There is no such thing as a dream job, but there will always be a dream.
Bear with me. This is a story about myself. It is more of a journey rather than just a story. As I said, it’s about myself. Hopefully, by the end, you will get something out of it for yourself.
First of all, I love questions, and more than that, I love questioning everything I hear, I say, or even I think about, which is quite hard to live with and very challenging daily.
I am also a highly sensitive person. It’s a detail but an important one for the rest of the story. I arrived in France six years ago to work for the largest student organization in the world, AIESEC. After one year of full-time volunteering, my question-it-all-mentality made me jump on a fascinating yet scary journey of a slasher (a typical millennial, looking for some sense in whatever he is doing and jumping from one job to another). After trying different experiences in different fields and yet failing to find what makes me wake up in the morning and hop on the first metro to go to work, I accepted a job as an innovation consultant in a bank. Being passionate about technology and humans, I was hoping that this experience would give me the opportunity to do what I love the most: impacting people’s lives and using technology to make it easier. Six months later, I was in depression. I hated my job, I didn’t find my purpose, and I couldn’t wake up in the morning anymore. For an immigrant who landed a job at one of the largest banks in France, that was odd but as a highly sensitive person, that was not shocking.
My contract ended at the bank, and I started the scariest journey of my very humble professional career. I became jobless but still an active one. I organized a TEDx conference for 850 people. I worked as an onboard flight courier delivering packages across Europe. I attended conferences. I met with people and was doing everything to keep myself busy.
But most importantly, I was applying for jobs. Day in and day out. My breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My free and busy time. It was all about applying and taking interviews. Failing at most of them, or still having the courage to say no to some of them despite being jobless.
However, seven months is a long time. And depression got to me again. It was hard and my ego stopped me from showing my weaknesses. I always appeared to be smiling and optimistic person. And my mind couldn’t stop wondering: why the hell I couldn’t find a job?
By the end of the summer, I knew I had to find a solution and make a decision regarding my future for two main reasons: first, I had to find a job because even if I tried to fight social conventions and not care about what people said, being jobless is the toughest job. The feeling of not being useful, not producing something for society is just horrible. And even though I was still active in the volunteering world, I had to pay the bills at the end of the month.
The second reason was more administrative; being an immigrant, I had to have a contract in order to renew my resident permit and stay in Paris.
This is when my journey of fighting the odds and proving to myself that I was worthwhile enough to get a job in a very competitive and complex city such as Paris started.
However, I had some advantages. Thanks to my volunteering and my outgoing personality, I did have an extensive network, I was pretty active and involved in different projects, and most of all I had gained the trust of many people who were willing to recommend me and vouch for me.
The struggle of landing my dream job:
I knew that I had to find something that fit my ambitions and mostly my personality. Then, I had to figure out what the hell my dream job was.
I had to determine what I really wanted and what gave me a reason to wake up in the morning.
This was the most complicated process ever. It involved a lot of learning, reading, watching videos and documentaries, and, most importantly, being vulnerable and honest with myself.
Not only did I have to ask myself everything and write it down, I also had to ask people who knew me best for their opinions and feedback.
I had to understand what made me happy, what I was good at, what the world needed, and what I could get paid for. Four things well described by the Japanese concept called Ikigai, which means a “reason for being”.
These are the five takeaways that helped me land my “dream job” and overcome a tough period.
- Mental & psychological wellbeing are key:
This, I guess, is no surprise to anyone. However, what struck me was how ignorant we tend to be. We often fail to bring this subject to social gatherings and conversations, and we ignore most of the signs because we prefer to believe that it is just in our heads. Well, spoiler alert: it is precisely in our head. Mental health refers to our cognitive, behavioral, and emotional wellbeing. If we don’t take care of it, then it will probably fail us and have a negative impact on our lives.
For me, the first challenge was first to accept the fact that I wasn’t entirely well, the second to get the help needed, and the third was to find the tools and the inspiration that would help me to take care of myself and be mentally well prepared for what it would be the biggest challenge of my twenties.
I found the help I needed by talking to professionals, sharing my story with people, watching documentaries, watching videos, and practicing some exercises such as “fear setting” by Tim Ferris instead of a “goal-setting”. Those kinds of activities helped me to anticipate “the worst that could happen” and think of an alternative solution when the problem occurred.
“You can’t pour water from an empty bottle.” We are all vulnerable and easily impacted. So no matter what we do, mental health should always be a priority.
2. Slowing down in the midst of chaos
We live in a society where time equals money, and success equals speed. A society where we are encouraged to sleep less, work more, and ultimately be busy all the time. We get trapped in this crazy environment as we see it all around us. People are running in the metro station, working late hours and worse, bragging about not having a single second for their families, hobbies, or themselves.
It is so easy to get pulled into this busy way of life, and we end up believing that if we can’t keep up, we will lose. Why? Because, from the traders of Wall Street to the new CEOs of the infamous startup nation, everyone made it clear: you either win or you lose. And to win, you have to be the fastest. You can argue as much as you want whether it is true or not but I grew up in a city where people had to hustle, really hustle. They worked multiple jobs and yet they found the time to spend with their loved ones. Besides that, those high-speed life addicts want to make us believe that there are no consequences or harm in this way of living. They want us to ignore the direct impact on our bodies, cognitive capacities, and emotions.
I discovered how harmful it had been to me and, most importantly, that trying to be as fast as possible, applying for as many jobs as possible, and talking to as many people as possible brought no fruitful results. Even worse, being in that bubble made me make more mistakes, be less prepared, and clueless as to what job I was looking for in the first place or what position I applied to when taking the interview.
This is when in the midst of chaos, I made an important decision to go into the wild, spend some time in nature, and slow down. Even better, to stop. In July 2017, I headed off to Bern, and taking the advice of the one and only Mehdi (my best friend), I headed to the mountains of Kandersteg. There, I spent a day talking to myself, reconnecting with nature, daydreaming, and thinking of what I needed to be fulfilled, personally and professionally. And the results were amazing!
3. Defining the “Dream Job”
Reconnecting with nature and myself helped me way more than I could have imagined. I felt at peace with the environment offered by nature and felt open and connected to my dreams and desires. I was also comfortable with self-criticism and identifying the negative voices in me, which I think was essential in the process.
Once settled in the beautiful mountains of Kandersteg, my mission was to find out what I wanted to do and what could be my dream job.
First, I started by trying to come up with my vision statement. I had to understand what my purpose and the essence of my life was. It was not an easy exercise as I had never done it before.
Then, using a template found on the internet and having one of the most profound of reflections, I started writing down some sentences that came to me. I began to understand what I love doing, what I enjoy, and mostly why I was doing it… I started crafting my plan for the year ahead, then two, then five. And suddenly, I was writing down my vision statement for the next twenty-five years of my life and drawing the through-lines of how I wanted my life to be and what kind of person I wanted to be.
From my vision statement, I moved to a second exercise, which was more about self-reflection and looking at the year retrospectively. It was mostly an intense self-questioning exercise to analyze the previous year(s) on both a personal and professional level. And there is one exercise that had already helped me back in the beginning: an article published by Hugo Pereira, former AIESEC International President. And this article has evolved so amazingly to become a powerful tool I am using every year and that I encourage you to try: The yearly reflection book!
Finally, I gathered all the information I got and tried to put it into the Ikigai diagram. The more I wrote, the more it became apparent that what I want to live for is to bring people together and to create gatherings. What I want to live for is to help people find their purpose and spread their ideas. What I want to live for is to create conversations that can bridge the divides between people. It started to become more evident to me that my dream job involved people, discussions and a real impact: societal, economic and environmental. I was already experienced in conferences and event production but most of my experience was as a volunteer. I believe I was good at it, and I loved doing it. And it was maybe also time I also started getting paid for it.
And that was it! I started putting everything together and trying to find out what kind of job transpired:
- What I love
- What I am good at
- What the world needs
- What I can get paid for
This resulted in a very detailed job description of what my dream job could be. Conference production with the implication of technology and the goal would be to share ideas and create a platform for sharing knowledge and starting (igniting) conversations.
This was what I felt would be my dream job.
4. “I shall either find a way or make one.”
Following the hundreds of job applications with no response and the hundreds of emails sent with no follow up from the recruiter, I realized that:
- The market is highly competitive, and I am competing with thousands of people for the same job.
- It’s probably not the volume of competition that’s preventing me from landing a job, It’s my approach.
- Most of the jobs I applied for were not even close to being my dream job.
Once I took a step back and analyzed those three factors, it didn’t require genius to understand that I had to change my approach and craft my own job, based on what the company I would apply to would need.
And then, one day, while still trying to figure out what my approach would be, I came across a fantastic article about a genius who delivered his resume inside a box of a donut. I knew I had to do something similar, that would surprise the recruiter.
I sat down, opened my computer, and started to go through the description of my dream job. I started writing down how I could combine all of this to make it a straightforward job description (well as simple as possible). After that, I started writing down a strategy that could be applied to any company, and then a yearly timeline of the events and actions I would like to put into place, and finally an annual budget. I was in the flow, and I couldn’t stop writing and putting into words what I had always wanted to do. After a couple of hours, I was sitting in my room, happy and proud of what I had achieved, as this was the first time I knew what I wanted. By then, I had five PowerPoint and Excel presentations, ready to present to anyone who wanted to hire me.
Once I had that, I started looking for people in my network who would recommend me to their CEOs and even better, who could get me a meeting with them. I knew that I had to meet the decision-maker.
And that was when the fun started. And right there, I discovered the power of the Network and the power of Trust.
5. "Fall down seven times, get up eight"
On September 11, 2017, after several attempts, I finally succeeded in getting a meeting with Wemanity’s CEO, Jean Christophe Conticello, thanks to my best friend Ewa, who recommended me. I came into Wemanity’s office and was about to have what would be my most memorable job interview. Once I met with Jean Christophe, we started casually introducing ourselves to each other up to the point when he asked me why I was there in the first place. My answer was, “Well, I researched your company and heard a lot about it, and I would like to present my dream job to you and offer that you hire me.” Two hours into the meeting, Jean Christophe, surprised and intrigued by what I presented, picked up his phone at 9 pm and asked someone to join the meeting. It was the Marketing and Brand Director, Laure, who was on a train on her way to Paris and who gladly agreed to join the meeting. Once she got to the office, I ran the presentation again. I still remember how I felt. I believed so hard in every word I was saying and showing how passionate I was about what I was presenting, that they seemed awestruck.
A couple of days later, I got the call and I was officially offered to join Wemanity. And that was the beginning of my blissful journey of 25 months of working for Wemanity.
Now, let me confess, though the story was great, this wasn’t my first shot! Before Wemanity, I had four other interviews with the same approach. I was recommended by friends, and I ran the presentations of my dream job, each time customized to the company that I had spent days researching and studying. Some of the interviews lasted seven rounds and weeks of meetings and preparation. It didn’t work out with the first four companies but I had a strong feeling that my approach was the right one. I was passionate about what I was presenting, and I knew that I only wanted to do the job that I had created. And that was the first time that I didn’t consider those first interviews a failure. It brought me closer to where I wanted to be, and most importantly, it helped me land my dream job at a great company.
There is no such thing as a dream job, but there will always be a dream.
Twenty-five months was the time I spent working for Wemanity. It was a blast and one hell of a ride with loads of ups and downs. I had the honor of bringing Spark the Change to Paris, to work on multiple projects and to experiment with new things. I learned a lot and discovered myself even more. And most of all, I met incredible people who I consider now family.
However, even though I was living my dream job, I somehow started wondering and asking myself, where am I going next? I did what I promised I would do. I was fulfilled, but ironically I felt limited by the presentation of my “dream job.” Is that IT? Am I going to do this for the rest of my life? Is that the impact I want to have on people around me? Can I expand it?
During those twenty-five months, I met people who inspired me and taught me a lot. I enrolled in an Executive MBA at Ecole Des Ponts Business School. I organized my fourth TEDx event TEDxBelleville. I traveled a lot. My point is, all those extra activities and meetings made me realize that I wanted more than just a dream job. I don’t want to be a good man; I want to be a great one. I knew that I had to start the whole process again to find my new “dream job” or, more accurately, my new dream!
I also realized that I measure the success of my life by the number of people’s lives I make better and improve. By the impact, I have on others and by the kindness and love, I spread. I wanted to find something more meaningful even though what I had was fulfilling. Quitting Wemanity was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. But such is life.
And there you have it: the story of an immigrant who was looking for his dream job, found it…and then quit it! Because as we evolve, our dreams do, too. Unfortunately, my new dream belongs somewhere else, but just like family, once we leave our homes, we only remember the laughter and the good times. Happiness should be exactly about these moments we will remember and not about the jobs. We should envision what we might become and jobs should be just one part of our dreams and not our dream itself. I am not saying we shouldn’t work hard or invest time in our professional careers. I am just saying that we should also invest time in ourselves and in the people we cherish. We often take for granted everything or everyone we have in our lives until we realize we’ve lost them. We also take for granted who we might become as a person until we realize that we are far from tapping into our potential and a bit too late to do or learn the things in our bucket list.
We grew up in a job-driven society. We followed the path of our parents and grandparents and never questioned their way. Most of us are almost forced to choose the studies or the jobs that can help us get more money because the more you get, the better your life will be. This is what we grew up believing but this is not what we are witnessing today: people getting burnouts, more and more mental problems and unfortunately even more fallbacks — unemployment, homelessness, suicide. We live in a world where we often confuse equality and equity.
This is why I believe we have to reconsider our priorities and thus, our dreams. We have to focus on how we can enrich each other’s lives, how to grow and evolve as human beings and finally, how to get the most out of this journey called Life.
So maybe and just maybe, we shouldn’t craft our lives around jobs but expand beyond that because I have learned that there is no such thing as a dream job but there will always be a dream.
Until we meet again.
