Careers & Employment Information

Career Change - Is Your Career A Good Fit Or Is It Causing Pain?


Do you leap out of bed in the morning looking forward to the day ahead?

Do you love your job and find that your working day goes past in the blink of an eye?

Are you a solicitor, secretary, scientist or social worker because your parents or your careers teacher thought it was a good idea?

Would you choose to do your job, even if you were not being paid? No?

Well, take heart because the same goes for others! So many individuals are working in jobs which they find unfulfilling and meaningless. Many work in jobs which are inappropriate for them, simply because the pay is good. Others don't even have the sweetener of a decent hourly rate to make them feel better about what they are doing.

How do we find a career which will do more than keep the roof over our head? How do we bring joy and excitement back into our working lives? How can we find a way of fulfilling our life's purpose through our work?

The first step is to think about our aptitudes. If we do something we have a talent for, life instantly becomes easier. If we are good at something it usually means we are able to excel at that thing in the workplace and this makes it easier to achieve and enjoy professional success.

A client worked as a wages clerk. The pay was quite good but she hated the work as she had always struggled with figures. She faced every working day with fear and dread. Working with her coach she explored career possibilities and sat the MAPP assessment tool which highlighted the possibility of using her creative writing skills in the workplace. The client looked around for another job and found a very junior position in a large PR company. There were some drawbacks - a longer commute and a longer working day. However, she decided to take the job and now declares this as the best move she ever made. Work became a joy.

What are you good at? What lessons did you look forward to at school? What have you chosen to study since school? What do you choose to do in your spare time? Think about your talents. Are you using them?

The next step is to consider your values - the thoughts and feelings which are part of you at an unconscious level. A client recently left the employ of one of the large supermarket groups because the way they conducted their business breached her personal values. The client tells us that her working life has improved immeasurably because she is now standing up for her beliefs.

What are your values? What do you get "hot around the collar" about? Can you clearly identify your personal values blueprint? The big challenge is to determine exactly what our aptitudes and values are. So often we live our lives in a way which is appropriate for others. We push our own needs down, we adapt our behaviour to fit what is required and we lose touch with who we really are.

We cannot expect to wear shoes which do not fit us, without discomfort. So why do we expect to be happy in jobs which are the wrong "size" for us?

Donnie Harrison is a personal coach and professional mentor working with individuals who are building private professional practices, especially in the healthcare sector. Further information from http://donnieharrison.com


MORE RESOURCES:
Google

Reuters

Why tech jobs are beating the employment odds
ZDNet - Jul 3, 2008
... impressively choreographed fireworks displays, we?re capping off one of the most depressing weeks for employment reports in the better half of a decade. ...
Treasurys rise ahead of employment report The Associated Press
US employment slump 'may continue into 2009' Vedior
US ADP Employment foresees larger than expected decline in June's ... International Business Times
MarketWatch - Forbes
all 168 news articles


Number of Those Unemployed For at Least 6 Months Rises
Wall Street Journal - Jul 4, 2008
With downward revisions for employment in previous months, the economy has lost 438000 jobs since January. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5% last ...
Little doubt that US is in recession; rest of the world can't ... The Age
Fragile economy takes toll on jobs Los Angeles Times
Jobs continue to fade Chicago Tribune
ABC News - BusinessWeek
all 917 news articles


Technology Employment Study: OC?s Big in Consumer, Defense Electronics
Orange County Business Journal, CA - 5 hours ago
By Sarah Tolkoff Orange County ranks fourth in the state and 14th in the nation for technology jobs, according to a recent report. ...


CariZMa Introduces First Arabic Employment Tool in the Middle East
Al-Bawaba, Jordan - 43 minutes ago
The focus of our research, product development, and service delivery is the application of psychological science in human resource (HR) and employment ...


Employment figures mixed
Bonner County Daily Bee, ID - 18 hours ago
By CONOR CHRISTOFFERSON SANDPOINT - Bonner County's June unemployment numbers are higher than state averages but lower than national averages, according to ...
State unemployment rate increases South Idaho Press
all 4 news articles


Employment project hailed
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain - 12 hours ago
Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi credited the efficient employment scheme for the substantial drop. According to updated figures released yesterday, ...


Looking at suitable employment for retirees
Malaysia Star, Malaysia - 12 hours ago
According to Assoc Prof Dr Tengku Aizan Hamid, director of Universiti Putra Malaysia's Gerontology Institute, physically and mentally fit retirees and ...


Los Angeles Times

Suburbia's not dead yet
Los Angeles Times, CA - 5 hours ago
But the biggest reason the suburb-to-city narrative is not following the script of the urban boosters and theorists has to do with employment. ...


Bush Economy Sheds 62K Jobs in June; Sixth Straight Monthly Decline
AlterNet, CA - 17 hours ago
The employment to population ratio (EPOP) fell to 62.4 percent in June, its lowest level in more than three years, as the economy lost another 62000 jobs in ...


When Ex-Employees Vent, or Reinvent
New York Times, United States - 2 hours ago
Zachary Hummel, an employment law partner at Bryan Cave, says noncompete agreements vary in scope. In both cases, people may attract the wrath of a former ...

Employment - Google News

home | site map
© 2006