How to Get Ahead Without Murdering your Boss (14 page)

Reflect on your past career positions. What were the reasons you chose your current profession or area of work?

Did you make a clear choice or simply fall into a job or course of study because it was easy and available?

How much influence did your parents or other people close to you have on that decision?

If you've had more than one job, what prompted you to make the change each time?

Exercise 1F: Career options

We all have thoughts and ideas about our future. Some of these options may seem unrealistic or dreamlike; some might be in new fields or involve self-employment; others might be with your current employer if you are happy where you are and would like to maintain your positioning. It's likely some of these options will develop into immediately achievable short-term goals; others may be more relevant to a mid- to long-term plan; and others may be eliminated as "not right for me". Whatever the case, it is important to put these ideas down on paper so that they can be explored in more detail throughout the planning process.

Jot down all your current career options, including everything that you've thought about, no matter how crazy and unrealistic it might seem.

Improve your self-understanding of your identity by considering the following areas:

Exercise 1G: Values

Values are those ideals and beliefs that you care deeply about.

• They are indicated in your goals, attitudes, interests, feelings, activities and behaviour, and define what is important to you — what gives meaning to your life?
  
• They form the basis on which you make choices and decisions about what you will and will not do, and therefore, are important to your career decisions.
  

Each of us has developed a unique system of values that determines how we feel about our work and the contribution it makes to society. Extensive research has found that individuals who pursue work that is congruent with their values feel satisfied and successful in their careers. If you choose to pursue a career in an organisation with requirements or culture that are at odds with your values, you will not be happy with the choice. Being in such a position can result in discontent, sickness, depression, anger and a sense of disappointment. Relating your values to your work decisions and choices helps you determine your reasons for wanting to work, the characteristics of occupations that are appealing to you and your career goals.

The first table below is a list of values that relate to career choices. Select 10 values that are most important to you and number them in order of importance on a scale of 1 through 10, with 1 being the most important value and 10 the least important.

Use the second table to think about your work and how you currently live your values. Which values are met by your current work situation? For example, if you chose autonomy, and you are currently being micro-managed by a boss who won't let you make any decisions, then that value is not being met.

Exercise 1H: Task analysis

List all the tasks and functions that are part of your current role and identify the proportion of your time spent doing them (Note: Things you dislike doing, even if they are things you are good at, should not comprise more than ten percent of your work time.)

Exercise 1L: Skills development

Think about your top five current skills, for example, problem solving, coaching, analysing, and list them below. Now think about the skills you would like to develop in the future and list them to be developed.

Exercise 1J: Resumé

Update your resumé with new qualifications, professional development, skills and current achievements. If you don't have a resumé, consider using some of the free online services to develop one or engage the services of a career coach.

Exercise 1K: Personality preferences

Personality profiles add value to the assessment phase of a career strategy in determining your fit with your work environment.

If you have undertaken leadership or personality profiling, review your profiles and note down your strong preferences and motivators.