Happy Valentine’s Day – Rekindle your career romance!
This Valentine’s Day, we’re taking an un-conventional approach to the traditional message. We are encouraging candidates to focus on themselves and ensure they are in a role they truly love!
Did you know that Beauty Therapists and Personal Trainers are some of the happiest workers? Maybe it’s because they spend the whole of their working day with people who they are helping, making them feel good about themselves.
The Market Sector Specialists at GPRS spend all their day talking to candidates about what they like and dislike about their jobs. If they tend to like most things, they are unlikely to leave for another job. If they dislike most things, they are the candidates who are serious about making a career move.
If a candidate tells us they are unhappy at work we ask the reasons why.
The answers are usually quite similar:
- It takes me too long to get to work each day
- I don’t feel appreciated for the work I do
- I feel I’m underpaid for the work I do
- There is nowhere for me to progress to
- I’m working too many hours
- I don’t feel I’m being utilised to my full potential
The Market Sector Specialists then ask what they have done about changing the things they are unhappy about, and, in 9 out of 10 instances, the candidate says they have done nothing to change things. This is rather sad as there can be many things about the company, the job role and their manager that the candidate loves, and just a few things that the candidate doesn’t. Quite often these are things that, following a conversation with their line manager, could be changed so that they fall in love with their job again.
So, if you don’t love your job try the following:
- Make a list of all the things you love about your job
- Make a list of all the things you dislike about the job
Think about your job as a whole, what would need to change to make you love going to work everyday? Are these changes feasible? For instance, if you live 50 miles away from the job, it isn’t feasible that the company move closer to you is it?
If changing the things you don’t love about the job are feasible, think about going to your manager to see if anything can be done. Your manager might not even be aware of how you feel and may be able to change things for you.
It is human nature sometimes to become absorbed with the things we don’t love and distanced from the things we do. So, take some time and seriously think about your job and decide what it is you really love about your work? You might find that actually your job is better than you thought and you were allowing yourself to focus too much on the negatives and not enough on the positives. No job, no company and no manager is perfect.
And if you really don’t love your job and can’t see things changing, then you need to find a job that can enrich your life. Many people jump out of the frying pan into the fire; so do your homework. Life is too short!
Like a good relationship, a new career can be fun, rewarding and even a source of inspiration. But just as you don’t expect to find true love by tapping a stranger on the shoulder on Valentine’s Day, it pays to think carefully about what you want in a new job.
- Firstly, make a list of all the things that you want to find in a new job and use this as a focus when you apply for a new role. All good Recruiters should spend time finding out about what you are looking for so they can match you to your ideal role.
- Secondly, use the list of the things you want to prepare questions for your interview. The interview is as much about you finding a career that you will love, as it is for the interviewer to find if you are a candidate they will love.
- Thirdly, stay focused. Don’t allow other bits of the role to detract from what you really want to love about your new job.
Now be realistic. Is it really the job you don’t love or is there something in your personal life that is making you feel less than loved up about your work? If so, changing your job probably won’t help.
Sometimes we focus on the things about our life that we don’t love and forget about the things we do. This can make us feel disheartened and unloved! Rekindle your career romance today and really think about the things you already love about your current role, or the things you would love in a new job opportunity. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Love life, Live life, Love your job!
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