Should You Still Be Following Your Passion?

Should You Still Be Following Your Passion?

From the candidate conversations that the team has daily, career happiness can be as simple as living through an experience and looking back on past behaviour to what it is today. 

Jaime Rana, senior consultant, says that it is important to know what fulfillment means to you. Jaime says, “One of the first questions a recruiter will ask a candidate is ‘what motivates you?’ Passion is dependent on your motivator and what can bring you joy in your life. It doesn’t mean you want to be a DJ or a life sailing around the world, but understand what makes you happy.”

Jaime is also seeing the question of what motivates as one that is now more reflective than ever before. “People are definitely taking more of a step back to reflect and recognise where the work-life fit plays a role. For instance, this time last year, people perhaps may not have had the amount of flexibility that they potentially have today.”

The follow your passion advice comes from a good place and does have meaning. It is effectively permitting you to make decisions that that will bring achievement to your life. Author and speaker Professor Scott Galloway suggests a simpler way when it comes to a career today by saying, “Find something you’re good at to develop the economic currency to live a happy lifestyle.”

Passion might sound fantastic, but can it earn you a living? Hannah Sills, head of permanent and specialist recruitment, has seen the role of risk that is now present in many people's lives. “Developing a career is still crucial, but the aspirational of reaching a place of pure achievement is tempered with caution. Risk is around many people. For instance, the past year has presented a scenario for people not knowing if the job they have been within for many years will still be there next week, through no fault of their own. For some people, the mention of a company reorganisation was accepted as business development, today there could be that element of threat.”

Following your passion still has its place but perhaps needs to be evaluated for what you want to accomplish. 

Career and life aspirations don’t have to be goals that present unrealistic challenges. Recognise what you are driven by, the role you play in a marketplace and the skills you need to support and develop. If you can blend this within a work environment that is supportive and encourages meaningful work it presents momentum. 

The things in life that make you happy can be the simplest things that we all fight for.