Max Passino Deboer, Director of Marketing & Membership for The Club at Mediterra in Naples, Fla., offers some key advice for industry professionals seeking their dream job. First: If your current job isn’t your dream job, why not?
“Ask Max” is a regular feature of C+RB’s monthly Membership + Marketing column, where Max Passino Deboer, Director of Marketing & Membership for The Club at Mediterra in Naples, Fla., answers questions sent in by readers.
The Club at Mediterra is a Distinguished Elite, Platinum Club inside the community of Mediterra, which has been named Community of the Year in Naples 12 times in 16 years.
Max is a veteran hospitality leader with a 15-year hotel career followed by an almost 20-year club career, the last 13 at Mediterra. Max is a proud member of the Membership Directors Association of Southwest Florida, whose program for exchanging ideas and information is unmatched.
Max’s passion is being helpful, so… let’s “Ask Max”!
Dear Max,
How can I get my dream job?
#goingnowherefast
Dear Dreamer,
If your current job isn’t your dream job, why not? Could it be? Find out by asking yourself some important key questions:
1. Am I valued where I am now?
2. Do I look forward to my work?
3. Do I feel I am contributing?
4. Do I have the tools and resources I need?
5. Is the atmosphere a caring one?
If the answer is yes to the above, you might already be in a good place, so what is missing that made you ask your question?
1. You don’t get paid enough.
2. Your office is a dump.
3. Your commute is too long.
4. You don’t like your co-workers.
5. There is no room for advancement.
Well, the above may be true, but even though the grass looks greener on the other side, it still has to be mowed. Nothing is perfect and that includes any job. So, if you answered yes to the first five questions above, let’s turn your current job into your dream job.
Step 1 is shifting your attitude.
Write down all the things you like about your job and include every little thing. As in all things in life, attitude is everything and negativity is hard wired, so flipping the script and being grateful can really help you feel, and see things, differently. But if you are like me, maintaining a grateful attitude is HARD. I can get a compliment and a criticism in the same day and will forget about the compliment instantly and dwell on the criticism all day! So, consider some attitude hacks.
1. Watch something inspirational on YouTube at least once a day. Ted Talks are a great ‘go to’ but the internet is full of other inspirational videos.
2. Imagine people worse off than you. There is most likely someone right now who wishes they were like you! Make them proud.
3. Focus on others instead of yourself. Being in your own head is a lonely place. Think of others instead.
4. Remember that the minute you are grateful and happy with what you have, instead of wanting what you don’t have, good things happen. Being negative is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
5. Be patient. Things happen exactly when they are supposed to. Have faith.
Step 2 is action.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Hoping and wishing is for Disney movies. Want to change something? Examine the things you would like to change and see how you can change them.
1. You don’t get paid enough? Understand why and create a plan to change that. Ask your boss for his or her input.
2. That person you don’t like. Do something nice for them.
3. That ugly office? Decorate it!
4. Don’t feel valued? Find solutions to issues and share with your boss. They might not be the right answer but he or she will see you want to be a thought partner.
5. Those few members who are not so nice are starting to really bug you. Pretend you just met them and be as nice as you would be to someone brand new.
6. Things in your job description you are sick of doing? Talk to your boss about possibly switching some things up. Where can you be useful? Where is there a need you can fulfill? What among your duties can be reassigned to someone who might benefit from the growth challenge?
7. Rehire yourself: Dress more professionally; never gossip and you will be seen differently. Find your passion and focus on it, again.
8. Commute is too long. One word: Podcasts.
9. Office atmosphere is toxic. Be the change you want to see.
10. Don’t have the tools or resources you need? Make a list of what you need and explain their value to your supervisor.
But what if you didn’t answer yes to the first five questions? Then go to Step 1 and Step 2.
So, Attitude and Action, that’s it? Problem solved?
Yep. Okay, nothing is easy except in your imagination, which is the perfect place to start. Perception IS reality. I like to go to Pure Barre classes, but they are hard. So, when I wake up wanting to skip it, I imagine I am a ballerina, and I must go. It motivates me. Quit laughing.
Be patient, have faith, be willing to do the work and imagine your way to your dream. As soon as you make your current job your dream job, it will either become that dream job, or that dream job will come looking for you.
Dream a little dream with me,
Max
Have a question you want to “Ask Max”? Send it to [email protected]
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