Have you ever felt stuck in your job? Employee stress and burnout can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life. After all, you are at work some 8 hours a day or more. That’s 1/3 of your day if you don’t count sleep. That’s a long time to be dissatisfied. If you feel stuck, here are 6 great ways to find your ideal job.

1. Brainstorm on a sheet of paper

I’ve talked about this before and it’s a strategy I use all the time. Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form. Then, simply list out 20 answers to your question. For example, you could write; If I were to paint a picture of my ideal work environment what would it look like? Then stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question. The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers – don’t quit until you have 20 answers. You can repeat every day until you get the answer you seek.

2. Ask 3 close friends

Sometimes our friends know us better than ourselves. While meeting with one of your friends, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and job. Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing and where it might be. You might be surprised at how easily they can zero in on your strengths and abilities and report a perfect solution.

3. Ask your trusted coworkers

Much like your friends in the example above, your coworkers most likely see you in a way you do not see yourself. In fact, they are likely most familiar with your strengths and weaknesses technically and in the work environment. Compile all the answers you get from them and see if there are any common threads you can explore.

4. Call an IT Recruiter

If you are searching in your career, it’s likely you have an up-to-date resume. Sometimes you can catch a recruiter during their slow times and meet with them to pick through what you might be good at. Since they’re likely more familiar with IT hiring trends in your marketplace, their ideas are usually very good.

5. Take a career assessment test

There are several sites on the Internet you might be able to take one of these tests for a fee. In the past and there you can find technical and non-technical tests. The tests usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough. They ask you to answer a series of questions about what you are good at, what you like to do, and what you prefer doing over what you don’t. If you take one, you will likely see some new exciting areas to explore in your life.

6. Keep a journal

Do you keep a journal? If so, read through, looking for common threads in your writing. Keep your eyes peeled for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like. In fact, finding examples of what you don’t like and what frustrates you is almost as important as finding what you do like. For example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position. If you hate nosy coworkers you’d probably prefer your own office.

Discovering what you really want to do with your life is the most important decision you can make. We spend 1/3 or more of our lives at work. So figuring out the right job is important to keeping that 1/3 of our lives are happy and productive.

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