I don’t think there is a “perfect job” for everyone. Simply because people are diverse. What is perfect for me might not be suitable for another person. Just like there is no “one perfect partner for everyone”, but it’s possible to find a perfect partner. The first step is to know yourself well.
Know yourself well
- What do you like to do? Why do you like it?
- What are you good at?
- What are you looking for from your work?
- What are your considerations? (e.g. flexibility, compensation, work style, job title, company culture, manager style, mentorship, resource, career growth, promotion opportunity, etc.)
Figure out what is needed in the market
Secondly, change is constant. As the job market evolves, what is needed in the market would change accordingly. Before the first iPhone was announced, we didn’t see UX roles as popular as today. And that was not too long ago.
Understanding what is needed in the current job market and considering the economic situation both help you identify the roles that are in high demand.
Listing down what you like & dislike about current role
If you are currently working on a role, listing down things you like and dislike about the current role, and what are you looking for for the next step in your career. Breaking down things you like into “things you want to continuously keep forward”, and “things that are good to have”. And breaking down things you dislike into “things that are unacceptable” and “things that are acceptable if there are greater benefits to stay”.
For me, there are three things to be considered when switching job:
Cost of switching, which is what I enjoy in my current role.
Opportunity from the new role, which is potentially what I can get from the new role.
Opportunity cost, which is what I need to sacrifice if I decide to receive or reject an opportunity.
Commonly it’s a tough decision. Almost all the crucial decisions in life are tough. If the pros and cons are so obvious, it wouldn’t be hard to make that decision. We always can only make the best possible decision based on the information that we can access at any point of the time.
Regularly listing down the factors mentioned above. so that when an opportunity comes, you’ll know what to evaluate in the interview and in all the interactions with the company and hiring manager. You’ll be able to form the assumptions about the potential opportunity brought by the new role, and verify with the hiring manager. Or making sure “things that are unacceptable” would not happen in the new organization.
Changing a job takes lots of effort. The more you know what you want the more possible you’ll find a role that you want to stay longer.
Planning career is similar to playing online game
I find this metaphor helpful when explaining my idea of a career path to others. When playing an online game, along the path the player collects different treasures and practices different skills. Sometimes the actor collects a treasure before he needs it. Sometimes he lacks a specific skill when the skill is needed. Sometimes the actor fights with smaller monsters and wins. Sometimes the actor loses the fights. When the actor loses a fight, he can either try one more time, collect new treasure, train his skills, or escape from the monster and switch to another direction. The more he practices, trains, and collects treasures, the stronger he becomes, and the higher chance he will conquer the ultimate monster. All the hard work will transfer to his strength and prepare him for bigger challenges.
Escaping and switching direction is one of the options, applicable to career too. As long as it’s an intentional decision. You can imagine that if the player keeps switching direction whenever the actor meets a monster in the game, he can hardly enjoy the game. Sacrificing the fun factor in a game isn’t a big deal. But not being able to accumulate learnings along the career has the invisible cost, which might impact your later career growth.
Identify your ideal job
Know yourself well, observe the market, plan your career ahead, and grow your capability. Identify a clearer picture of your ideal job, so that you can find it!
Learnings form 50+ mentorship practice in 2022
In the year of 2022 I took time talking to people who are interested in topics around Product, Design, Research, Career, Asia, etc. After 50+ conversations, I want to write down what I learned from these conversations.
