When I started this blog, one of my original ideas for a post was “finding my passion” because I had gone through (and continue to go through) the process and had a lot of great information on the topic. Recently, I’ve been reading several posts about passion that have inspired (read: reminded) me to share my knowledge. See posts by GuruGilbert, Blake Sunshine, and Rohit Bhargava.

Now, on to the good stuff: how do I find my passion?

Flashback to May 2008. I was a fresh graduate, moving back to my home state, looking for a job, but unsure of what kinds of jobs to be looking for. It seemed obvious: I majored in public communication and was president of my school’s PRSSA, I should apply for positions at public relations agencies. Wrong. I tried that strategy for several months, and during that time came to realize that writing press releases and doing media relations was the last thing I wanted to do. Career crisis this early in my career? Yikes. But after a brief period of panic and feeling completely hopeless, I followed some advice from one of my mentors: figure out what you’re passionate about and pursue it.

So I Googled “finding my passion” and started to read everything I could find about the topic. And here is my process:

Part 1: Standard Assessments
1a. Take personality and career interests tests. There are tons of free online assessments that will help you discover things about yourself. The following are some of the tests I took:

Testing Room: This site offers a Career Interests Profiler, Career Values Scale, and Personality Index. Free mini-assessment for each.

LiveCareer: Evaluates your occupational interests, work style, workplace personality, values, knowledge and skills. I found the workplace personality section very useful because it gives you top 5 traits and descriptions (i.e. my first trait was Conventional/Organizer: enjoy supervising others in jobs where rules and tasks are well defined, show careful attention to detail, are organized, follow instructions well, etc.).

Keirsy Temperament Sorter II: This site has lots of different assessments. Great resources for understanding your personality type and overviews of their 4 temperaments: Guardians, Idealists, Artisans, and Rationals.

CareerPerfect: A very simple assessment that helps you understand your work preference. Four characteristics: Focuser (self-starter), Relater (enthusiastic), Integrator (finisher), and Operator (detailer). Each characteristic has brief descriptions of your work style, managing style, values, etc.

1b. From the test results, highlight traits you feel most resonate with your own self-concept and organize similar results into 10 or so personality traits. For example, the results of my assessments often came back with the following overarching themes: organizer, attentive, investigative, enthusiastic, and traditional. Under each of those personality themes, I listed other traits and work style preferences to get a better sense of the whole picture.

Part 2: Personal Evaluation
Now that you’ve evaluated yourself using “standardized” tests, do a little self-evaluation. When answering these questions, write down everything that comes to mind even if you think it’s not pertinent to your career life. The goal is to get as much information about your self on paper so you can step back and see connections.

2a. Take stock of your interests:

• What are ten things I really like to do?
• What activities or experiences feel most meaningful to me? 
• What types of things energize you?
• What activities, subjects, or causes have you been deeply involved with?
• At what times in my life have I felt most passionate or alive?

2b. Take stock of your strengths:

• What are my five greatest strengths at work?
• What are the skills that come naturally to you without much thought or effort?
• What are some areas in which your family and friends consider you an expert?
• What are the types of things that people ask you for help with?

2c. Take stock of you values:

• What would your ideal company value?
• What’s you ideal working environment?
• What values are you not willing to compromise?
• Who are two people I truly admire in business and why?

Part 3: Write a “Me statement”
Now that you’ve evaluated yourself on several levels, start matching your interests with your personality traits. Are there common themes? Do certain personality traits match up with particular interests? You’ll be surprised at the connections. It's also helpful to go over your “results” with a mentor or close friend to get a fresh perspective.

One way to express your career purpose and values is a Me Statement. Here you want to describe your past experience, summarize that experience with 3-5 strengths you possess, and include a statement about your current situation. It’s kind of like a miniature cover letter. I use a version of a Me Statement on my LinkedIn page and other personal profiles:

I am trained in writing, but a natural planner, and always searching for more information. I seek opportunities where I can utilize and expand my skills in strategic planning, ideally working in a marketing AND communications environment. I am an analytical thinker and believe research is key to delivering success. I also have a keen eye for detail that has helped me succeed in a variety of roles and environments.

As a public communications graduate of American University, I participated and led the school's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, serving as a Regional Activity committee member and president. For the past five years I have been an intern with a variety of organizations, from non-profits to corporations and agencies, performing a wide-range of tasks in brand development, event planning, promotions, and research. Following my May 2008 graduation, I moved back to my home state - Minnesota - and I am eager to continue growing in my marketing communications career in the Twin Cities.

Final Thoughts:
The step-by-step process I’ve listed above is by no means a sure fire way to finding your passion or your career. It includes useful steps and evaluations in helping you discover what you're passionate about, but every person is going to find their passion in their own way. I hope the tools and questions above are not the end to your search, but the beginning – the foundation stone to building a successful and passionate career. The point of all the evaluations and the exercise of writing a me statement is to help you define your self and discover potential careers.

Also, don’t feel like every test result or answer to your personal evaluation is pertinent to your career. I love college basketball – it’s something that gets me excited and energized – but a career in sports marketing communications is not for me because it doesn’t fit my work style and values. I found that once I got all this information down and started to draw connections between the different areas, I was able to better define my career aspirations, which is super helpful in explaining them to other people and in job applications. Remember: research, evaluate, and ask questions before deciding on your career.

I’m going to finish this post by saying that I apologize for lack of citations; I’ve gathered a lot of this info over the past couple of years and often forget or lose where it came from in the process. Googling “finding my passion” turns up a lot of good info, so I might start there if you are looking for resources beyond those that I’ve provided. Good luck passion seekers!