What Career Are You Growing In Your "Life Garden"?

Today we celebrate “Prepare Your Life Garden Day”—a time to identify what we need to be doing right now to prepare our “career garden” and how we can make wiser choices when it comes to deciding what “seeds” to plant. 

And our guest expert to help us is Laurence Shatkin, PhD, author of Overnight Career Choice and a Senior Product Developer at JIST Publishing with 30 years of experience in the career information field.

Dr. Shatkin is an award-winning career information systems developer, a member of the National Career Development Association and a frequent presenter at their conferences, and is the author of the Career Laboratory blog.

“Change Coach” Nancy: What are some indications that you are in the wrong career?

Dr. Shatkin: The most obvious indication is if you dread Monday morning. Or perhaps you find yourself doing many things to avoid work, such as Facebook or water-cooler conversations. If you invent distractions that you don’t actually enjoy, such as tidying up your office, it’s a signal that you enjoy the work tasks even less. Of course, it’s possible that you enjoy the career, but it’s not paying enough or you expect to have trouble staying (or becoming) employed. That happened to me.

“Change Coach” Nancy: What are the key questions to ask yourself if you are considering making a career change?

Dr. Shatkin: First of all, why should this new career work out better than the old one? Specifically, what makes this career a better match for my skills and interests or more economically viable?

Do I have what it takes to succeed in the new career I’m considering? Specifically, do I have the appropriate educational or training credentials? 

If formal credentials are not needed, can I make the case (in a resume and interviews) that I have the skills that will be needed? 

What specific accomplishments can I point to (perhaps in a portfolio) that will convince employers that I will earn my salary?

“Change Coach” Nancy: Can you give some quick tips on how to assess your key skills and interests?

Dr. Shatkin: The fastest way to assess your skills is to divide a page into three columns and, in the leftmost column, list the jobs or work-related projects you’ve done. 

In the middle column, identify the tasks that were most important for success in these efforts. In the rightmost column, extract the skills that were needed for those tasks.

To identify your interests, think about activities you do that might tempt you to come to dinner a few minutes late. You may need to exercise some creativity to find ways to relate your interests to work situations.

“Change Coach” Nancy: Your book includes the nine most important components of an ideal job. What are they?

Dr. Shatkin: They are :

1. Skills and abilities
2. Interests
3. Personal values
4. Preferred earnings
5. Level of responsibility
6. Location
7. Special knowledge
8. Work environment
9. Types of people you like to work with and for

“Change Coach” Nancy: Your book discusses the connection between work values and motivators and career choice. Why is it important to understand that concept and factor it into a job decision?

Dr. Shatkin: Not every day on the job is payday. Work needs to have satisfactions that make you feel, at day’s end, “That was a good day at work.” We all have different ways of gauging this. For some of us, it’s the physical results of the work, such as a completed brick wall or a Web page design. For others, it’s the intangible results, such as a satisfied customer or an enlightened student.

Most people can name only one or two things they want from work besides money, but they will recognize the importance of other motivators once you suggest them. They may seek leadership, variety, independence, teamwork, creativity, flexible work hours, or many other aspects of work.

“Change Coach” Nancy: With unemployment so high and jobs in short supply, what advice do you have for job-seekers who are losing hope of ever finding the job that’s right for them?

Dr. Shatkin: In these hard times, you may not be able to work in the job that’s right for you. However, you can take steps to upgrade your skills for when the job market will be better. If you’re working now in a job that’s not a good fit, you may be able to concentrate on the few parts of the job that give you the greatest satisfaction and improve your ability to handle these aspects. It may also be possible to take on small tasks in another function where you see future career possibilities, such as management, sales, or training other workers.

If you’re not working, or in your leisure time, you may be able to do these tasks in a volunteer position. Either way, you will build your skills, test your satisfactions, and chalk up accomplishments, all of which can help you in your later career pursuits.

Many people who lose hope simply have not been using the right techniques for finding jobs. It’s more true than ever that most job openings are never advertised and are learned about through personal connections. You need to build a network of contacts and make cold calls about jobs.

Thanks, Dr. Shatkin, for your great career advice! As you pointed out, if we want a bountiful harvest (i.e., a career that brings us satisfaction), then we need to do the work that will help grow it!

Posted in: Are You Growing,In Your,Life Garden,What Career