Imagine…..
You’re hungry and you decide to cook. You have a bunch of random items in your cupboard and you’re asking yourself: ‘How can I create a tasty, satisfying meal with these odd ingredients? Do they even go together?’ And then, somehow you figure out how to make them fit together and fill your hungry belly.
Now what does that have in common with your search for an ideal location independent job, you might wonder??
A lot, surprisingly.
Instead of opening the cupboards to find ingredients, you are going to sit down and analyze your ‘random’ skills. You have plenty of skills, often more than you realize. Even if you might be thinking they are irrelevant to finding an online job, we assure you they aren’t! Let’s see how this analysis process works.
1) Understand what you already have
What you have are the ingredients in your cupboard. Look closely, don’t stop at the fridge. Look at all the spices, the small forgotten boxes at the back of your drawers and also make that climb to check out your highest shelf.
Do the same with the skills you already have. Don’t stop at the obvious skills , the ones you’ve listed on your resume. Don’t stop at your degree, your previous jobs. Don’t stop at a broad definition like for instance: “I am good at tech”, “I am a good developer”, “I am a good teacher”. What we want to help you figure out all the skills, subskills and hidden talents you’ve developed in your entire academic and working life. You can take those skills and transfer them to create your very own online career. That’s why we call these transferable skills.
2) Thinking about what you love
Is there a meal you’ve eaten in the past that you have loved so much your mouth starts watering just by the very thought of it? Is there a food that you can’t possibly say no to? Think about those meals, what makes you like them so much? How can you replicate that taste with the ingredients in your cupboard?
Dream big. Dream your ideal job. What do you love doing? What are your passions? What is that activity that gets you in the ‘flow’? What is a job that you could do all the time because it doesn’t feel like work? That job that makes you forget to look at your phone, forget to eat or even to sleep sometimes? That’s where you have to start looking. Try combining your existing skills with your deepest passions: get creative! Think outside the box!
3) Establishing who can help you
Ok, you have a good idea of what you want to cook now. But what if your cooking skills are a bit rusty, or non-existent? Or maybe you are very good at baking cakes but you don’t really know how to prepare that stew that you love so much. Call your partner/flatmate/friend/neighbor and invite them to cook for you and teach you how! Cooking together is way more fun…and so is sharing the eating!
The same goes for achieving your ideal online career since you’ve now figured out what your career should look like you can decide whose (professional) help you need. You don’t have to know or do everything on your own. If there’s something you don’t know how to do, ask for help! Find a partner who complements your style and your skills with. Exchange ideas, share problems and successes. Find a mentor, an intern or a brainstorm buddy. Working remotely doesn’t have to be lonely, it can be a great opportunity to collaborate with many talented people from all over the world.
4) Researching existing combinations
Was your recipe actually doable, can you recreate it? How can you make it even better? After having let your creativity run wild and coming up with an edible meal, maybe it’s time to look at what others are doing so you can improve it. Take out an old-fashioned cookbook, or jump online and check out its infinite collection of food blogs. Either way, your goal is to research how people are executing similar ideas and if you are missing any basic ingredients you hadn’t considered before.
What you can do at this point of your search for the ideal online career is start looking at the jobs that are already out there and that could fit your ideal vision and your current skills. Look for both ‘traditional’ and remote jobs that match your skill profile. The idea is to figure out what the required skills for these jobs are and what employers or clients are looking for? Some of those skills could be the ones you identified as transferable skills in step 1. Some of those might be the ones you are planning to learn from someone (or to pay someone to do for you).
5) Finding the missing parts
After reviewing existing recipes, you realize that your planned recipe would taste so much better with that one ingredient that you don’t have at home. Maybe you could fight your laziness and run down to the store to get it (or, even better, send your helper…because that’s what helpers are for!).
You have looked at the requirements for your ideal job and figured out that unfortunately there is a basic, very important skill you yourself are missing. You wouldn’t want to give up at this point, would you? The good news is: you can acquire (almost) any skill! Here’s where you sit down and think realistically how much time, money and effort it will cost you to acquire this new skill. If the learning process is too long or the course is too expensive, you can find someone to help you out.
After completing these five steps, you’ll have the final plan for creating your ideal remote career. It may take a little longer than preparing your desired meal, but it’s a similar process of analysis, reflection, and discovery. And the final prize is not simply a delicious meal but a lifetime of fulfillment and enjoyable work. Work which you can do outside of the pre-defined 9-5 work system and a career based on independence and freedom.
We are here to help you on your way to your ideal workstyle, taking it one step at a time towards a better way of working. To complete these steps and create your online career we invite you to take our Skills Analysis Course!