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How Much Do You Expect From Your Job? By Joyce Lain Kennedy Dear Joyce: I am college educated, 33 years old, have held six jobs, hate my current position and have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. I have seen a career counselor, taken tests and read books and I remain clueless. What now? -- C.L. Dear C.L: You may need to work with another career counselor. Or you may need to acquire a vastly greater knowledge of the types of occupations available. You don't say which occupations you've tried, but possibly you expect more from your work than it can deliver.
Changing Expectations Back then, after the Great Depression, college-primed job seekers were focused on security and paying the bills. They were content to allow their work lives to be directed by someone else. Few expected work to provide psychic income. That need was met through leisure relationships with family, community, nature and God. Last century's work-as-work viewpoint was typical, but not universal. Some thinkers and writers have long urged people to want more from their labor than a paycheck. In an earlier column, for instance, I urged readers to "Do something you'd do for nothing. Do something that makes you feel vital and excited and alive -- not merely survive as a shell of a wasted life." Fast forward to today. The work-as-passion philosophy is now a familiar value in the technology-skewed workplace. People frequently speak of wanting to grab onto inner-directed work that provides self-actualization and purpose -- the kind of work you'd do for nothing. Author Dinesh D'Souza ("The Virtue of Prosperity") describes inner-directed work as that which permits you to create something new or something that is an expression of yourself -- which can be immensely rewarding. What about security and money? Security is history, and talented job seekers simply expect good pay. It's no longer an oddity to come across high performers who plan to get rich and retire by age 35 or 40. (After the implosion of the dot-com bubble, the old sales saw about pricing comes to mind: asking ain't getting.) So what are your aspirations in these changing times? Are you looking for inner-directed work but settling for Dilbert-farm jobs? Could that be why you've bounced around? What, exactly, do you expect?
Choice Advice 1. Before making a career choice, find out all of the things you will have to do in an occupation, and which things take most of your time. (Avoid surprises; seek agreements to "shadow" individuals in the target occupation for a day or two.) 2. Choose because you like the work, not solely because of the rewards in money or prestige. (But remember poet Ogden Nash's observation: "People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up." Not precisely true but close enough.) 3. Choose a field where there is likely to be an active demand for workers when you are ready to be hired. (Track occupations online and in business news; join a niche online discussion group for the occupation.) 4. Choose an occupation that uses your abilities; avoid those that require abilities you do not possess. (Do you know what your abilities are? Ask friends. Write down every single ability.) 5. Do not confuse interest and ability. (Not every basketball hopeful can score baskets. The dark side of advice to "Do what you love and the money will follow" is disappointment.) 6. Do not choose an occupation because you admire someone else who chose it. (Mother Theresa could handle wretched poverty, but could you?) 7. Do not expect to find a job in which you will never have to do anything that you dislike. (Even powerful bosses hate laying off people.)
Invest Time Send career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007, or e-mail her at jlk@sunfeatures.com. Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible. ©2001 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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