Vexing Question of Career Options

Yesterday I got into a discussion that was about something positive which raises so many questions. In these blog conversations, I have written a lot about things which relate to difficulties because maybe something positive is not happening and one experiences what I call “growth dilemmas”. However, when I had to ask myself in this conversation as to how would I deal with a situation where I had too many possible career or job options, some of which I would never have thought about, I realised also that positive developments may bring their own dilemmas.

Various questions come to me. How do I know which option is best for me? What if something may look best but something else could be better? If I also had a very good current job, why would even such options entice me? Why would I even start thinking about them at all?

Suddenly I realised that the answers to these questions are not easy. Actually, as I write this, I think you as the reader might be disappointed because I am not sure if I can provide answers. There are no easy answers, but maybe a framework exists. I invite you, as you read this, to share with us how you would or normally deal with this situation.

Carlos Ghosn (Chairman & CEO of Renault and Nissan respectively) highlights three simple yet important elements that one should consider when taking such career decisions. One is to do something that you like or have a passion for. Secondly, it is to do something in an environment that you like. He then adds that you need to go for something where you are able to experience diversity (find him on LinkedIn Pulse http://www.slideshare.net/LinkedInPulse/carlos-ghosns-crazy-good-career-advice).

One thing that is clear to me is that opportunities will not come the way we expected them, at the time we expect them, and from the sources we expected. They will come because, as it happens in life, those who need each other tend to find each other. Yes companies may use tools like recruitment processes to get there, but they are trying to find those that they need. And those of us in employment are looking for the companies that need us. And why do they need us and why do we need them? Maybe those questions are really the basis of the framework for a solution in addition to what Ghosn talks about.

A lot of us tend to only want to focus on a company, its brand and the title or position of the job that presents itself as a career opportunity. The greatest challenge, though, is coming to terms with who you are. An opportunity may come because of a technical qualification and some work you may have done. But in essence it is critical to think of who you are or who you have become through your life experience.

What is it that drives you and you know you can do? What is the kind of environment that you need in order to be able to do that? These are your needs and any opportunity needs to satisfy these needs. Of course you need a good paying job, but I have found that this is not the first question one should ask or worry about. This is essentially because your knowledge of what you are worth for such an opportunity will arise after a conversation with those who are presenting it to you, and their sense of your value will also come after such a conversation.

But then you may ask, how do I get to know what drives me and the environment that I want? I would argue that most of us know this; we just refuse to spend time creating the clarity about it in our minds. We get driven a lot by what others define life should be about, and we make decisions because that is what others want us to do. When the simple thing should have been deciding based on what we like. Of course this is written from the perspective of too many options. We need a complementary discussion as to what to do when we have too few options and we need to find employment just as a sheer necessity.

Vexing questions. No simple answers.