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Overcoming
the Fear of Change
By P. Jeffrey North, Esq.
Managing Director, Juris Resources®
You and I are lucky - we live in a world rich in possibilities. Besides being able to
select from an unlimited variety of occupations, we also have the right to find happiness
in our daily work.
Naturally, everyone has a different definition of job satisfaction. For example, the job
that seems fine to you may not be of much interest your best friend, and vice versa. The
fact that you live in a free society gives you the privilege to decide your own fate. You
have as much power in determining where you work as you do in selecting a spouse, a home,
a car, or a pet. Your choice of jobs really depends on how much you want to shape your
career, and how much effort you're willing to spend to make the necessary improvements in
your life.
If you're considering a job change, it's probably for one of three reasons:
[1] Personal - You want to change your relationships with others. For example, you
may have discovered that you're incompatible with the people in your law firm or company.
Perhaps they have different interests than you; or they communicate differently or have
different educational backgrounds.
[2] Professional - You've determined the need to advance your career. For example,
you've found that you won't reach your professional goals in your present job; or that
your advancement is being blocked by someone who's more senior or more politically
oriented; or that you're not getting the recognition you deserve; or that you and your
firm are growing in different directions; or that you're not being challenged technically;
or you're not being given the skills you need to compete for employment in the future. Or
you've simply lost interest in your assigned tasks.
[3] Situational - Your dissatisfaction has nothing to do with personal
relationships or career development; it's tied to a certain set of circumstances. Maybe
you're commuting too far from home each day, or you're working too many hours, or you're
under too much stress; or you want to relocate to another city (or stay where you are
rather than be transferred).
Whatever your personal, professional, or situational reasons may be, you're motivated by
the desire to improve your level of job satisfaction and make a change.
A few years ago, when I packed up my bags and moved from Denver to Hilton Head Island my
decision had nothing to do with my career or the people I was working with. My
dissatisfaction was purely situational. I wanted to trade a high-stress, long-commute,
manic routine for a more livable, slower-paced lifestyle. (And by making the change, I
became a statistic in a larger demographic trend.)
The Complete Job Description
In order to translate your needs into results, let's begin by evaluating your present
position - it's the first step in any job change.
You'd be surprised how many people are unclear about what they actually do for a living,
and the way their jobs make them feel.
For example, whenever I interview a candidate, the first thing I ask for is a complete job
description.
"So tell me, Bonnie, " I begin. "What is it that you do at your present
company?"
"Gee, Jeff, I thought I told you already. I'm an in-house patent attorney."
"All right, fair enough," I reply. "But would you please describe to me in
detail the following two things:
- What are your daily activities? That is, how do you spend
your time during a typical day; and
- What are the measurable results your company expects from
these activities? In other words, how does your supervisor know when you're doing a good
job?"
Often, I discover that people are hard pressed to come up
with solid answers about the specific nature of their work. They're not exactly sure about
their job responsibilities, and their lack of focus results in stress or
counter-productivity.
While a little bit of stress may is natural in any job, a steady diet of it can destroy
your incentive to work. In fact, a recent study indicates a direct correlation between a
person's lack of task clarity and their level of job dissatisfaction.
Try this exercise: On a sheet of paper, write a complete, current job description in which
you list your daily activities and their expected, measurable results. This exercise will
not only help you clarify your own perception of your work; it'll be useful later on when
you begin to construct a resume and communicate to others exactly what you've done.
The Positive Power of Values
Once you've described all the facets of your job, the next step is to understand the
relationship between what you do and the way you feel.
I use the term values as a descriptor of personal priorities; as a yardstick to help you:
- Understand what types of work-related activities you really
enjoy;
- Determine which goals or accomplishments are important to
you and give you a feeling of satisfaction; and
- Evaluate whether your personal priorities are in balance, or
in harmony with your job situation.
Although it's fairly simple to decipher which daily tasks
you really enjoy, the task of scrutinizing your personal priorities can be tricky. That's
because there are often factors unrelated to your job that can come into play.
To demonstrate the importance of values in our decision-making process, consider the
following:
- I witnessed a job-seeker turn down a position because he was
an amateur athlete and he didn't like the air quality where my client company was located.
- Not long ago, I placed a candidate who was a long distance
runner. He took the position largely because his new boss was also a runner, and would
understand his need to take off work twice a year to run the New York City and Boston
marathons.
- I arranged for an attorney to take a job with a company that
offered him a demotion, since being highly visible within his current employer's law
department made him feel uncomfortable.
- I helped an attorney change to a lower paying job. The
reason? He was a member of the Olympic rowing team, and the new law firm was near a river.
The point is, we all have highly personal motivations which
guide our career choices.
The Job Description Makeover
Now that you know how to clearly define your values, the next step is to describe the
changes you'd like to make in your new job.
To illustrate, listen to the way Pat, Craig, and Neil talk about their respective
situations, and how they take their values into consideration:
Pat: "I want to have more autonomy where I work. That
would mean having a flexible schedule, working different hours each day at my discretion,
without having to ask permission. I'd be able to leave early on Thursdays to take my
daughter to her acting class, and in return, I'd be willing to spend several hours working
at home during the evening and on weekends. With my personal computer, I'd have access by
modem to my firm's email, and I'd be able to make a significant contribution to the
workload, any time, day or night. Most importantly, I'd be evaluated solely on my
performance, not by the number of hours I've punched on a clock."
Craig: "I'd prefer to work closer to my home. I didn't think the amount of time I
spent commuting was very important when I joined my law firm two years ago, but now it
really wears on me to sit for an hour a day in traffic. It's not only nerve-wracking to
deal with all the crazy people on the freeway; I could be using the commuting time to be
with my family. The reduction of stress would improve my attitude, and give me a higher
quality of life. If I could find a job similar to what I have now within a few minutes of
home, that would make me happy."
Neil: "I'm interested in my own career advancement. If I stay at this firm too much
longer, I'll work myself into a corner by doing just these kinds of cases and never
achieve my potential. The people here are nice, but I don't share their mentality. Look at
Ed, the partner for whom I work. He's been here 17 years, and although he's a really solid
attorney, he's not exactly on the cutting edge of new strategy developments. He'd have a
hard time finding another job in this market, and it makes me worried, knowing I might
someday be in his situation. So I'd better leave soon, while I'm still attractive to other
firms. That would give me the salary increase I deserve and the opportunity to learn new
skills with people who are upwardly mobile and aggressive like myself."
Now it's your turn. As any advocate of goal-setting will
tell you, the more specifically you're able to communicate what you're looking for, the
faster you'll be able to get what you want.
Naturally, you'll want to be realistic with your expectations, and think like a grown-up
when considering your gripes. I'll never forget Barry, an attorney candidate I interviewed
a few years back, who came into my office with a suicidal look in his eyes.
"Jeff, you've really got to help me," he moaned. "My job is ruining my
life."
"Your situation sounds pretty serious," I replied in my most empathic tone.
"How long have you felt this way?"
"Gosh, I don't know, but I've got to make a change. My personal life is awful."
"How do you mean, Barry?" I asked.
"I mean I'm never at home, and don't have any time to spend with my wife and kids. My
law firm makes me travel constantly."
"Well, I can see how that might make you feel torn between your work and your home
life. What can I do to help you?"
"See if you can get me a job where I don't have to travel all the time. I just can't
stand the separation from my family," he pleaded.
My heart went out to him. "Sure, Barry, anything to help. But first tell me
something. Exactly how often is your firm making you travel?"
"Oh, it's terrible," he cried. "They make me stay overnight in a hotel at
least one night every three months!"
Your Job-Changing Strategy
Someone recently asked me whether I helped people get "better" jobs or jobs that
made them happier. My answer was that the two were the same.
Of course, if you were to look at your career from a purely strategic point of view, I
could give you four good reasons why it makes sense to change jobs within the same or
similar industry three times during your first ten years of employment:
[1] Changing jobs gives you a broader base of experience: After about three years, you've
learned most of what you're going to know about how to do your job. Therefore, over a ten
year period, you gain more experience from "three times 90 percent" than
"one times 100 percent."
[2] A more varied background creates a greater demand for your skills: Depth of experience
means you're more valuable to a larger number of employers. You're not only familiar with
your current practice; you bring with you the expertise you've gained from your prior
employment with other law firms or companies.
[3] A job change results in an accelerated promotion cycle: Each time you make a change,
you bump up a notch on the promotion ladder. For example in the corporate world, you jump
from assistant general counsel to associate general counsel; in the law firm world, you
can jump ahead a class.
[4] More responsibility leads to greater earning power: A promotion is usually accompanied
by a salary increase. And since you're being promoted faster, your salary grows at a
quicker pace, sort of like compounding the interest you'd earn on a certificate of
deposit.
Many people view a job change as a way of promoting themselves to a better position. In
most cases, I would agree.
However, you should always be sure your new job offers you the means to satisfy your
values. While there's no denying the strategic virtues of selective job changing for the
purpose of career leverage, you want to make sure the path you take will lead you where
you really want to go.
For instance, I see no reason to make a job change for more money if it'll make you
unhappy to the point of distraction. Not long ago, I placed an environmental attorney with
a law firm that offered him a $107,000 a year job. Later, he told me that the same day he
agreed to go to work for my client, he'd turned down an offer of $113,000 with another
firm. The reason? The higher offer was for a position with a law firm in Detroit - a job
that would have taken him down a road he felt was a dead end.
To me, the "best" job is one in which your values are being satisfied most
effectively. If career growth and advancement are your primary goals, and they're
represented by how much you earn, then the job that pays the most money is the
"better" job.
Your responsibility when contemplating a change is to evaluate what's most important to
you. Whether you focus on a single aspect of your job (like Pat, Craig, and Neil did), or
on the overall nature of the job you'd like to improve,
The more clearly you connect your values with your work, the greater the potential for job
satisfaction. |
