One of the hardest aspects of job hunting is deciding what I want to do next, with whom you want to network, and finding the motivation to search.

How do you discover what you want to do next in your career?

There are a number of assessments from the Gallup Strength Finders Inventory, The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, The DiSC profile and the Strongs Interest Inventory. I’ve been a facilitator and administrator of personality sorters, and occupational profiles. They have merit and value. However; they can be expensive. When traversing the path of a career search one must be frugal. Here’s a simple way to narrow your options. It’s free of charge, and worth a shot before you invest in career coaching.

1) Visualize all the jobs you’ve ever thought of doing. Ask yourself, what would bring me joy?

2) Research those options via google.com, salary.com, and the department of labor. These sites can offer information about the job, the career path, the tasks, and the national compensation scales.

3) Ask the people in your network who they know that currently holds the position of the career you want to explore.

4) Contact those people and request an interview. Develop a list of questions in advance that identifies the key responsibilities, tasks, challenges of their job. I like to ask what they love most about their job, followed by what they like least. It is also helpful to find out what education, experience and certifications might be required for the position.

5) Once you gather this information, make a pros and cons list. Ask yourself:

A) Do I have the core competencies required for this position?
B) Do I have the budget and the time to acquire the education or certifications required for this role?
C) How badly do I want this type of job? Am I willing to go to any length to get it?
Create a list of benefits Risks Challenges

6) Once you have this information in front of you, develop a list of target companies, and industries that interest you. You can do this by going to the library. Many business periodicals have a business book of lists. The libraries also have remarkable reseach staff that are more than willing to help you find the resources to guide your search. Your local library is an incredible resource. Don’t be afraid to tap into a great source of information.

The last issue I want to address in this post is motivation. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning. It’s hard to wake up, shower, look at your briefcase and realize there’s no place to go. That’s where finding a job search buddy can come in handy. Most cities have jobsearch focus groups. This site also has other job seekers and volunteers that would be more than willing to get behind you, support you and motivate you when you feel down. Personally, motivation is the hardest part of the search. Asking for help is also really hard.

I’d like to open the discussion. What roles are you currently exploring? Is your researching providing meaningful results in your search? What’s blocking you from moving forward?

Please let me know how I may be helpful.