Try Out Your Dream Job(s)

Have you always had a desire to do something different from the career you've had for the past decades? Reach back into your childhood... what did you want to be when you grew up? What did you love doing that gave you a sense of zest, where you were "in the zone" with no thought of time passing?

Brian Kurth, author of Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step by Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love was composing a wish list of all the jobs he'd rather be doing than the one he was doing -- sales and marketing for a phone company. He fantasized about being a dog trainer, a wine taster, a tour guide. Anything seemed better than what he was doing. but, how would he know if he would like any of those esoteric occupations? Wouldn't it be terrific, he mused, if you could try them out first, before moving your residence, investing in a costly re-training, or leaving your job and risking long unemployment?

Serendipitously, he lost his job and had the opportunity to create a new service for people like himself, who had gravitated to a career that gave him a good paycheck, but little pleasure.

Test-Drive Your Dream Job is a guidebook for people of all ages who want to live their fantasy job for a few days, mentored by a committed person who's been in the field for years. You can try on several jobs to see if your fantasy meets any kind of reality.

People in their 50s and beyond who want to continue to work will find inspiration and common-sense practical advice about how to try out a new career. Kurth helps the reader to dissipate fears of change. He outlines how you can do the research on your fantasy careers, how to find multiple mentors, how to join associations to learn about the real pros and cons, and what to do when you've entered a new career and things don't go as planned.

Unlike most self-help books that start out with a bang and fizzle out after the first chapter, the last chapter of Test Drive is compelling. Kurth reminds us that this process is a journey as well as a goal. Making such a change forces us out of our comfort zone. We learn an immense amount about our values, habits, and attitudes. It is "a continuous, rising cycle of challenges and resolutions, the perfect combination of stress and pleasure," that Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his Flow (see this video) research.