Recently someone asked me how to find a really good job in today’s economy, a dream job.  The truth is in today’s economy, dream jobs are not something you find, dream jobs are something you earn or create.  Doing business today takes a lot more than just selling a product, paying the bills, and keeping what’s left over as profit.

These days in order to succeed in most any field requires efficiency, creativity, zeal, and the ability to keep up with new trends.  While all of these characteristics are necessary, they are a little hard to prove on paper.  About the only thing you can do is to give examples and hope the person in charge of recruiting likes what they see.  Trouble is, many people have many examples of great work, so the question is how can you separate yourself from the pack.

Many people may argue with me concerning this, but today with the economy the way it is, recruiters have many great and even fantastic potentials with proven track records, but because of the law of supply and demand the amount employers need to pay for great employees is not as high as it was.  My point is rather than trying to ask for the Moon and promising the stars, you may need to ask for the minimum you need to pay your bills and promise the stars.  In other words, beggars can’t be choosers get your foot in the door first.

Now don’t get angry, my point is not that you shouldn’t expect to be compensated for your work, but if you wan to get a shot at a dream job be willing to settle for any job to start and work your way up.  Once you have proven your abilities, accepted responsibilities and worked your way into the system then you ask for a raise.  When it will cost less to pay you more than it does to go find and train someone else you will be compensated greatly.  Remember though in order to become that type of employee, you must continue to find ways to improve efficiency, maximize gains, and keep yourself educated so you will always be the ahead in your field.

A couple of examples:  One of my friends employers started them at $8 per hour and within a couple of years increased their wages to around $36K a year.  Another company recruited him from that position and offered $45k per year. Then within about 3 years they paying him around $120k. per year.

Then there’s another friend of mine.  He started out in a company at a good base salary and a company tried to recruit him away but the initial company offered him more to stay.  That didn’t just happen once either.  He is still with the same company, but each time a company offers to pay him more than he is getting paid now the company that originally hired him pays more to keep him.

My point of this whole post is that rather than trying to land the $40k job or that $60k job or even that $100 k job and continue being unemployed, be willing to take a $60k job and be paid $35k to get your foot in the door.  Once you are in the company you can begin to prove your worth as an employee, and the job just may become your next dream job.

Comments are closed.