In his book “Major in Success” American author and inspirational speaker Patrick Combes writes about how to get paid to do what you love to do. He developed a simple process called the Job Generator which helps you to develop a mental picture of the jobs that are possible for you.

Here’s how it works. Simply make a list of the things that really interest you and pose the following questions to each item on the list: 

1.  How could I be paid to inform people about this interest? (Perhaps through writing, consulting, speaking, television, newsletters, magazines, stage shows, lectures, books or Internet sites). 

2.   How could I be paid to provide other people with a service that is related to this interest? 

3.    How could I be paid to perform this interest for other people? 

4.   How could I be paid to design, create or manufacture products related to this interest? 

5.    How could I be paid to assist people who are focussed on this interest? 

6.    How could I be paid to learn more about this interest? 

You may find it useful to ask for help from a friend, family member or professional such as a teacher or career counsellor to assist you to answer some of these questions. 

Once you are happy with your answers you can then start looking more specifically at the job titles and job descriptions that relate to the type of work you’re attracted to. Places that can help you with this include Career Centres, Guidance Officers and career source books.

The Super Simple, Unique and Weird Job Idea Jogger

Want an even simpler process than the Job Generator? – try this. Fill in the blanks of the following sentence:
A great job would be (verb) in the (your interest) field.

For example, if you like to read and you’re interested in ships, your sentence could look like:   A great job would be reading in the shipping industry. 

Related jobs might include: Editor of a boating, yachting or shipping magazine; researcher for the marine transport industry; authoring books, journals or newsletters about the latest developments in the shipping industry.  

Now, try another verb and see what your sentence looks like.

                   A great job would be working in the shipping industry. 

Related jobs might include: Captaining container ships; working as a harbour master; piloting tug boats; operating gantry cranes loading and unloading container ships; fitting out and customizing private yachts; shipping and boating maintenance and repairs; supervising the loading and placement of cargo to ensure the ship is evenly balanced; checking harbour depths and maintaining berthing facilities; various job tasks involved in the cargo holding and distribution warehouses on the wharves.

… and another verb.

                   A great job would be teaching in the shipping industry. 

Related jobs might include: introducing or implementing new policies and regulations to the shipping yards; running marine workplace health and safety courses for different aspects on the shipping industry (e.g. on ships at sea, in port, on the docks, in ship construction yards); teaching and testing others to pilot marine vessels; educating others on the handling and transportation of hazardous and environmentally dangerous cargo. 

A list of verbs to help you vary your options includes:

Reading	Speaking	Designing
Writing	Working	Computing
Researching	Drawing	Constructing
Teaching	Creating