The word “job” comes from the original meaning of lump or pile and was the end result of workers shoveling waste and garbage out of the dirty street about five hundred years ago. The connotation of the word today is not much more than that, as many workers watch the clock and count the endless hours of “shoveling ‘til quittin’ time”.
The word “career” in contrast is taken from a core word, car meaning path. With a career as you go along on your journey you choose your direction, change your direction and maybe even will enjoy your direction along the way.
Your happiness throughout your career will hinge on the commitment you make to yourself to find success and satisfaction within your work. Your attention to the requirements and conditions of your present job (just a tiny part of your career) is the key to making it happen. Here are several work traps that keep us unhappy on the job and stifled our career success.
Work Trap #1
Required: an income. Condition: doing just anything.
If you work only for an income, living from paycheck to paycheck, you will never be happy (or really successful) in what you do.
Ask yourself:
- Is the work that you do something you enjoy? Is it flexible enough that you do not feel like you are sacrificing any part of yourself or your life? Try to discover ways to make your work more enjoyable. This can be done by making a list of your personal preferences on the job. These might include working with others, providing a quality result, honoring a love of something, etc. Once your reason for working is expanded you may actually be able to find more positive activities or interests within the work.
Success Key: Find enjoyment in the work that you do.
Work Trap #2
Required: marketable skills. Condition: building the wrong skills.
In recent years, more college graduates have spent their time and fortunes in educational areas that they will never use. These same professionals spend hours working in professions that do not recognize nor use their true talents. You should be developing skills that are aligned with your innate skills, strengths and interests.
Ask yourself:
- Does the work that you do use the skills that you like doing and do well? Align your learning and educational decisions toward skills that are both marketable and aligned with your talent. Target any new learning in a direction of your choice and identify new skill preferences. Consider also the skills you apply in hobbies as potential new career opportunities.
Success Key: Build your skills to your talents, strengths and interests.
Work Trap #3
Requirement: a career path. Condition: stuck in a rut.
It is a well known fact in the career services community that individuals who change jobs, gain more knowledge, experience, money and opportunities than people who accept a job and remain there until a change is forced upon them. The less challenge that you experience in your job, the more of a rut you are in. Problem-solving and learning new things allow our career to be movable and self-directed.
Ask yourself:
- Do you work in an environment in which you perform your tasks without challenge? Have you convinced yourself you have nowhere else to go? Are you stuck in the job rut? Consider new avenues or applications for your old job. Where could you transfer your skills that will provide you more opportunities and challenges in your career future?
Success Key: Keep your career moving by challenges and job changes.
Work Trap #4
Requirement: a recognized work role. Condition: no respect.
If you are in an environment where all the players are not recognized contributors to the winning of the game, then look around for a new job. Why would you want to stay in an environment that is oppressive or negative? It will not only affect your work, it will also affect your health.
- Do you hold a respected work role? Rather than convince yourself to stay, investigate other job options where everyone has a valued place on the work team and fulfills their role as respected contributors. If the role that you play is NOT one that you prefer, perhaps you should consider another work alternative.
Success Key: Demand and give respect on the job.
Work Trap #5
Requirement: career promotion/succession. Condition: unknown workplace value
Many people fail to “toot” their own horn and as a result, miss out on new and exciting projects and opportunities. Others have no idea of what it takes to be promoted or to succeed in their career.
Ask yourself:
- Are you able to articulate your workplace value? Do you know what your work is worth to your employer? If not, visit sites such as Salary.com to get both salary information and detailed job descriptions outlining the highlights of your present job. Get references and keep an ongoing accomplishment list.
Success Key: Identify and regularly represent your workplace value.
Work Trap #6
Requirement: Career flexibility through change. Condition: Complacency.
Sound asleep at the wheel? Might as well be if you are not willing or able to evaluate where you are in your career. When the corporate ship is sinking, will you stay until the final bow is under water? Our final Work Trap is allowing the power of your job and career to rest in another’s hands.
- Have you learned to evaluate where you are, jump ship and redirect your career efforts when needed? If not, your complacency will lock you into a nowhere job, with minimal pay and possibly at the end of an unemployment line. Career change requires a strategy, a plan B or C. Always check in on where you are and how ready you are to move, quickly if necessary.
Success Key: At least once a year, ask yourself, “is this where I want to be?”
In summary, often just knowing the work traps will help you to realize how to get out of them. Still struggle, find a good career coach to aid in your victory!