by: HR-The Next Gen

Hi-Light:

• Some people say that getting the job they loved was the greatest joy in their life. However, learning to love the job you are currently doing also makes it a joy, though maybe not the greatest.
  

When it comes to arranged marriages you may have heard people say things like, “While you are making a life together, you will eventually learn to love each other.”

If you are a fan of Thai soap operas then you understand why people say this. In television dramas, women and men are often forced into marriage, but, by spending time together, they eventually come to love each other. How does this relate to your work life, and will working the same job everyday make you love it?

And how long, exactly, will it take to finally fall in love with your job?

Also, if it is forced, then how can that be called love? Or is it really that you eventually give up on finding the job of your dreams, and settle for what's in front of you?

Hold your horses, youngsters. I know that trying to learn to love something you didn't choose sounds a lot like giving up on your ideas.

I just want to tell you that true love can develop over time, and I can be your case study.

When I was a young college student, I wanted to study arts and communications because I was in love with the idea of making movies for a living. However, I got accepted into the economics department instead. No one bothered to ask me if I liked economics, maybe because I didn't know a single thing about it. I never had any interest in reading about the economy, and I always would turn straight to the entertainment section whenever I picked up a newspaper.

Nevertheless, I found studying economics enjoyable after a few lessons at the university. The more complicated the financial charts got, the more fun I had with them. Presenting information in graphs is a lot like writing a movie script. Every dot is a plot element and the lines connect them together to form a complete story, almost ready for Hollywood!

Despite my growing love affair with economics, I got offered a job in human resources after I graduated. My friends thought I was crazy to accept such a difficult position straight out of school.

I thought the same way initially, and I even started looking for a job as a fund manager instead. I was so determined to stay in economics that I began studying to take the CISA and CFA exams. Strangely, after a short time working in HR, I could no longer see myself as a fund manager. At that time, I could only picture myself clearly as a human resource manager.

To find the job of our dreams, or to learn to love the job we already have, which thing is easier?

The first and most important question to ask ourselves is, do we know what kind of job we would really love to do?

Let us assume that we already know.

The next question would be, how skilled are we in that type of work? Are we better than most others in that field?

Another important question is, how old we are we?

I am not trying to say that age should keep us from following our dreams, but we need to consider how much time we still have to invest in a new field. Do we have more or less of this type of capital than others in the same career field? The competition tends to be high for dream jobs, after all.

We need to carefully consider all the assets and liabilities that we would bring to our dream job, and then consider if we really have the ability to function successfully in this type of work that we are so in love with.

Some people say that finding a new job they loved was the greatest joy in their life. However, learning to love the job you currently do also makes it a joy, though maybe not the greatest.