Bridging The Gap Between Where You Are Now And Your Dream Job

Where would you like to be in your career in 5 years?

Most of you probably have an idea about your dream job even if you haven’t articulated that to anyone.  Perhaps it seems too farfetched. Maybe you hesitate to share it because you are concerned about other people’s reaction to your ambition. But chances are you know your ambition.

Now is the time to take action to make that dream come true and commit to creating a strategic plan to achieve your goal. Does it seem overwhelming to attain that goal? Too scary to even think about? You need a plan or your destination will remain a pipe dream.

Once you identify your goal, the first step in creating an action plan is to determine what the gap is between where you are now and what is required for this dream job.

Here’s an outline for your gap analysis:

1. What are your major strengths?
2. What experience and skills do you currently have?
3. What is required for the new position in terms of skills? Experience? Perhaps you have determined that you want a leadership role but have no management experience. Note this type of required skill in your gap analysis.
4. Validate with Human Resources or someone in your company that these skills and experience are required.
5. What are the opportunities available to acquire the necessary skills? If you need management experience and your current job description doesn’t provide it, can you volunteer for a project that would give you that experience either inside or in the community?
6. What resources are available? Are there courses that your company provides or outside courses that would help you to gain the skill set.
7. Next identify people in your organization who can open doors for you and help you get the resources you need.

Begin today to bridge the gap to your new job and you will dramatically improve the possibility that you will achieve it!