When you start searching for jobs, you need to know what the boundaries are for jobs that will meet your requirements. This way you are efficient and targeted in your approach to finding the right role. If you do not do this, you may waste a lot of time that could instead be focused on the right opportunities. For example, what motivates you to wake up every morning and do great work? If your motivations are too broad, dig deeper to identify your most important ones. If your purpose is overly narrow, consider reflecting to see if that motivation can apply in another way. In general, there are 3 key things you need to have done before you even reach the potential interview stage. They are as follows:

Look Internally:

• Self-reflection requires being 100% honest with yourself. To help you with this, ask yourself these questions:
• What am I good at?
• What do I like, and do not I like?

Answering all of these questions will help you identify your strengths, interests, and motivations. From there, you can apply these methodologies to help crystalize your responses to those questions:
Talk with your family and LISTEN. Make sure you understand and value their needs and desires, too

• Speak with mentors and coaches
• Update your resume
• Update your LinkedIn or other applicable social media

After you do this, you will have developed a framework that will help you identify roles that are right for both you and your family, if applicable. You should now have boundaries set that will enable you to quickly decide which roles will meet your needs or not. Now, you are ready to begin the job search.