Now that I’m teaching a career development class, I’m on the look out for engaging, valuable exercises to do with students to help them find their career path. This one was suggested to me by a friend who is studying at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and learned it there.

When you are doing a search for your dream job but do not  know what that might be, start to look at real jobs that are out there. Print out the job descriptions as you find them and begin to collect them in a binder. Allow yourself to pull from a wide variety of sources. Keep collecting actual jobs that you could see yourself applying for until you reach 50 jobs. Spread them out on the floor and start to see what themes emerge. Are there particular jobs that keep coming up? Are there themes to the content of the positions? What do you appear to be attracted to over and over again?

I like this exercise because it is grounded in real jobs out there. I know from experience that I’m inspired when I read job descriptions and think, I could do that. At the same time, I would caution against using an exercise like this as your sole dream job tool since I also believe we have to play a role in creating our dreams.