HOW TO BUILD ENRICHING CAREER?

Background

Most of the professionals don’t know how to make the job decisions that lead to satisfaction.

"Most of the youngsters and their parents during start of a career look for things that they are proud to talk about in groups/communities & with relatives or look good on a resume”

But these do not provide happiness & satisfaction to many as they would have just followed the trends.

Recently I shared the thoughts in detail as part of YouTube live session - where many of the queries related to skill & career development, time management, goal setting, latest trends, specific queries about career challenges in IT were discussed.

Below are principles you can follow to find a career & a specific job. You don’t just enjoy, but love & enriching in all means.

What does enriching mean to you?

Enriching means something different for each individual. So what does it mean to you?

• Is it salary? Is it Title??
• Is it working for a big company??
• Is it working on new technologies??
• Is it about growth??
• Is it about belief in the mission & vision of the company?
• Is it about being valued and respected? etc..

Mostly it is a combination of many things listed above, for each individual their order and weightage could vary.

You need to think deeply about what you value and what matters most to you? Think through the questions below.

• What makes me most happy?
• What frustrates me mostly?

Once you have some clarity come up with few statements like below

"I want to work for a company where my contributions are valued, have an opportunity to build world class engineering team, by coaching & mentoring them towards their career aspirations and able to learn from them, have good flexibility to take care of personal situations, have a good visible career path for next 5 years, have a great team to work with and a great manager who challenges me to do my best, provides candid feedback, supports & mentors me pro-actively on regular basis"

Four Pillars to consider

In order to think through to get to your clarity, you can consider below 4 pillars [can be in any order]

1. Impact & Contributions

This is about the Impact of your work and what contributions you want to make towards that Impact.

What kind of work is rewarding to you? Being at the computer and working alone in building a product used by many? Or working with users to understand their needs and help them in resolving their needs etc..

2. Expertise & Skills

These are the key expertises, strengths & skills you love and are strong and using these in a way that is rewarding for you.

Also what skills you are looking to improve and their possibility of learning and applying to create the Impact.

3. Company Culture & Values

This is about the culture & values of the company, team you work with. Do you feel like you belong at the workplace? What level of autonomy are you given? How are you and each other treated? What do they do outside of work? How are the people in the team & company? etc..

4. Compensation & Benefits

This is about the salary, benefits & appropriate flexibility you need for a balanced lifestyle of your choice.

Goals are Important

Goals are an important part of everyone's life! Without goals either in personal or professional life, you can't be sure if you are making progress towards where you want to be in future.

While going through this exercise of understanding and planning your career, think long term and take the immediate next steps either learning new skills, working on projects, changing jobs etc in line with your long term goals.

So think about what are your career goals? like Where do you want to be in the next 2, 5 & 10 years? accordingly start evaluating your current job, skills and are they inline with your goals and do they support towards that?

Again each individual based on their personal and professional situation will have different goals which are meaningful to them. So do not just follow your friend/colleague or your manager blindly without doing detailed exercise step by step.

Key challenges

If it means to course correct your path by moving into a different role, team or company so be it. You need to take those difficult decisions, calculated risks when needed to be inline with your goals whether you are in early career or mid career.?

You might be having challenges in setting goals or taking next steps to progress towards your goals. Below are some of the key challenges most professionals go through.

• Not able to get time to think about the career and goals busy with the work
• Financial & Family commitments
• Focusing more on next role/promotion
• Not able to upgrade to skills needed
• Not confident enough to try a new team/interview/job
• Easy going, not in a position to take challenges & opportunities being presented

Especially mid-career individuals, someone who stayed within an organisation for long might feel that they are locked into that job, without growth opportunities, family commitments, not having enough confidence & market skills needed etc..?

Possible approaches & guidelines

While these are all real concerns & challenges for sure, if the individual is not happy, then it is high time to think about a change (not necessarily job change, could be a different team, role etc..).

Each individual situation and challenges they go through are unique. Universal approaches and guidelines might not solve the challenges, they will provide some clarity and show the path to take next steps and deep dive.

• Make the time to reflect on your career by blocking the required amount of slots into the calendar. So that you get time to focus and deep dive to come up with the priority list of what the enriching career looks like to you
• Try out & look for opportunities within the present job, talk to your manager and discuss your career goals and seek their support. Mostly you should be given enough support.
• Do the skill gap analysis for the role/opportunity you want to work for. Then prioritise learning the new skills by attending training, seminars & conferences. Just do not depend on your company for training, it's your career so you need to take control and invest if needed.
• Take a new project/work which provides an opportunity to learn & try new skills. If needed on a voluntary basis by spending extra time.
• If not able to find opportunities within the job, in other teams & within the company, look outside the company
• Plan for financial commitments - by adjusting the expenses wherever possible so that you are mentally prepared for the change
• Have a mentor who can guide, provide you candid feedback to take corrective actions and help to navigate the journey

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