Rina did what she thought she was supposed to. She had the marks, she had parents with great jobs in the industry, and so she jumped headfirst into a career in health sciences.
But Rina was unhappy. Despite it all making sense on paper, Rina found that she didn’t fit with the people she worked with and Rina certainly didn’t fit the role she found herself in.
She dreaded each day and wondered if this was what the rest of her working life was going be like.
Have you ever made a career decision for the wrong reasons, like Rina?
Doing what you’re “supposed” to is a mistake
Without understanding the key components of an enriching career, it’s easy to look to the wrong things when making important decisions.
Outside pressure and expectations from others can make this even harder and cloud our judgement.
That’s why my model for pinpointing an enriching career requires one thing: self-reflection. When you understand yourself well, it’s easy to find where you naturally fit and thrive.
That model is strengths + love + importance + money (SLIM).
A model for finding job enrichment
An enriched career only comes when a job satisfies four components for you:
- Strengths: these are what you are good at and are indicated by your skills and accomplishments.
- Love: this is what you love to do and is informed by your interests.
- Importance: this is what is most important to you, based on your values, motivations and the type of working culture you fit with.
- Money: this means a career that is financially viable for you to do.
Through her own self-reflection, Rina realised that social impact work would satisfy the components of the SLIM model for her. But to take things one step further and ensure that this would be a healthy career move for her, Rina did something smart. She tested the waters and took on a 6-month temporary position doing work overseas for a not-for-profit. And then everything fell into place. Rina went on to make a successful transition.
Would you like to cast off the expectations of others and find job enrichment, just like Rina?
My upcoming book shows you how! Subscribe/follow for updates and be one of the first to read it.
Keyword: job enrichment
