The Biggest Obstacle in Career Change
Do you need a New Career or Just a New Job?
Most professionals don’t hire career coaches to change careers until they think they are at the breaking point. There are many factors that can contribute to career misery. And being stuck in a bad job in a good place is certainly one of them.
But I have found that three factors outside of the actual job description are more likely to be the cause of profound career distress than the job itself. All three have to do with feeling that what we are getting back in exchange for our energy and time is not fair. After all, a job is nothing more than a trade through which you exchange your time and effort for compensation, recognition, and professional growth.
Most people start a job with some understanding of what they are expected to give, but few ever define what they want to get back in terms of time, money, and gratification from doing the work the way they enjoy doing it. And if our career doesn’t match up on all three, it won’t matter what the job is…it won’t be a great experience.
Poor Work-Life Balance:
Workaholics aside, most professionals need to set boundaries that enable them to do the important stuff outside of work that make for a well-rounded life. Clients who hire me later in career life rarely share regrets about the decisions they made regarding how they did the job, but rather the things that they missed out on by letting their job take over their lives.
Few people set out to land a job that is all-consuming. It usually happens over time. Some people just can’t say no. Others are impacted by reductions in the workforce or staffing shortages. Still others put themselves on career paths that require too much sacrifice of personal time and energy.
Those who can’t define their own boundaries are most at risk.
Dissatisfaction with Compensation
I rarely engage with a client who wants to make a change because they make too much money. And we all need money to live. But as good as it feels great to make more money, the euphoria over a raise or bonus can fade quickly because that money improves our lifestyle but does absolutely nothing for day-to-day-job satisfaction.
Not surprisingly, some psychologists classify money more as a dissatisfier than a satisfier. Indeed, we are seldom “satisfied” that we make enough, but we are justifiably dissatisfied if the compensation doesn’t match our effort or prevailing market benchmarks.
Knowing your value and maintaining a skillset to remain competitive in your market are the keys to staying ahead of the game. If you don’t know what your financial goals and needs are, you are never going to achieve them.
Bad Boss, Poor Culture, Lack of Recognition
This is the biggie. A job appears perfect on paper. The job description is exactly what you love to do. You are fully qualified. The company is stable and has been around forever. But the job is still a living hell because factors beyond your control prevent you from doing the work the way you best at doing it. The most obvious impediment is a bad boss. But misalignment with company values, economic downturns, inequitable resource allocation, lack of recognition, or insufficient support are the most common reasons that professionals become miserably employed.
As weird as it sounds, I recommend to most clients that they are better off in a bad job that pays well, provides time for an outside life, and appreciates their work than they would be with a great job that didn’t have ALL THREE of these other attributes.
Because most of us never take the time to define our needs in these three areas, we run a high risk of repeatedly taking jobs that look good on paper but are, in reality, terrible situations.
I know that most of my readers will think that they do these things because most people know what they DON’T want. We can all identify times when we have been upset about being underpaid or overworked, or when we have suffered from poor management.
But knowing what we need to avoid is not the same as knowing what we want.
Take time to define what you want back from your employers in exchange for your effort and time., both in the short- and long-term This alone will improve the odds that you will recognize a healthy situation when you see it and avoid miserable employment because of blind eye syndrome.
