Career Tips For The Best Job Satisfaction Possible
What motivates you to choose a certain career? Is it the salary it provides? The potential experiences you might find? The pursuit of a challenge, of power, of growth? Do you want to come home and feel pride in how your romantic partner looks at you, feeling impressed in all you have achieved? Do you hope to write your exploits one day in a sell all autobiography, or are you motivated by something more emotional and true to your identity, such as working in the corporate structure of your local sports team?
Of course, there are a million reasons why people take jobs, and why they pursue careers. Often it’s not even targeted, as people fall into careers they didn’t expect. It’s not uncommon for a vehement artist to fall into a management role and get comfortable in that, putting their artistic plans on hold until they come flooding back years later.
The only person who can say what will make you happy is you, no one else. Certainly not a guide on the internet. With that being said, sometimes the advice you need can come from the most unlikely of places. If you’ve read to this point, instead of adventuring off on your new form of career pursuit inspired to the brim, why not read the following guide? We hope to elucidate the power of job satisfaction, what it means, and how to find it. Diligently applied to your efforts, we’re sure it should land you in a position you are comfortable to inhabit with all of your ability.
Social Good
Sometimes performing jobs that take social good into consideration are worth being a part of. This might mean applying for a healthy, sustainable fast food joint instead of a giant and already questionable fast food corporation. What matters is the small details of differentiation like this one. Working in an ethical environment can prevent you from having to make the decisions between your job role and what your moral fibre is telling you to do. After all, no one likes heading home feeling that they have tilted the world a little closer towards darkness due to their efforts that day, even if they are being paid a handsome amount to do so.
There are other, more direct methods of encountering social good. For example, if you’re high in openness, then studying in accredited online counselling programs could help earn you a very professional position listening to the difficulties people face, and helping them run through it. These positions are anything but easy. The social good you create will have to be earned through maturity, responsibility and the constant self-encouragement in the face of your positive deeds.
Conducting social good (in the right role) will also mean making difficult decisions. For example, choosing whether or not to take the case in a sensitive law proceeding, or trying to confront your boss over a practice you are unhappy with takes courage, but this can be rewarded over tenfold in the future satisfaction and mark you’ve made on a firm.
Money Is No Object
It does sound like a cliche you’d read on a website dedicated to happy maxims, but money isn’t everything. Starting a career you hope to keep with any form of longevity requires that you continually assess if your actions are in line with the compensation you receive. This might be skewed in one of two extremes. For example, if you conduct social good all day, or at least activities you regard as satisfying and enjoyable, but you are paid little for it – then you’re unlikely to last long in that role before you complain. The opposite could be true. You might be being paid disgusting amounts of money to conduct practices that are anything but ethical.
While some people might consider this to be a good deal and worth the emotional cost, if you truly value job satisfaction, then it’s important to stay away from opportunities like this. They do nothing but rot your spirit and will leave you wanting more from your life. Remember to always hit the balance between being rightfully compensated, and being able to enforce your authentic will on your job role, within reasonable parameters. Of course, a criminal defence lawyer might not be able to sustain their business if they only take on the cases in which they hope the client gets off due to a gut feeling of innocence. However, in most practical decisions you make in your career, you can always veer on the side of job satisfaction if you’re lucky.
Personality
Certain personalities enjoy certain things. Different personalities enjoy different things. While you might not have access to completely enjoy the full psychological profile upon which you operate listed on a piece of paper in front of you, you will be naturally drawn to certain things that might work for you. For example, if you’re a highly competitive person, then the rigid structure and discipline of a corporation could suit you well. If you’re more of a team player, enjoy systems, can adapt to authority and have a strong sense of fair play, then working in a public service or military role might suit you to the ground.
For people high in openness and creativity, perhaps more unconventional careers should be considered. It’s not always apparent exactly how they should develop, but you’ll know in your gut instinct how to begin. For example, could it be running a store regarding your favorite artistic hobbies such as arts and crafts could be for you? It all depends. Try not to limit yourself to certain professions, but instead to find the roles in which you can express your personality type with more effectiveness. For example, if you are creative but hope to enjoy the corporate structure, then working in advertising could be for you. It’s all about balance, and sometimes a small opportunity could develop into the thing you truly want, despite you hardly desiring the endeavour in the first place.
With the right outlook and the ability to discern a positive influence, working on yourself and your career could net you some of the highest job satisfaction you have yet to receive.