Many people get “stuck” thinking about their next job or career move. It’s easier to know what you don’t want in your working life, but can be more difficult to define what you do want. And as we’ve heard from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. So don’t leave important decisions about work to chance or “luck”.
Whether you are an active job seeker or only just wondering whether it’s time to change roles, there is something you could do in a short space of time that can save you the frustration and time applying for (and getting into) the wrong roles.
The exercise below will help you keep focus when job searching. It will also stop you from being tempted to go for roles that are not right for you. You will need pen and paper, and 20-30 minutes, which will save you a lot of time and headache later on.
First of all, let go of a temptation to search for roles by job titles. Instead, think about what would be an “ideal” work situation (even if your “inner gremlin” tries to convince you it’s not achievable!). The key is to outline what you want in as much detail as possible by breaking down your thought process into 4 categories. Take an A4 sheet, divide it up in 4 sections and use a PRET acronym when brainstorming your thoughts.
P = People
R = Rewards
E = Environment
T = Tasks
PEOPLE
What kind of people would you like to encounter in your new role, including colleagues and clients (customers)?
Is there a particular client base you’d love to work with?
Whether you are going to be employed by a big brand or will be self-employed, define your ideal client. It may be a person or a company. If your client is a company, you’ll still be dealing with a person within that client company, so describe that “ideal” person.
Be clear what kind of colleagues you’d like to have. What kind of background and experience do these people have?
Do you even want to work in a team, or would you prefer to run the show on your own? If it’s a team, do you like a traditional hierarchy or a more “flat” team structure?
REWARDS
How would you like to be rewarded for your work?
The most obvious parameter to consider is your salary expectations. If you have come up with a figure, be really precise about it – is it before or after tax, and does this figure include bonuses and/or commission?
Does the role come with a pension plan?
How many days of paid annual leave would you be happy with? What is the employer’s policy on unpaid leave?
Are things like health insurance, maternity benefits, childcare vouchers, gym membership, company car, company mobile phone, subsidized lunches important for you?
Also think about the less obvious “job perks”, like coaching and mentoring and other support with professional development such as subsidized (or paid-for) courses, training, additional degrees or diplomas and professional memberships.
What else may give you a sense of being valued at work?
ENVIRONMENT
This could be further subdivided into location, the hours, conditions/resources and company culture.
Location
How far would you be willing to travel to work?
Would you prefer lots of travel with work or some or none at all? If there is travel with work, would you prefer country-wide or international?
Hours
What would be your ideal hours (per day and per week), and how happy are you to compromise on this?
Would you be happy for all the hours to be “at the office”, or would you like flexibility (e.g. working from home one day a week)
Should the hours be predictable?
Work conditions and resources
Think about whether you’d be happier in an office (if so, what kind of office?), outdoors, visiting clients on their premises (if so, where would you be visiting?), working from home, working in a particular place (e.g. for doctors, a teaching hospital vs. community-based clinic), or something else.
Are the necessary resources provided by the employer to do your work (e.g. a laptop, subscriptions to specific online tools, company car, use of telephone, paid-for travel to client sites)?
How far in advance do you need to inform the management about planned leave?
Company culture
Private or public sector or third sector?
A well-known international brand? A medium sized company? A small but cool start-up?
A meritocratic environment? Be clear whether you would like to be in a role where career progression is pretty much guaranteed (for example, junior doctors’ go up a grade every year if their performance is satisfactory), or would you like to be in a meritocratic environment where your performance dictates the speed of progression (e.g. sales)?
Think about how important a “career progression” is for you. What does career growth look like for you? Do you care about changing the job titles to reflect your seniority? How fast would you like to progress (ideally ask yourself where you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years time in terms of role, salary and impact)?
TASKS
Imagine yourself on a Sunday thinking about the working week ahead: what activities, duties and tasks would fill you with excitement?
What would you like your typical day and a typical week to look like?
What skills do you want to be utilizing and developing?
When doing the above exercise, be clear about your
“DEAL-BREAKERS”
Look what you’ve written in each category and highlight what is an absolute “must-have” for your next role, the absence of which would be a “deal-breaker” (for example, being able to travel a certain distance to work due to childcare responsibilities). This will help you to stay away from tempting roles that would go against your current values. When a seemingly good role comes up, be sure to check against your deal-breakers, so that you don’t end up resenting your new job because some aspects of the role conflict with your values. Get another highlighter and mark out what you would be prepared to compromise on.
To ensure you’ve covered each section fully, ask yourself “What do/did I not like about [people/rewards/environment/tasks] in my current/previous role?” but bear in mind that your “ideal” may not necessarily be a direct opposite of what you disliked.
Conclusion
Some people think “I just want to get a job and I don’t really mind about a company or the people I work with ”. Then they get the job, realise that something is still missing and go back to square one feeling stuck and fantasizing about “something else”.
To get “unstuck” when thinking about your next job/career, the first step is to use the above exercise to define what is important for you. Of course, this won’t automatically give you the job title and company that would be the best fit for you, but the exercise will definitely help you:
– To get clarity about what’s important for you, especially the deal-breakers. This in turn will help to formulate specific questions to assess a particular role or company while doing networking (as well as during the interview process);
– To narrow down options and possibilities;
– To avoid roles and companies that are not the right fit for you;
– To make an informed decision about your career.
Wishing you career SUCCESS!!
