Working World - Career Transition

While growing up is fun, one of the hardest rights of passage is the task and responsibility for making your career decision. How do people make career decisions anyway? Just look at the people around you and ask. You’ll be surprised at how many just “fell” into their career while others joined the ranks of a profession only to find they didn’t enjoy their chosen field. As well, some professions weren’t even in existence when people graduated from school.

Take me for instance. My high school didn’t offer any career guidance whatsoever. Students couldn’t see beyond their parent’s worklife and soon followed in their footsteps. Career choices seemed to be limited to teaching, nursing or secretarial work. I was quite lucky in that my job over four summers consisted of a variety of clerical tasks in a hospital setting. And it didn’t take long to determine that neither secretarial nor nursing were careers I wanted to pursue. So what was left? Teaching! And frankly, I made that decision based on the fact I liked my uncle Jack who was a school superintendent at the time. How silly! How unfortunate!

You see, although I attained an excellent job and continued to acquire three university degrees, I was never fully happy in my teaching career. There was something missing but I didn’t know what it was. Finally, I was able to identify my key life drivers and soon recognized these critical elements of my happiness were not being satisfied within the formal education system. I found I was the kind of person who needed more autonomy and independence, a variety of challenges and an entrepreneurial work environment. And once I was able to satisfy these motivators, full career happiness returned.

Now with years of experience counseling individuals on their career change, I have found that understanding and satisfying personal motivators is more powerful in creating personal happiness than understanding your personal communication style. Edgar Schein identified eight career anchors that motivate people in their choice of careers. My own experience suggests that you must seek to satisfy a minimum of three drivers or you will not be happy. These career anchors include:

Autonomy and Independence

This refers to the need and desire to have control over your work. Typically an individual has a difficult time with rules and procedures and wants to do things their own way. They just want to be given instructions and left alone to do their job. Individuals with this career anchor typically choose professions with alot of autonomy.

Technical/Functional – Individuals with a technical/functional career anchor enjoy using a core set of knowledge and skills and like to build on their expertise. They like to be challenged and enjoy demonstrating their expertise.

Managerial competence – these individuals don’t want to specialize because it is seen as too limiting; they enjoy authority and responsibility and want to train and direct others. Individuals with this career anchor typically seek out jobs with a high level of responsibility.

Security/stability – some individuals like a safe, secure environment and are motivated by stability and security. They don’t like risk taking and strive for employment in large, stable companies where predictability is paramount.

Entrepreneurial creativity – individuals with this career anchor are typically high energy and who love challenge and change. They are excellent multitaskers and can juggle many balls in the air at once.

Sense of service/dedication to a cause – an individual with a strong sense of service typically wants to make the world a better place. On the other hand, an individual can also be motivated by a special project that has a high personal value.

Pure challenge – Some individuals are motivated by challenge, overcoming obstacles, conquering problems, or competing to win. They are constantly testing themselves and require a good deal of variety to keep them happy.

Lifework balance – This individual has a high need to balance work and homelife. While they enjoy work, they don’t let work take over their life but rather they focus on integrating all the parts of their life effectively.

Whereas this month’s magazine is focusing on the public health sector, you might want to explore how your career anchors can be used as a key decision making tool to select where you might fit within the public health field. According to the American Public Health Association, there are over 50 different occupations within this field ranging from chiropractic, community health planning and policy development, injury control and emergency health services to maternal and child health. As can be expected, these professions exist within hospital, government and business settings.

The key strategy for making a career decision is taking your time. In other words, don’t let parents and friends press you into making a decision you’ll regret. And finally if possible, engage in a broad range of studies within a chosen field before you decide to specialize. This allows you to stay open to a wider variety of opportunities and enables you to move into a new career direction much easier in the future.