Strategically build a career worth having

We live in a world of significant levels of disengagement in the work place where recent studies have gone as far as concluding that more than 75% of Australians are feeling disengaged and disconnected with/from their work.

How is this explained ?  Certain known 'extrinsic' factors appear to contribute of course  eg economic uncertainty, stalled wage growth, industry disruption, Covid setback , technological change, stress, burnout, isolation, company performance and cost cutting measures putting unreasonable pressures and demands on employees etc .  

However. from working with Executives and professionals over the years, I think a healthy component of the true answer is more straight forward and “intrinsic” namely “the challenge of how one proactively designs a satisfying and fulfilling career in todays’ complex and rapidly changing  professional and corporate environments as opposed to simply adopting traditional salary maximization and linear advancement as the singular career planning goal “.

Through my Career Advisory work, I’ve gained some insights into what’s lacking in the traditional approach to career planning and here are some observations and suggestions on how professionals can create careers with an ongoing sense of purpose and meaning.

1.      See your career as a series of stepping stones not a linear trajectory

There’s an implicit view that careers are still linear. Sure lots of people accept that the concept of the career 'ladder' is broken but so many still focus only on increasing the ‘slope’ of their career trajectory. They wait until they are unhappy and then look around for opportunities that seem better than their current job, apply for a few, cross their fingers and take the best option they can get. Then they toil away until they are unhappy again and the cycle repeats. Though this approach can increase your salary over time, studies show that once you make more than say $200,000, more money doesn’t correlate to significant increases in happiness or emotional well-being.

So many people end up with a career path of somewhat arbitrary events that at best is a gradually improving wandering path and at worst is just a series of unfulfilling jobs.

The solution to this unfulfilling cycle ? Let go of the idea that careers are linear. These days they are much more like a field of stepping stones that can extend in several directions. With each position,  job or project available to you and you can move in any direction you choose. The art is simply to choose to move to stones that take you closer and closer to what is meaningful  to you. There is no single path rather a good number of options that can lead to fulfillment.

2.       Seek Legacy, Mastery and Freedom - in that order

There are three primary attributes of finding and doing fulfilling work :

Legacy : a higher purpose, passion, mission or cause. This means knowing that in some way – large or small - the world will be a better place when you’ve done your work

Mastery : this refers to the art of getting better and better at skills and talents that you enjoy using to the extent that they become entwined with your identity

Freedom : The ability to choose who you work with, what projects you work on and where and when you work each day and getting rewarded sufficiently for the life style you desire.

The order is important. People progress to  fulfillment most efficiently and effectively when they first prioritize the impact they want to have (their legacy) then understand which skills, talents and capabilities are key (mastery) and finally exchange their purpose and skills for higher reward and flexibility (freedom) as they develop, grow and advance,

People don’t typically have 1 purpose. The things you are passionate about whether eg the environment, health, early childhood education, organic food or renewable energy are likely to evolve overtime. Developing a high degree of freedom allows you to define and hunt down your purpose again as and when it can float on to the next thing. This means being able to volunteer on the side, maybe go months at a time without getting a pay check or invest in yourself in unusual professional development opportunities.

3.      Treat your career like a grand experiment – with a dash of science or planning

 In my experience, people who are  successful in finding and maintaining meaningful and fulfilling work approach their careers like a grand experiment or adventure. All of the things you think you know about what you are passionate about and want to be doing , what you are good at , what people want to hire you to do (and at what salary), how different organizations operate etc are hypotheses to be validated or invalidated with evidence – either from first hand experience , trying something (bite-sized projects) or second hand from asking the right questions of the right people.

The faster and more economically that you can research and validate your career hypotheses and options, the sooner you’ll find fulfillment. You don’t have to take a job in a new industry, role, function or vocation even  to realize it’s not for you. You can learn a lot about lines of potential work - whether Corporate or Entrepreneurial - from reading on-line, having conversations through Networking, engaging a Mentor, taking on side projects and volunteering.

 And a bonus - by doing your homework on what’s actually a good fit for you, you won’t waste time considering roles you are not competitive for. And like any good scientist, you’ll achieve a healthy detachment from your incorrect hypotheses they are just par for the course after all of the discipline of research , experimentation and collecting evidence.

The word “grand” is used to describe this experiment because the reality is that your career is not just a way to earn a living. It’s your chance to discover “what you are here for” and “what you love”. It’s your best shot at improving the world in a way that is important to you. It’s a sizeable component of your overall human experience in a very real way so as such it should be an adventure with a healthy bit of magic and mystery along the way.

So as you take the stepping stones and pursue paths to meaningful and fulfilling work –be sure to enjoy the “journey” , don’t give up and don’t settle. Move from  working as a “means to an end” to working with a “meaning to the end” .

And  consider the ancient proverbs : “the windiest roads make the best travelers” and “no road is long with good company”. So maybe even partner with a Career Mentor to journey with you for a while to help you as you chart and navigate the stepping stones and path to your fulfillment.