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A ‘job for now’ rather than a ‘career for life’
How often do you ask yourself whether or not you are in the right job, work or career? Do you feel that you are not fulfilling your purpose, aligned with your strengths or simply wasting your time in a dead-end role? Maybe you have a ‘job for now’ and when you accept this, you can start to move forward…
By Sue Ellson BBus MIML MAHRI MPC CDAA ASA WV FIGT
I spent three years of my life reading books to decide on what I would do next with my career. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the answers I wanted. Fortunately, I created a decision-making framework so that when I contemplated my options or was made an offer after that time, I could use my personalised framework to make a congruent decision.
However, as a Career Development Practitioner, I have met a lot of clients who are at a crossroads trying to decide what to do next with their job, work or career. It can be very challenging when they are not clear about their core values, their natural and acquired strengths and their current context.
Current Context
When you are in ‘crisis’ mode, desperate for an immediate income, recognition or even the need to be busy, it is very difficult to rationally evaluate your options.
When worrying about how you can pay your bills, overcoming the complexities of mental or physical health or adjusting to life after a significant life event, it is not easy, or even realistic, to be thinking about a ‘career for life.’ It is much more appropriate to think about ‘a job for now.’
A job for now
A job for now is not designed to be a job for life. It could turn into a job for life if you find a way to align it with your life goals. However, I am suggesting that it can give you enormous relief and comfort if you see it as a temporary option to help you manage a particular challenge or challenges you are facing right now.
For example, you could be:
- recovering from a health condition
- new in town and re-establishing yourself
- recently retrenched and adjusting to life post a long-term role
- semi or fully retired and interested in returning to work
