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Home » Career Advice » Reflection & Research
We all have preconceived ideals about how we would like our careers to progress. Additionally, others around us may place their own imperitives on what is expected in a career.
You will already have some appreciation of the employment
landscape in your field of expertise. This may include knowledge of the limitations and assets
that typically imfluence progression in your chosen career.
To make the most of the career opportunities ‘out there’ it is
important to regularly conduct a self-appraisal of your situation
and where you want to be in the future. This may include utilising personality profiling tests to better understand your traits and drivers.
When evaluating your work life what do you consider important?
Remuneration
Let’s face it - when you think of work the first thing that comes to mind is your pay and why there should be more of it. However, when job seekers are asked to qualify what is most important to them, salary tends to feature way down on the list of priorities.
With the high cost of living and the expectations put on us to earn more and more, a preoccupation with pay can often lead us to a unfulfilling career. We are increasingly conditioned to associate more with better, however this cycle can create disillusionment.
Perhaps it is time to consider the bigger picture?
Are you being paid adequately compared to the market in general, and to the lifestyle you wish to lead? How do you evaluate your work - life balance? At what point does your career fail to compensate for other areas in your life?
Job Satisfaction
There are a number of factors that make a job satisfying, these include:-
- The ability to meet the demands of your job using existing skills
- The support of your colleagues
- A work environment that appeals to you
More complex tasks are more satisfying to accomplish. Complicated tasks are easier to achieve with the support of your colleagues. Without support a highly demanding job can result in significant stress and lead to burnout.
Ask yourself what it is you enjoy doing, break it down into its core components and now consider how regularly you get to do that in your existing role.
It is important to update existing skills and gain new ones. This will preserve your 'employability' and should sustain your motivation. Some companies will provide 'in-house' career development but in many cases skills training is up to you.
It is a common mistake to place unrealistic expectations in pursuit of career goals. Regular small strategic steps would be ideal, but unlikely to occur in a way you want all the time. This often necessitates the need to move companies in order to gain new skills and experience.
Keeping to your values and motivations can be difficult as they can conflict with other agendas such as matching pace with your peers or meeting the ambitions of others. Ambition and happiness are not necessarily linked so be honest with yourself.
It’s all about the people
Like most relationships we have in life, work colleagues can greatly affect our mood and overall happiness. The old adage ‘people join companies but leave managers’ is testament to that.A considerable percentage of people looking to leave a company do so because of who they work with rather than what they do.
A feature of the modern work place is the pressure to achieve higher targets with less resources. With this in mind it makes sense to give more thought to the type of people you want to work with. The pressures of a role are unlikely to differ in a new company but the way you relate to people can.
Security & Lifestyle
The need of employment security, to most, is not as important as it once was. This is largely due the high level of employment and increasing level of fluidity in the job market. Employers, on the whole, are opened minded about 'transferable skills' particularly in a candidate short market.
Consider how important flexibility to do things outside of work and the guarantees of a stable job give to you over remuneration and authority. Never under estimate that the more you are paid the more your employer will expect of you.
If you have a passion in life that makes you truly happy find work that pays you enough and leaves you enough time to do it. Even better, find a boss that shares those interests.