Your job will change ? no doubt about it. Knowing what gives you the greatest buzz can turn change to your advantage. It?s called job sculpting.
There have been countless studies on what makes people happy at work. Three things always come up: ability, values and life interests. Research on job sculpting in the October 1999 edition of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) suggests that life interests may be the most important factor.
Abilities are the skills, experience and knowledge you bring to a job. It?s what makes an employee feel competent, though you can be good at your job without being ?into it?.
Values are what you believe is important. It might be making pots of money, a desire for power or helping others. If your job doesn?t match your values you?re likely to become disenchanted, bored, less productive, or even quit.
Life interests are long-held, emotionally driven passions. HBR said a person usually has up to three. You can be good at a job and you can like the rewards, but it?s life interests that keep you happy and fulfilled. So what are they?
Application of technology
You may not be an engineer, but you?re intrigued by the inner workings of things, planning, analysis, systems and processes.
Quantitative analysis
You excel at running the numbers (HBR calls you a ?quant jock?). These people gravitate towards numbers regardless of their actual occupation.
Theory, development, quantitative thinking
You get a buzz thinking about abstract ideas. These people think about the big picture and look at a situation from 10,000m above.
Creative production
Handling lots of unknowns and making something out of nothing. Newness and making something original (whether words, ideas or products) are what you enjoy.
Counselling and mentoring
You get a kick out of guiding others to better performance. These people may not be teachers, but they?ll be drawn to roles where they can help others grow and improve.
Managing people and relationships
These people enjoy relationships too, but they?re after outcomes. You like motivating, organising and getting results.
Enterprise control
These are the organisers. You like to run projects or teams and to have responsibility.
Influence through language and ideas
You have a passion for expressing ideas. These people want an audience: they enjoy communicating through stories, negotiating and persuading.
So get to know yourself. If you know what your life interest is, then try to integrate it into your job.
You may be a mechanic with a counselling and mentoring passion. Get involved with training the new staff in your business or looking after the trainees. You may be in marketing, but love quantitative analysis. Get involved with the analysis of sales figures as part of your job.
Employers can often shape jobs to include the components that will keep staff happy.
That way you?ll keep motivated, and work will be something you want to get out of bed for!
This article is one of a series on future employment. The others may be found at
Unitec Institute of Technology- Future work
