How To Enjoy Your Job...
    Or Find A New One!

Some people hate their current jobs, but they don’t know what they would do instead. Here are 5 questions you can ask yourself to find out what you really want to do for a job. Grab a piece of paper and jot down your answers to these questions.

1) What did you want to be when you were a child/teenager? When you were young, you didn’t have to worry about the practicalities of living, working or earning money. When you thought about your future it was not constrained by reality, so you believed you could do anything. Write down all the things you wanted to be or do when you were young, however impractical. What do these early choices reveal about your personality and what you might want to do now?

2) What are you passionate about? What do other people say you are good at? What specific skills do you have? Write down these things and consider whether you could make a living from these. The ideal job is to find something you love, and figure out how to get paid for it!

3) What parts of your existing job do you enjoy? What do you want to keep in your ideal job? For example, the holidays might suit you, or the commute, or your friends, but you might not enjoy the actual work. How can you combine what you enjoy with a different job?

4) What do you definitely NOT want to do? Identifying these things will help you whittle down your ideas to more specific jobs. For example, you might think you want international travel as part of your ideal job. But you know you like being at home with your family, so actually you don’t want to work abroad. You might not like blood, so being a doctor/nurse is out, and if you are allergic to pollen, you won’t be a gardener.

5) What do you want to achieve, and by when? This is your practical question where you consider how much time you have and what resources you will need to get to where you want to be. You may have identified that you always wanted to be an Olympic athlete, but you are 38 and a bit on the heavy side. Is it likely you will make the Olympics and do you want to put the effort in to achieve this? You may want to retrain as a Doctor but do you have 7 years and the money to fund this program of study?

Read back over your answers and add anything else that comes to mind. Some ideas should be sparking already. This list will give you an insight into some of the things you want in a job, and what is important to you. Use it to start researching into what jobs you might be interested in pursuing.

Some days at work are just not great! Here are 15 ways to life your mood.

1. Get some exercise, even if it is just a walk. You may feel like slumping in front of the TV, but the best thing to do is get moving. Exercise will release endorphins and make you feel better.

2. Go to bed early. Sometimes it’s just better to finish the day early and get some sleep. Have a warm drink, snuggle up and make sure it’s very dark. Tomorrow will be a better day.

3. Get hugged. Whether it is your partner or a friend, get some physical contact. A hug will always help. If there are no people around, love your pet. I’ll bet they will love you back.

4. Buy some expensive, high quality, yummy food and eat it with relish (and no guilt!). If you buy a small amount of luxury, it will make you feel good – as opposed to truckloads of cheap, sugar-loaded food. I am a fan of Green & Black’s organic Darker then Milk chocolate which you can buy in 30g bars.

5. Have a bath. Fill it with bubble bath or aromatic oil and relax.

6. Get a massage. Pay for a professional and you won’t regret it. During the massage, concentrate only on the physical sensations and forget all the troubles of the day

7. Talk yourself up. We all have inner self-talk and a lot of it is negative and can bring us down. Notice what you say to yourself, and be kinder. Write down some positive affirmations and carry them with you. Look at them when you feel down.

8. Go dancing, either with friends or go along to a club. There are all kinds of dancing classes available now and you will find you relax more and can groove your cares away.

9. Sing. It helps – really! Karaoke is a fantastic way to feel better. Belt out some early Madonna, or thrash your head to some rock. You may need a drink to loosen the vocal cords first.

10. Laugh. See the dance class above. You can’t help but smile when attempting to salsa! Get a funny movie out.

11. Phone a friend and catch up. Don’t moan and don’t focus on the bad things. Just catch up and be grateful for the friendship.

12. Plan your next holiday. Dream it and Google all the things you would do with unlimited money.

13. Breathe deeply. Sometimes your stress will be so high, you forget to breathe which holds in all the tension. Let it out with long, slow breaths.

14. Thrash a punch-bag at a boxing class. If you can exhaust your body and get all your frustrations out on the bag, you will feel a whole lot better!

15. Listen to happy music. Make a song list on your ipod for when you really feel down. Make it happy and uplifting, positive music. Cheesy is sometimes best in these situations. Some of my favourites: Christina Aguilera – Soar, Wilson Phillips – Hold On, Survivor – Eye of the Tiger, Chumbawumba – I get knocked down

If this day keeps repeating itself, ask yourself why and write down 5 things you can change so you are not still repeating this day in 6 months time. Take massive action and make sure this situation changes.

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons David Nikonvscanon

Unemployment rates might be rising in some countries but there is always work out there for people who will apply themselves, be flexible and offer good value for their pay. Social networking is becoming more dominant as a force for change on the internet, so here are some tips for how to use it to get a job or extra work.

1) Build your online profile with the intention of using it for work. If you build a page at LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/ or other sites, make sure it is professional enough to be used as a resume. Once you have loaded your job history, become friends with former colleagues and get recommended for previous work. If you are straight out of college, have a profile anyway as it makes you look serious about getting work. If you have a blog or a separate website, make sure it is professional. Google yourself and see what comes up. You can direct potential employers to this information in your paper resume if necessary.

2) Keep your professional social networking separate from your personal.Profiles have public and private settings. Sites like Facebook http://www.facebook.com may be for your friends and other sites might be your professional look, but both come up on search engines. Make sure you separate the two as professionalism still counts online.

3) Get friendly with recruiters. Many recruitment firms now have profiles on social networking sites like LinkedIn. Find recruitment agencies in your area of expertise and become friends with them. You can say that you are looking for work, and the recruiters will often post on the site with jobs.

4) Use job blogs and networks to improve your resume and skills. There is so much information online that you can use to improve your chances to get a job. Check out sites that help you improve your resume or interview skills, or those that recommend new job search sites.

5) Keep an eye on company blogs or press releases. Smaller, more tech savvy companies are using online press releases, blogs or their own social networks for recruitment. If people have joined their RSS feed, or signed up for their newsletter, that person is likely to have an interest in their services and may be looking for work. So become a joiner for those companies/groups you are interested in working for, and keep an eye out for work opportunities. If you become an active part of these communities, you could even ask the group if there are jobs available.

6) Work remotely. If you can work from home as a freelancer, you have the chance to work for anyone in the world. Elance http://www.elance.com is a site that connects people looking for work to be done, and those who can perform it. People submit projects, and then companies/individuals submit bids on the project. Payment is through the site by credit card, Paypal or their escrow service. Providers are rated and you can discuss projects on private message boards. If you have skills that can be used remotely, this is a great place to start. Although it is not a social networking site, you can use your other networking profiles to direct people to your elance provider profile which shows your availability.

7) Use Second Life. In May, the first virtual job fair was held on Second Life http://www.secondlife.com/ with big companies like Microsoft and Sodexho recruiting and avatars attending for discussions with recruiters. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20588553/ You can also drop into one of the virtual company headquarters and drop off your resume in Second Life. Virtual interviews are followed up on the phone or in person, so it might be an option for the tech-savvy person who can use their avatar professionally.

Use sites to find people to approach in the real world. If you want to approach a specific company, but don’t know how to stand out from the pack of resumes, make sure you direct yours to the right person. Use social networks and blogs to find out who the best person to approach is, and then send them your resume directly. Many companies have this information online, and you will be able to find out more personal information from social networks.