people effectively. While times and technologies have changed, I have never needed to change any of my recruiting search strategies or methodologies. Instead, I just added new tools to my arsenal and found ways to incorporate them into my overall strategy. The newest tool in my belt: social media.
I was an early adopter of social media (within my particular team) and I used it to connect with a wide variety of individuals globally, in order to exchange ideas on a variety of topics. I found this to be a way to expand my network and learn from a much broader group than I was previously exposed and connected to.
One day, I read a blog post that really hit home with me about how I needed to take control of my personal brand and ability to be found on the internet. That very same day, I signed up for a few new social networking sites in order to connect with others more efficiently, to become more active in the global conversation and (most importantly) to be found.
Through my work, I enjoyed some personal success in identifying, networking with, and hiring candidates through social media. I was truly enjoying utilizing these new avenues to join conversations. Over time, my company investigated social media for our employee-to-employee messaging. As this new direction was being considered, I was approached to help lead our global social media recruitment strategy, including its implementation and execution. This truly was a dream job opportunity for me and it is something so impactful that I am already finding myself directly affecting my company’s message to the market.
I have always worked to positively impact my company and convey our brand and message in my daily recruitment activities, but now to be able to do this on a much broader scale is completely humbling, yet energizing; that I was selected to help lead this effort is something that I am incredibly enthusiastic about. The fact that I was able to expand my field of expertise and responsibilities while staying with the same employer is an added bonus!
My recommendation to all of you is to follow your passion. Identify what it is that motivates you and will allow you to do your job better and more effectively. Also, determine how it may impact your day-to-day activities in a positive way so that it is not distracting you from your objectives. Discuss your objectives with your manager to figure out how you might best accomplish them while increasing your own productivity and that of your team.
The most important thing to remember is to be active. Sitting around and waiting for that job to fall into your lap is not the optimal strategy here. Your dream job is out there, but if you don’t take steps to find it, someone else may beat you to it!
