Last week, we talked about making the decision to find a non-legal job and taking the practical steps of that kind of job hunt and I gave the instruction to create a document with job descriptions you like. Today, we discuss what to do with that document.
You should have 20 or so pages of job descriptions that thrill you. It does not matter if these are jobs for which you are in no way qualified or in geographic locations you would never relocate to. This document simply serves for thrills.
Grab a pen or a highlighter (I recommend using a highlighter for this exercise) and go through those job descriptions and highlight what specifically attracted you to the job. If you can’t find anything, cut it out and replace it with another job description that does thrill you. Just the same as the last exercise; whether you are qualified for the job duties is irrelevant at this time. If you have 20 pages of podiatry assistant jobs and the thing that attracted you to all of those jobs is the mention of feet, highlight it. For most of you, however, you will have a diverse range of job titles. Ignore the job titles. Look at the job duties and skills. If it is a word you find alluring, highlight that. If it is a phrase, highlight the phrase.
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Spend time on this exercise, but don’t overanalyze too much. There is no judgment in this, nobody knows you are doing it but you, so don’t fall into the trap of selecting the more prestigious terms because you think that’s what you want. There will be time for overthinking and worrying about the judgment of others later. This time is all about you.
When you have your many pages highlighted, take a look at the entire body of work. Of the highlighted portions, is there a theme? Do certain words or concepts repeat? What did you exclude? This is the part where you can overthink and analyze all day long. When you figure out your themes, write them down. This will provide you with the outlines of continents and oceans for your non-law job search map.
You now have a clue about where to start your journey. Now you can start looking at those job titles. If you really do only have jobs that require additional education and/or certification, that is something to think about and a different problem to solve, but let’s put that aside for now. Let’s assume that you have jobs in your list that require a college education, perhaps even in a specific field, or years of experience in a certain job. You have a college education, perhaps not in the area desired by the specific job descriptions you selected, but you aren’t actually applying for these jobs. Often, the subject area of the education is a nice-to-have for employers. If you address the experience and skills well, the subject of your degree will not be a deal-killer.
Spend some time with your list and your highlights. Learn a little bit about about yourself. Now that you have an indication of what you want, next week we will discuss how to figure out if you already have what you need to get what you want.
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Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].