We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
-William Shakespeare
As time marches on, I get increasing clarity about what’s important to me, increasing ability discern to benefits and drawbacks to various opportunities, and increasing pressure to choose wisely. I’m sure that these are all normal things that we all go through, driven by normal maturation and acquired wisdom and even the economics of our stage in life. I also think some progress through this more rapidly than others, with some small minority having a solid grasp on their life’s values and focus before graduation from college, while most learn it later in life, whereas yet others (like many entrepreneurs, including myself) make this journey last a lifetime.
A while back IntenseDebate was acquired, and I found myself between gigs (again). As per usual, I took some time to introspect. I thought I would write down (belatedly) some of the criteria I thought about for my next job. As I read my list, I think it’s fairly predictable, and maybe the most interesting thing about it is what’s not on it. And I must say that perhaps if I’d listened to my mother would have arrived at this place some decades earlier.
Without further adieu, here’s my current list of what’s currently important to me in a job:
• I want my endeavors to make a difference. Life is short and mine is more than half over. No fooling around; get on with it.
• I want my endeavors to make a difference in a way that’s consistent with my personal values. When I was younger, this was important, but perhaps less so than other job attributes such as compensation, potential for learning, and potential networking. As I get on in my career, these latter things are fading while the importance of personal values is becoming almost dominant. (This makes perfect economic sense to me – ie compensation and opportunities are more important when you are younger – so I have no regrets about my career to date.)
• I want to work with people that I enjoy being around. I mean no disrespect to many of the awesome people I’ve been lucky to be around and learn from in my past; the list is long and I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate. However we all know that we spend an enormous amount of time at work with colleagues, and the “no assholes rule” is necessary but not sufficient. The bar is rising, and I increasingly want to enjoy and respect the people that I am surrounded by. (By the way, the Buddhist response to this is not lost on me – I do live in Boulder, after all!)
• I want enjoy what I do. This includes parts of the above, the ability to laugh with others frequently, and it also means the endeavor has to have the capacity to earn respect (at least from my mom if nobody else). I’ve had jobs where there was lots of money to be made but no respect to be gained. (I’m not talking about being an investment banker, but rather about my own experience running a managed service provider). I’ve earned respect from investors, and that’s great and important, but, in my experience, it’s not nearly as cool as getting meaningful accolades from a colleague or especially a customer.
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