Pathfinder Inquiry 2: How Well Does Your Present Career Fit?

[serenissima]

1. Go over this list. Check the statements that are true. If you check almost all of them, you are doing pretty well. The ones you left unchecked show where you could use some improvement. If you left several of them unchecked, you are in the wrong career; and you are reading the right book.

1. <input ... > You feel like a duck in a pond. Your work is a natural expression of your talents and personality.
   
2. <input ... > __ Your job fits you so well that, often, work is play.
   
3. <input ... > __ You are proud of what you do and enjoy telling other people about it.
   
4. <input ... > __ You are highly respected at work because you are so good at what you do.
   
5. <input ... > __ You do not have to pretend to be someone else at work.
   
6. <input ... > __ Your own best and most natural forms of creative expression are what you are paid to do.
   
7. <input ... > __ The environment you work in brings out your best efforts.
   
8. <input ... > __ You enthusiastically look forward to going to work most of the time.
   
9. <input ... > __ Your job rewards your most important values and allows you to fulfill your goals in terms of personal growth, achievement, income, stability, etc.
   
10. <input ... > ✓ The result of your efforts makes a contribution that personally matters to you. You don't spend your days working for something that you don't really care about.
    
11. <input ... > __ Your job directly fulfills your work-related goals. It does not create barriers to realizing your other goals.
    
12. <input ... > ✓ You like the people you work with.
    
13. <input ... > ✓ You are on a winning team that is having a great time getting the job done.
    
14. <input ... > __ A day on the job leaves you feeling energized, not burned out.

The only point that I entirely agree with is that I like my co-workers. The ones about "does my work matter to me" and "am I on a winning team" are mostly true.

2. Which of the unchecked statements do you want to have in your future career?
Isn't this about my ideal career? I want all the statements to be true!

3. What work have you done in the past that was fulfilling in ways that are missing from your present career? Think back and notice what was it that made it so satisfying?

This is only my second full time job: I haven't worked much. In college, I did some tutoring that I enjoyed because I could see how I was contributing to someone else's understanding. Also, I felt confident in my knowledge of the material and my ability to communicate it. The web work I did as summer jobs was not fulfilling because nearly anyone could have substituted for me. It did not require any talent, just some widely available knowledge. I would have enjoyed those jobs more if I had some expertise and was using it. My previous full time job was somewhat less generic, but still consisted of a lot of mindless routine most of the time.

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

This summer, I plan to contribute more to Nexus. However, I'll probably be doing a dull, repetitive job where I lift things and type lots of easily mixed-up information. What'll make the job good for me is how well I like the people there; I do well at repetitive tasks where I don't have to think much. Such jobs allow me to ponder other things while my body is being of use (and fetching me a paycheck).