Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction for some stems from the challenges in the job or a sense of purpose while for others it’s more extrinsic and, for example, may be measured by the money they make. For others it may come from the learning that takes place or from knowing that their work matters or from helping others. Still for some simply having a job to go to everyday in order to have “other” things in life is fine, and it’s from “accepting” that they can derive their satisfaction.Defining the factors for your own job satisfaction requires you jumping all the way back to the beginning and walking through your career life, but instead of identifying duties, responsibilities, job descriptions etcetera as you might to create an outline for your resume or vitae. This time only look at your successes and the underpinnings of those successes; for example instinctive skills – the automatic – the intuitive, creative, type skills perhaps that you drew upon at that time, or learned skills. When you take this walk-through, don’t limit it to successes in the workplace either. Consider too alumni associations, community and civic organizations, councils with which you may have been involved and teams on which you played or Boards on which you served through the course of your life. Once you have all these successes out on the table, you can identify the actual skills, personal and professional characteristics and knowledge areas, inherent or learned, that you drew upon to succeed – “underpinnings” to your successes as it were, or, success attributes; but you don’t stop there.

You need to divide those success attributes into two groups – those you are interested in perpetuating in your career and those in which you have little or no interest … motivated and unmotivated success attributes we’ll call them. Very simply, the success attributes of interest are those you not only do well but enjoy doing – you’re “motivated” to do. The others may also be things you do well, maybe very well, but are not interested in doing – you’re “unmotivated” to do. Say for example you’re terrific at editing research reports but don’t enjoy it. If you’re caught on the job being very good at it and it becomes 20% of your job, well…there goes 20% of your job satisfaction, right out the window. Too many people get caught doing something well that they don’t enjoy, it becomes part of their job, consequently, and depending on how much a part, will determine their level of angst – the most severe being that which requires them to pull themselves out of bed every morning. How many people do you know like that? They live for Fridays and vacations. Hey…Life’s too short!

Once you have defined and thus classified your success attributes you have laid the groundwork and are well on your way to defining the “best fit” positions for your next career step. When you know what it is you CAN do, WANT to do and will ENJOY doing most you are in the best position to capitalize on the opportunities that await you; and why? … Because we are at our best when doing that which we enjoy doing most.

Article By:  Rob Taub

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.