Job satisfaction is not a utopian concept

In increasingly competitive world, people are driven to achieving goals at an early age. The drill pretty much starts when parents expect their toddlers to walk, talk, learn alphabets and potty train sooner than later. While parents don’t intend to pressurize their young children with their expectations, yet any delay in learning these basic skills discomforts them, may be rightly so. Burden of expectation however becomes a problem when this continues for things such as learning to bicycle, skate, music, painting etc. Further, in the beginning of secondary school, there is race to start early on preparation for college admissions, coaching classes, integrated courses, studying syllabi higher than one’s level and long study hours. The saga continues with targeting Ivy leagues for higher education, job in top companies and so on. More often than not, the focus is on “success” and staying ahead of the “herd”, and not on discovery of interests, personality and developing emotional quotient.

Countless number of researches have shown that globally “satisfaction” and “passion” have disappeared from the jobs over the last 2-3 decades, resulting in all kinds of problems such as depression among students and professionals, lack of motivation and stagnation in careers. For sizable proportion of professionals today, it is too late in the game when realization sets in that “Success is never complete, Satisfaction is more durable”. It will not be unfair to say that a large number of people are hiding their true identity at workplace as they never really looked at their work life as an extension of their core interests and where their personality preferences will bring out best in them. This however can change if pursuit of “Success” is replaced with “Satisfaction”.

Ever wondered how we land up in a situation like above? Sizable number of urban middle-class professionals complain about dissatisfaction in their jobs today and still fail to channel their young children into the direction of “Satisfying Careers”, albeit unknowingly. In India, most parents decide the stream of education for their children and therefore the eventual career choices they will have. This may be a recipe for a lucrative career but likely professional dissatisfaction. What is way forward then?

The need is to uncover and understand the interests and personality of the child and channel the energy in the direction where they are likely to be satisfied and therefore succeed. Overt focus on skills/ competency misses out the important aspect of social and emotional development, which is essential for individuals to navigate satisfactorily through work life.

Today, more than 75% of Fortune 500 organizations use psychometric assessments before selecting candidates for critical jobs. Same has been true for all Military Organizations in the world for ages. The focus is increasingly on ensuring that the candidate will be committed and satisfied with the things that will unfold in the career journey. More and more companies are adopting the same approach while recruiting for critical and mainstream jobs. The basic idea is to have people with natural affinity for the job and therefore sustained level of commitment and satisfaction. This is not a utopian thought.

What parents can control is to understand the personality of their children, identify the careers they are likely to be satisfied with and then channel them in the right direction. There are time-tested psychometric assessment models, based on empirical research, that help uncover personality and core interests of an individual, even at a young age. Some of them have been practiced since as early as second World War, to decide where in the organization a staff should be placed to maximize their effectiveness.

For professionals in early to mid-career who are stuck, it is not too late to discover their true calling, upgrade skills and transition into their career sweet spot. In fact, it is never too late so long as one is willing to sidestep their insecurities, as insecurities seldom play out in reality.

At Clarity, we help students and professionals to identify their “Best-Fit” career options, through a process completely devoid of bias. Our process is a combination of proven research-based models and expert career counselling to unclutter the decision making.

Register with Clarity and start your journey to a satisfying career.