Those of us in the sandwich generation are slap bang between two paradigms. The boomers were intensely loyal to organizations and generally stayed in one place unless they had to move. Those in their twenties and thirties are more loyal to their career goals than to a particular organization and many will move in a heartbeat to follow an interesting career goal. Those of us in the middle are less loyal to a particular organization but are not quite as mobile as the younger generation. We are not necessarily wired to consider whether a job brings us all of the happiness and fulfilment that we are looking for.
I happen to love my job but unfortunately the same is not true for many people. Many of us end up in jobs by default and we may never leave those jobs even if we don’t enjoy them. The longer we stay the more difficult it becomes to entangle ourselves. Or we might worry about what others might think if we leave what seems to be a perfectly good job. Of course there are also the financial considerations involved in leaving a job. On the other hand while changing jobs too often used to be frowned upon it’s now quite acceptable to change jobs to find the perfect fit. But what’s the fit? I came across a great set of questions that can help you to come up with your own answers:
1. What is your definition of meaningful work? – Meaningful work is work that has purpose and fulfilment for you. It’s often those times when you are most joyous at work
2. How closely does your current work align with your definition of meaningful work?
3. What’s going well at this moment? Think about those aspects of your life that are going well – personal and professional. The idea is that gratitude is a prerequisite for making positive changes
4. What changes do you want and need to make?
5. Are you ready for the journey?
Source: http://workreimagined.aarp.org/manage-your-career/5-key-questions-for-career-changers/?Outbrain=obinsite
The answer to these questions may lead some of us to make drastic career changes while others of us may probably just need to make a few tweaks to what we’re doing. We may choose to move from doing work in the private sector to doing the same work for an NGO for example. In other situations it might mean reorganizing our work responsibilities so that we do more of what is meaningful and less of what is not. For example those of us who have some seniority may find that we want to spend more time mentoring and developing others and that will mean making some changes to our core responsibilities. Others of us may want to make a lateral move in our organizations so that we can work at what excites us and to just what we are good at. Still others of us may take the leap into running our own businesses.
Making these changes can be quite challenging and it is important to anticipate confusion, anxiety and doubt. Roman Krzanric gives this piece of advice to those of us who are considering making a career change: Ask successful career changers how to overcome the fear and most say the same thing: in the end you have to stop thinking and just do it. That may be why nearly all cultures have recognised that to live a meaningful and vibrant existence, we need to take some chances—or else we might end up looking back on our lives with regret (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_tips_for_making_the_leap_to_meaningful_work)
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
middlingthrough 