Career Satisfaction
Job Search Tips December 2002
If you are having trouble finding a job perhaps it is time you start searching for Career Satisfaction.
Psychology Today reports that at least 30 percent of career satisfaction is attributable to intrinsic inner rewards related to genetic factors, as is 50 percent of our happiness and 80 percent of our stability. Genetic makeup has even been reported to partly explain why we change careers and how often we change careers.
On the other hand, for decades career experts attribute our level of career satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our circumstances in terms of how well our abilitities, interests, and aptitudes coincide with our opportunities to express them, not to genetics.
The other problem with genetics is that most of us perceive genetic programming as a limiting factor and somewhat carved in stone and unchangeable. This would indicate the need to change our thinking regarding genetics. For example, instead of looking at genetics as a limiting factor we should think of our internal genetic programming as a mechanism akin to a reliable inner compass. Using this framework, our inner compass can serve to guide us, through any number of changes, as well as new and satisfying career choices. It makes sense to do what comes naturally, and to do what feels comfortable. It also makes sense that in an economic downturn such as the one we are facing now, that we should exploit the slow down in the job market and seek to do work that just comes naturally, which would include tasks, duties, and responsibilities that we really enjoy and can thrive on - this strategy may just lead us to what we have always been looking for in terms of Career Satisfaction.
Being Jobless and Happy
Being jobless and happy may sound like a contradiction in terms to some but career experts are adamant about the fact that negativity is more than obvious to a prospective employer. And, that negativity is conveyed unconciously, in tone of voice, posture, as well as in the way a job seeker answers questions on an interview. Also, the experts agree that happy, positive and optimistic job seekers are more likely to receive more job offers than those who are depressed, angry, and under obvious financial strain.