How can you create a successful and fulfilling career in the 21st Century?
The traditional post-war model of a job for life and relying on a company to provide for retirement has rapidly crumbled over the last couple of decades. We’ve all been impacted by revolutions in technology, logistics and communications that have created a global economy. Many leading thinkers argue that the traditional definition of a career is dead including Reid Hoffman, CEO of Linkedin:
“I actually think every individual is now an entrepreneur, whether they recognize it or not. . . . Average job length is two to four years. That makes you a small business. . . . You are the entrepreneur of your own small business. How do you get to your next gig? How do you do your career progression? All these things now fall on the individual shoulders.”
This change of mindset challenges us to be much more active in managing our careers. It is important to assess the rewards of our current role and ensure that they are the best ones for our personal small business. The revolutionary changes in the world mean we have more career options than ever before. If your current role is not giving you what you need, it might be time to start considering the next direction to take your enterprise.
As an individual entrepreneur, the first step in making a change is to understand which rewards are most important to us. Career rewards include:
· Financial reward – work allows us to earn money which provides short term quality of life and the opportunity to plan for the long term
· Balance – certain roles require more personal commitment of time, and energy to be successful, others leave more time for other personal priorities
· Benefits – different roles allow us to work full time or part time, be more or less flexible in location and hours, take more or less vacation, provide healthcare and other services or not and provide other perks
· Meaning and fulfillment – choosing work that provides personal fulfillment and feels meaningful and important can provide huge personal satisfaction and pleasure
· Culture – we can choose whether to work in a big or small organisation, whether we are part of a hierarchy or flat structure, and many other considerations
Think about what is most important for you with your work?
Traditionally, work has sometimes been seen as a means to an end – a pay cheque that allows us to put a roof over our head and if we’re lucky enjoy some of the better things in life. As a personal entrepreneur, you get to choose how to employ your talents and time and what rewards you get for that.
My personal choice was to take a less orthodox path and to start my own coaching business, leaving a good job in the corporate world behind. This has certainly meant a short-term sacrifice of financial reward, and benefits. In return, I’ve found work to be truly meaningful and been able to create a flexible working culture I love. At the time of leaving the corporate world, it felt like a risky path, however the immediate benefits and the long-term potential rewards outweighed the risk for me.
As in my example, the choices you make about the rewards of work come with accompanying risks that need to be assessed as you take control of your career path. However, Reid Hoffman believes that the reality of these risks has changed:
“But I think that one of the key things — the reason why I think risk tolerance is important is because what happens is people delude themselves they’re not taking risks. They say, oh, I’m going to get a job at, you know, Hewlett-Packard or I’m going to get a job — and that’s not risky. Well, look at current economic climates. Everything in life has some risk, and what you have to actually learn to do is how to navigate it. And people who take risk intelligently can usually actually make a lot more progress than people who don’t.”
As the CEO of Me Ltd. you have a choice about where you employ your talents. Taking time to realistically identify the short-term and long-term rewards and the associated risks can really help to make smart choices. The key lesson is that you need to be actively planning the direction of Me Ltd. as the world changes. By doing so, you give yourself the best chance of having a successful and fulfilling career in the 21st Century.
Are you ready to change career but don't know where to start?
Then the brand new Careershifters Guide is designed for you.It will take you step-by-step through the career change process with practical exercises and expert guidance on how to figure out the career that suits you best through to the practicalities of making the change happen (even when you have a mortgage to pay and family to feed!).
