Do You Need a New Job?

I’ve received my advanced preparation materials for the first unit: World of Management. This is the compulsory intro subject that you do before starting the rest of your course which introduces the content and baselines the requirements for being a manager. The material for the unit itself appears to be broken down into two main themes:

• the first explores the gamut of management and outlines what MBS considers to be the core of study giving an introduction to things like Organizational Behaviour and Business Accounting, basically so everyone is clear about the scope for the core classes
• the second component is the self analysis section: what am I good at, where are my weaknesses and from this, what am I going to study? This combines a few tools like motivation/skill set tests along with psych reviews and a blockage survey to help you clarify where you are at.

Reading through the prescribed text, it’s a bit like a paper extract, it throws out a couple of teasers and concepts to get you excited about a field of study. One that really resonated with me was in the self analysis section of the book and laid out some guidelines for conducting an ‘Occupational Analysis’ or in my mind: Do you need a new job? It’s not copied verbatim but the ideas are theirs, I’m just passing them on because I think they’re pretty useful (Dainty, 2008, p 141)

I like to think that I put a fair bit of effort into my personal relationships, if I’m feeling uncomfortable about something with someone I’ll try and discuss and drill down into why that’s the case and (I think) I’ve got some good models for identifying a problem and starting  discussion. So it seemed really strange to me that I had this structured and thought out process for my personal life but I’d never done the same thing with my job (which is a pretty important factor in my life). I wonder if other people are in this boat too and if they are, the perhaps this will help clarify which areas in your professional life you are having problems with and from there, whether they are significant enough for you to want to do something about them:

Consider the following in terms of your current role

Motivators:

• Are you paid enough for what you are doing?
• What are your opportunities for promotion? And is promotion important to you right now (next 12 months)?
• Do the hours you are working suit your lifestyle?
• Is the culture of the organization right for you? Do you feel like the company does the right thing?
• How is your relationship with your boss? What about the 3 people you interact with most?

 Capabilities:

•  How would you rate your skills and knowledge for the job you are doing right now? Are you interested in improving them? If you are, what have you done about it?
• What skills and knowledge do you need for the next job along the career path for you?
• Does your current role utilize your top 3 skills?
• Are these top 3 the ones you’d like to stick with or would you like to develop something else?

Interests:

• When was the last time you learned something new in your job?
• When was the last time you were challenged in your role?
• What percentage of your time are you spending doing things you don’t like (direct sales, report writing, attending meetings: whatever you don’t enjoy)?
• Are you satisfied by your work?

Looking back at my last job and answering these questions, it provided a framework for understanding why I wasn’t enjoying the role (despite enjoying the Company and the people I worked with).

 

Reference:  Paul Dainty & Moreen Anderson, 2008, The MBA Companion, Palgrave Macmillan