by Catherine Palmiere
14. December 2009 09:12
There are some very obvious signs that can indicate you’re in the wrong job, but often, we avoid admitting those even to ourselves. Yes, the job market is tough right now, but job satisfaction cannot be overlooked. After all, we spend too much time at our jobs to be unhappy every day. That doesn’t mean someone who’s not satisfied should march into their boss’s office and quite tomorrow morning, but it IS something we want to look at closely. Start by asking yourself these four questions:
1. Do I avoid talking about my job when I’m out with friends?
2. Do I hate getting up in the morning to go to work?
3. Am I always (or often) tired and drained at work – in a way that says more than “hard work”?
4. Do I find that I can’t wait until the close of work day?
It’s good to look take some time to look at job satisfaction overall. Because when you think about it, we spend more hours at work than we do awake at home. As a result we should make sure we LOVE what we do. If we love what we do we don’t think of it as work. You could start with the job that you’re in by asking for more responsibility, or by supporting interesting projects or working with other great teams.
If you’re sure that the place you work is not going to make you satisfied, be sure to stop and determine what your core issues are. Don’t just run out and start a job search without having a good due diligence in place. It’s very easy to just move from one unhappy spot to another in life. But if we take the time to really assess WHAT we don’t like, what we wish was different, what our behavior traits are, and what our core goals are, we can make a change that REALLY builds a better life. Take the time to decide what would make you HAPPY.
• Is it a job closer to home?
• Fewer hours at work?
• Or maybe it’s more hours and more money.
• Perhaps it’s a more creative industry.
Once you’ve determined some of those factors, you can begin to weigh your options. Knowing what you DO want is the foundation of a GOOD job effort. It’s very easy, after all, to spend a LOT of time on a job effort that ISN’T good. One that leaves you more unhappy than the job or career you hated, believe me. So getting things together the RIGHT way is an investment well worth doing. There are two things to embrace while you’re considering what direction to take with your job search: 1) Be networking all the time, and 2) Keep your resume updated with the latest information. Just in case a wonderful opportunity comes up. (In fact, I always say that the RIGHT time to update your resume is the day you start a new job.)
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