What If You Can’t Find Your Passion?

“Find your passion” has long been a rallying cry for professionals. As conventional wisdom would have it, to be happy and successful in life, it’s really the only thing you need.

“But Matthew, what if I don’t have one single passion?”

This is a really good question!

Some people feel the call of creativity to become artists or writers. Others are simply born to become astronauts or librarians. But there isn’t always one solitary beacon of passion guiding our lives. 

In fact, if you’re like most people, you may have held a lot of jobs in your lifetime, and your professional CV might look very different than how you spend your down time. Perhaps you’re a CEO of an energy company who likes to oil paint in her spare time (financial/admin/technical/creative), or a lobbyist who enjoys running marathons (enterprising/people service/mechanical). 

You don’t have to be driven by one singular, solitary purpose to be successful and happy in your work. You simply need to find a career path that feels right, and that you are good at. 

In recruitment, we call this job fit. One way we measure job fit is by using PXT Select to look at a person’s interests and how well they align with the requirements of a particular job. Strong interest matches show how motivated individuals will be to perform different tasks, and how much enjoyment they may find in a particular role.

The PXT Select Assessment looks at six possible interests. Obviously the list is not exhaustive, and because interests can be satisfied outside of work similar to the examples above, the interests list makes for a lower percentage of the overall job fit score. The list includes:

• Mechanical: the enjoyment of building or repairing things and working with machinery or tools. Individuals with this interest enjoy being outdoors, using their hands, and/or breaking a sweat.
• People Service: the enjoyment of collaboration, compromise, and helping others. A strong sense of empathy and support and a knack for bringing people together.
• Technical: enjoyment of learning technical material, interpreting complex information, and solving abstract problems. Individuals with this interest may enjoy working with numbers, data, and computer programs.
• Enterprising: the enjoyment of leadership, presenting ideas, and persuading others. Individuals with this interest may desire responsibility, and exercise initiative, ambition, and resourcefulness.
• Creative: enjoyment of imaginative and artistic activities. It involves artistic expression, emphasis on aesthetics, and novel ways of solving problems, producing ideas, and designing new things.
• Financial/Admin: enjoyment of working with numbers, organizing information, and office routines such as record keeping and completing paperwork. It can indicate an eye for detail and a desire for accuracy.

In our opinion, PXT Select isn’t just a tool for helping employers find the right talent. Finding a job that leads to genuine fulfillment starts first with understanding yourself. What do you think your personal top three interests are from the list above? Once this is understood you can begin thinking strategically about finding a role where work doesn’t feel like work.