Finding Your Work

Most people look for a job by looking at job listings. That's backwards. The surest way to find work that fits is to first take an honest inventory of who you are — your skills, your interests, the people and places that bring you alive — and only then go looking. This is that method, and the free workbook that walks you through it, one step and one exercise at a time.

The mistake almost everyone makes

The usual job hunt starts from the employer's question — “who can fill this opening?” — and searches only the small, crowded slice of the market that's publicly advertised, where you compete against the largest possible crowd and often against software that screens you out before a human reads your name. It feels productive because it's busy. It mostly produces silence.

The better way reverses the order of operations: start with yourself, then work outward to the market. Know your own shape first, name the work that fits it, and reach that work through people rather than portals — which, as it happens, is how most jobs are actually filled.

What's inside the free workbook

The heart of it is a self-portrait built in seven parts — what Richard Bolles called the “Flower.” Each part comes with a tickable word bank, so you're never staring at a blank page:

• Your Skills — the abilities you most love using
• Your Knowledges — the fields you already care about
• Your People — the cultures that fit you
• Your Purpose — values and the difference you want to make
• Your Conditions — where and how you do your best work
• Your Level & Reward — responsibility and money
• Your Place — geography and the life around the work

Plus a fully worked example, the hidden job market, informational interviews, the “circle the field” method, changing careers and the money bridge, and a 30-day action plan — about 46 pages, free to read, print, and share.

Explore the ideas

Each of these is a short, free read drawn from the workbook — start anywhere, then download the full method.