Unlocking the blueprint to your dream job might just be hidden in the resumes of those who've already made it—let's decode their success together.

Try out this experiment and see what insights you uncover.

Step 1: Define your ideal role

Take a moment to vividly describe your dream job. And if you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up yet (most of us are still figuring it out), consider these prompts to guide you:

- What’s your ideal job title?

- What do you envision spending most of your time doing?

- What tasks would you prefer to not be responsible for?

- Preferred location?

- Desired industry?

- Size of company? (e.g. startup, public company)?

For instance, let’s say I want to be a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a major public company in the banking industry located within the NYC metro area. We’ll use this as an example to guide us through the next blueprint steps.

Step 2: Explore LinkedIn profiles of professionals currently holding the position you aspire to achieve

Applying the earlier example, I conducted a targeted search on Linkedin to identify individuals fitting that precise job description.

What recurring patterns emerge from these profiles?

Most individuals I found:

- Have an MBA degree.

- Accumulated over a decade of experience in major public companies.- Climbed the corporate ladder internally in the organization, with rare exceptions.

These recurring patterns signify crucial factors in securing this position. It’s important to do further research to confirm or challenge these assumptions regarding the weight they have in obtaining your ideal job. Additionally, it’s important to understand why these elements hold importance, too.

Step 3: Identify knowledge or skill gaps

Now that you have a sense of the existing patterns to secure your dream job, review your resume to see what’s missing.

In the context of aiming for the CMO example, I can see that I lack basically everything. Still, it provides a starting point for my journey toward securing that position in the future.

Plus, there could be skills you don’t realize you’re missing that might slow you down in landing your dream job.

Step 4: Bridge the gaps

Now that you understand what’s missing, it’s time to figure out how to fill those gaps. This is where you start learning new skills or consider taking a different role to speed up the process of landing your dream job. Let’s stick with the CMO example for this explanation.

Example solution:

Given that the patterns show most people attain the example CMO role by working their way up the corporate ladder at a public company, have an MBA, and a decade’s worth of experience, I’d target a marketing-related position at a reputable public finance company. Once there, I’d focus on enhancing my skills, pursuing an MBA, and advancing up the company hierarchy.

Give this exercise a shot. I’d love to hear about your experience and what you discovered.