To determine your objectives in your job search and in your life, find out who you are. Start by preparing a summary of the facts of your current situation. Include such things as your job status, age, education, and experience; your financial needs and resources; your strong skills and interests (and deficiencies); work environment preferences; and your family's desired lifestyle. Establish your primary requirements for a job. Don't make the mistake of undervaluing the factors of work environment and your desired lifestyle-they can be critical to your job satisfaction in the long run. It's only human to look for a new job that will correct the deficiencies of the old one, and to play down the important things that were right in the latter. Don't get caught in this trap.
Knowing what you can and cannot do is a key ingredient of your career planning. Paul Sargent, for example, is a successful entrepreneur. Over a period of 15 or 20 years he has taken four small, struggling companies (start-ups and failing companies) and straightened them out. Just after he made a switch to a new company several years ago, I asked him, "Why didn't you stay with M&N? It seemed to be going very well." I remember his answer clearly, "Well, I learned something about myself a long time ago," he said. "I have a particular type of expertise, and I also recognize my own limitations. I have found when I get a company up to $5 million or more in sales, it takes a different kind of management than it does when it's smaller. I found that I am much more effective-and really more excited-building up companies when they are small." Here is a man who has been successful and has had a satisfying career-a key to it has been his realistic attitude. Not only does he recognize where his expertise is, but he also recognizes what his limitations are. Furthermore, he has accepted them. Finding out what you can do and recognizing your limitations should be a key part of determining your career requirements.
You'll do best and be happiest over a long period of time in a job that involves your personal interests and values, emphasizes your strengths, and deemphasizes your weaknesses. You're now at a point where you can broaden or narrow your responsibilities in your field. You also have a chance to seek new challenges. Take this opportunity to ask yourself questions regarding various job alternatives, such as:
- Are you likely to be happier in a big company or a small one?
- Are there particular industries that you are well suited for or that you should avoid? (For example; great opportunity, high risk versus low opportunity, stable organization? Profit versus nonprofit?)
- Do you prefer to be in a staff or a line role?
- Would you rather be a specialist in a particular field or would you rather have broader management responsibilities?
- What kind of people (particularly your boss) would you prefer to work with or should you avoid?
- How important is the prestige of the company?
- How important is challenge to you?
- Are good chances of promotion (including becoming a director) a key factor to you?
- What kind of management style are you happiest in-loose or highly structured?
- What sorts of risks are you willing to run?
- What opportunities will you have after retirement?
Among the important factors in your final choice are the financial ones. They involve making judgments on complex variables: immediate salary versus long-term potential; the degree of risk; potential benefits from incentives, options, etc.; and retirement considerations. At mid-career and beyond, your pension and possibilities for building a nest egg assume more importance as your future working years become limited.
Two factors most influential in the size of a pension are length of service and salary. And in general, higher salaries in the years just before retirement are worth more in accumulating pension credits. If your pension is based on a formula using your last few years' earnings, there is a double incentive to work as long as possible. Also the company's practice concerning when you have to retire may be a high priority for you (although legal requirements are making it more difficult for companies to retire people before age 70).
Many people no longer make decisions on a new job largely on the basis of their future careers. Where and how you and your family want to live is also an important consideration. A move from a place that has been happy for your family can exact a price that's far too great to pay for any job. Lots of travel, long hours, and undue pressure also can have a major impact on your family-whether or not you still have any children at home. Another key factor is the opportunity to pursue other interests that may become more important to you as retirement approaches.
Make a list of your job requirements. Then select the eight or ten most important items and put them in priority order.
Evaluating career alternatives
Now select the three or four key types of jobs that you would like to consider. There are a number of things you could do with your particular expertise. Most of them will be closely related to what you have done, but don't overlook occupations you have had a yearning for. You may now have the chance of a lifetime to do something quite different. And it might cause a complete change for the better in your career.
You undoubtedly know quite a bit about these career alternatives. You may think you understand them well, and you may. On the other hand, if you have not been in such a role before, you may not appreciate the realities of it. It is particularly important that you do so before you make what may be the most important career decision of your life.
When you talk to people about the reality of working in each of the fields you select, you may find that you don't have as clear an understanding as you thought. Find people on these and related jobs and ask them questions. What are the chances of somebody like myself getting such a position? What is it like on a day-to-day basis? What kind of salary can I expect immediately and in the future? Talk to someone who has been unsuccessful in the field. Be realistic about all the negatives (as well as the positives) of each career alternative.
The results of your research may change your views. You may want to revise your list of requirements and their priorities.
Now prepare a table comparing your revised job requirements with each of your career alternatives. This will help you make a logical decision. The table covers much more than what is conventionally thought of as your job objective. You will see later how it is summarized for use in your resume and in interviews.
