Starting January 18, I’m offering a 6-week online course how to design and build your right-fit job or career. I have seen way too many people who were burnt out, unhappy, and frustrated because they are in a job that was a poor fit for them and their values. They often stayed because they didn’t have any bandwidth left on the evenings and weekends to change jobs. And when they decided to make that change because they were so miserable, they spend more time on job boards and writing cover letters than they do thinking about what they really want to do and crafting a strategy to get them there. If they got interviews, then their misery was often obvious to the interviewers.

It’s easy to understand why people take this approach, as ineffective as it is. After all, reading job postings and clicking “Submit” is often easier than the abstract work of self-reflection and designing the career that supports they life you want to live. Career design is a creative journey and creative journeys require work and commitment. However, the career design process is a much more effective strategy than simply searching for jobs online AND the rewards are substantial:

1. Career design is a positive process where you gain a deeper understanding of your strengths, worth and value. Job searches are often demoralizing and depressing.

2. Career design gives you much more control over the results than a job search.

3. Career design gives you the ability to look at your life as a whole so that you can focus on what will give you the most fulfillment, both during the job and outside of it. A job search just focuses on the job.

4. Career design gives you more information about organizations, the work culture, and the job itself than you can ever get by applying for jobs online.

5. Career design focuses on your strengths and what you want to do. A job search focuses on what you can do (ever spent hours on something you were good at but didn’t enjoy? What about something you were bad at and didn’t enjoy? No fun!)

6. Career design sets you up for success since people who are good at what they do and enjoy their work are more productive and effective then people who are bored and struggling.

7. Career design gives you the chance to make a difference in the world, to leverage who you are to make the biggest contribution toward something important to you. A job search gives you a chance to pay your bills.

Are you curious if Your Career Design Studio, this online workshop, is right for you? You can read more about it and register here.