Чужие мечты: как понять, что вы строите не свою карьеру

Modern career attitudes suggest that success depends not only on whether you have time to develop and demonstrate relevant competencies, but also on how well you know your own strengths and are in an environment that supports and develops them. The main difficulty in finding the best profession for yourself is that very often our career guidelines and what actually motivates us and gives us pleasure at work (career motives) do not coincide. What really engages us and what literally burns our eyes does not seem to us the path to success.

According to Swedish company Decision Dynamics, a successful career is often shaped by the environment, family and culture of the country where we grow up. That is, we often build the career of someone else's dream, our parents, for example. And according to RosExpert research, 40.5% of professionals are sure that success is necessarily a manager's career and the higher they rise in the corporate hierarchy, the happier they will feel. However, according to Decision Dynamics, there are four types of successful careers.

A career of the "Expert" type is when a person identifies himself with the profession so seriously that he does not admit the possibility that his specialty will change during his life. For example: "I am a doctor", "I am an engineer." Power-type careers build professional success by climbing the ladder as high as possible. People with a career of the “self-realization” type are said to “open their careers” by moving horizontally and mastering new functions and roles, supplementing their competencies with new, related skills and applying their experience from different angles. If you look at a resume for a Diversity career type, you might feel like there is no career, as you will see an incredible bunch of diverse functions, roles, industries, and companies that are not connected in any way.

Each of these types of careers has its own advantages, carries a certain set of properties and character traits. “Experts” are focused on high quality, “authorities” are happy to compete for market share and strive for efficiency. Self-Realization celebrates teamwork and personal development, while Diversity is incredibly flexible and customer-focused. It is these factors that the employer links to the competencies that representatives of each type are likely to demonstrate vividly in their work.

Of course, this description of the concept is a simplification, but everyone should think about how the goal that you are now realizing came about. Was this an event in your life when, while doing something, you realized that you want to devote yourself entirely to this business? Or was it a kind and persistent advice from my mother: “Accountants always earn great money, go to the economic one!”. And then - take a closer look at your career. Ask yourself what is most important to you? Take a closer look at tasks and projects that may have taken a lot of effort and time, but in which you have succeeded. At what moments in your professional life did you feel that you are carried away, that you are moving to some qualitatively new level: what kind of context it was, what factors contributed to this, in what company and environment.

For example, if you were inspired by the recognition of the professional community, fellow experts and the opportunity to hone your skills for a long time, improve your skills by plunging into the details of the topic, your type is an “expert”. It is important for you to choose the environment and culture where you will have something to talk about with your colleagues. Companies that are focused on high quality and long-term development are suitable for you, a permanent contract, stability and transparency of remuneration will also be important factors.

If the soul sang when you had to overcome, fight, achieve, as well as when various attributes of promotion appeared - a personal office, access to meetings only for the elite, well, and you preferred to receive recognition of achievements in the form of a financial equivalent, your type of career is “power ". When choosing an employer, feel free to respond to the most ambitious, with plans to conquer the market on the scale of at least our universe, as well as with a clearly defined hierarchical structure so that you do not think that the "kingdom is not enough" too quickly.

If the biggest source of inspiration in a career was the people - the leaders and teams with whom you had to work; if the important question was not “what to do”, but “with whom”, then most likely you belong to the type of “self-realization”. Your desired environment is matrix structures, companies where project work is practiced and the company invests in employees and provides opportunities for personal development.

And finally, if the most important issue has always been independent decision-making, a large amount of personal space, and at the same time each project or task was completely new, unlike past projects, you are “diversity”. Run from persistence and routine into a culture of startups, seeking and creating new opportunities and services in the market.

Thus, try to understand what kind of work inspires and where your true desires are. This activity will bring joy, meaning and value to your contribution to each day, bring a sense of fulfillment and engagement. This "path to yourself" is the surest on the path to your personal success.