Career Advice: Are You Satisfied With Your Job?

It’s a good idea to step back at least once each year to take an honest inventory of the satisfaction you derive from your job. The year-end lull that usually occurs for most jobs is a good time to do that.

Here are some questions that provide the framework for a personal career inventory.

1. Are you proud to tell people about your job and to be associated with your employer?

2. Are you making your best effort?

3. Do you receive regular feedbacks from your boss as to what’s expected of you and how you are performing?

4. Do you have a plan for your career? Have you a clear picture of the next steps on your career path and what you need to do to take them? Have you felt free to discuss your ambitions with your boss?

5. Have you had an opportunity to grow in responsibility and compensation during the past year? Have you improved your skills and your performance? Have you received any formal training?

6. Does the outlook for your employer bode well for your opportunities to achieve career success?

7. Are you satisfied with your total compensation?

8. Are you treated fairly by your boss and the organization that employs you?

9. Given the responsibilities of your job are you able to maintain a healthy balance between work and your personal life?

10. Do you have any problems in your relationships with your boss and/or your associates at work that interfere with your job performance? How about relationships outside work?

11. Do you understand how your job contributes to the overall success of your employer? Do you feel you are recognized and properly rewarded for your role?

12. Do you maintain career-related contacts extend beyond the scope of your present job?

13. Considering these questions, how do you rate your overall satisfaction with your job? Very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, so-so, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied?

14. Is your dissatisfaction constant or periodic?

Only in the rarest instances will you ever be completely satisfied with your job. But you can strive for that goal.

Use the findings from this review to improve your level of satisfaction. There are three avenues available to you. Change the environment where your can, accept those conditions that you can’t change, or move to a different job if your dissatisfaction is so extreme that it is damaging your
career.

I wish you great career success in 2009.

Ramon Greenwood, Head Career Coach
Common Sense At Work