In Your 20s and Have Not Found Your Dream Job?

In your 20s and have not found your dream job?

Firstly, you are not alone. Keep that in mind.

As much as the people around you might be soaring in their careers, you are not the only person in their 20s who still feels as lost as they did at 16 years old.

I envy those who have always wanted to be a doctor, vet, or teacher. I wish I had the same ability to follow a lifelong dream. But simply, I have never had that straight path on where I would be by the age of 30. Personally, I played women’s football from the age of 3-23. Other than that, I had good grades and completed a bachelor’s degree with honours. My passion was football, but I made some big decisions between trying to pursue a career within women’s football, which now (with women’s football becoming full-time) seemed plausible, or try to find myself within the business world. Due to some past injuries, the fact I was trying to bring my (Brazilian) husband to the UK, and having just moved back to the UK myself after four years in America, it is safe to say I had no idea how to control my own life.

I always thought that having a degree would help me find my way in life. Originally, I dreamt of being a journalist, mainly because I was only ever good at English language/literature at school, so I thought I should follow what I seemed to be succeeding in. During my degree, I realised how difficult it was to get into journalism with the modern world of technology, so my initial plan began to fade. However, post-graduation, I did apply for many writing jobs, all of which were unsuccessful. I had a degree, work experience, and internship under my belt, and it still wasn’t good enough. After finally accepting my first job for a marketing company, it hit me; I have no idea where to push myself to find my dream job.

While accepting the marketing job because I simply just wanted to be working full time, it became a second priority in my life. What was most important to me after graduating (2017) was to earn enough money so that I would meet the immigration financial requirements in order to provide a successful application for my husband’s spouse visa. I knew that if I wanted to take the route of women’s football, it would have taken me a few years of hard work and determination to get to a point where I would be paid full time. Therefore, I let that dream go and started chasing a dream which I am still trying to find.

Having picked up the reputation of a “millennial” jumping between three jobs over the past two years, I have found my self in a predicament. I have gained excellent skills through the jobs I have obtained, yet no job has ignited a fire in me. I don’t want to waste my life, as I’m sure none of us do, but on top of being 24 and married, I have the added pressure of needing to save for a mortgage. I have always been determined to do well for myself; I want to live a life where I can provide a good lifestyle with my husband and for a future family. I want to be able to look back and see what I have achieved. Like many others, I am more than willing to start at the bottom and work my way up, but how can I do that when I don’t even know where the bottom is?

What I wanted to get from this post is that if you are in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s and you haven’t found your dream job, I hope you can feel less pressure knowing there are others who feel the same as you. I regularly search for careers that suit my personality and things that I enjoy. For every application you make, stay positive. Applying can often bring you down, especially the ones where you already imagine yourself being given the job even before the interview, but one day, you will find the right job; but more importantly, the right employer will find you.