Workplace Wisdom...
Discover Fulfillment in Life and Work
with Michelle Y. Drake

With the economy still in its current slump, ask someone to define "job satisfaction" and I guarantee you that most of them will say: "Having a job. Period."

There is definitely some truth to that, I admit. But I am still a firm believer in doing what you love for a living and finding happiness and satisfaction in your job - no matter what the stock market says. After all, we spend most of our waking lives at work...don't we deserve to enjoy it just a little?

So if you're currently in a job that makes you happy (at least for a good portion of the time), then I congratulate you. Stick with it and thrive!

But if you're waking up every day wishing you could call in sick and then grudgingly trudging off to work, maybe it's time to start taking a peek into the job market.

Now, I'm in no way advocating that you should chuck your current job and set off into the world, searching for your next career. That would be madness during ANY economic time, but especially this one. Rather, I'm suggesting that while you continue to work at your current job, start thinking about what kind of work would satisfy you.

What kind of experience do you have? (And can you translate that experience into another field or industry? You'd be surprised to find out how universal some of your experience can be.)

What kind of skills do you have? What are you truly great at, and do you love doing it? (This is so important! You might be great at, say, accounting practices, but you might not really like crunching numbers all day. On the flipside, you might love being a salesperson, but fail to close a lot of deals. Both of these situations need to be taken into account so you can make the best decisions for yourself and your checkbook.)

What do you like about your current job? (Be thorough in your evaluation and get to the root of what you like. On the surface, it may seem that you like answering phones, but really, it's the contact with the clients that you like.)

What don't you like about your current job? (Again, dig deep to the root of the matter. You might think you hate dealing with expense reports, but really, it's the fact that you have to hunt them down from your co-workers that drives you crazy.)

If you could be anything you wanted, what would it be? (I know this seems like a "kid's" question, but I love it. It's been the starting point of many a successful career!)

Remember: don't just answer these questions from a "work" standpoint. Answer them from your personal life as well. How can you parlay your fascination or skill with a hobby into a great career (and subsequent satisfaction)?

I came across an article that can get you started on where to find job satisfaction:

Where Do America's Happiest People Work? by Kristina Cowan, PayScale.com

In this article, Ms. Cowan cites a study by the University of Chicago called "Job Satisfaction in the United States." She writes: "The study says the occupations where people report being happy overall, not just in terms of job satisfaction, involve helping others, technical and scientific expertise, or creativity."

That's some food for thought to keep in the back of your mind when you begin to evaluate new career opportunities!

Ms. Cowan goes on to list the top occupations (as found by the study), and they include:

"1. Clergy
2. Firefighters
3. Transportation, ticket, and reservation agents such as travel agents
4. Architects
5. Special education teachers
6. Actors and directors
7. Science technicians
8. Miscellaneous mechanical and repairing occupations
9. Industrial engineers
10. Airline pilots and navigators"

Go ahead and read the article here. It might be just the catalyst you need to find your own source of job satisfaction!

Labels: career opportunities, career-advancement, economic crisis, job hunt, job satisfaction, personal growth, strategy

My apologies for staying away from my blog for so long, but between working with clients, traveling to Salt Lake City for a conference about SendOutCards.com (you've GOT to check these guys out - their system is amazing and so much fun!), and getting my sons back off to college (the house is mine and my husband's again - woo hoo! But seriously, I love my kids and miss them, too), I've been using my few minutes of downtime to, you know, breathe.


And I've also been staying up way too late to watch the Olympics! I'm so proud of our fellow countrymen and countrywomen; they've been outstanding all around in their events. According to Yahoo! this morning, the USA has earned 101 medals so far (8 of which are the incredible gold medals won by record-breaker Michael Phelps - congratulations to him!).

While I love the thrill of the competitions, I'm truly amazed by the Olympians themselves. To paraphrase a comment made on "Project Runway" during their Olympic challenge, they are as close to real-live superheros as we can get. They are at peak performance levels, and they've trained endlessly to achieve their goals. Let's follow their example!

Today, I challenge you to commit to your career like an Olympian commits to his or her training. I want you focus on kicking your career into overdrive (especially if lately it's been chugging along like a golf cart), and I want you firing all cylinders as you work towards your career's peak performance level.



1. Create a "life skills" line: Record everything you know how to do - from birth until the present - and all the skills required to do them. What have you excelled at? (And they don't have to be just work-related...you'd be surprised how the skills you have in your hobbies translate into success into the workplace.)

2. Make a "life activity" line (layer it right over your "life skills" line). Identify the activies at work and at home that you enjoy doing. If your skill is problem-solving, activities you might like are troubleshooting at work or working on your car's engine. A career that is satisfying and challenging with incorporate some of those skills and activities.

3. Rate your enjoyment and aptitude of each entry on your line: 1 if you're excellent at it and love doing it; 5 if it's one of your weaker areas or if you wouldn't want to do it for more than a few hours. And with this info, you're going to then...

4. Create a clear picture in your mind of your next 5 career moves (they're not set in stone!). They could be in order and progressing up through your organization, or they could be lateral moves into other organizations or industries. Plotting out these career moves starts to set you up with a strategy for career advancement (and we all know how much I LOVE strategy!).

5. Map out opportunities within your organization. You got those 5 career moves in your head - where are they in your organization? Create a "treasure map" that you can follow, leading you to each of those 5 career moves. Who's holding those jobs now? What are your chances of earning that position? If there's a star blocking your route of advancement (think Don Draper of "Mad Men") who shows no signs of budging, then you should first do everything in your power to succeed and prove your worth in your current position (a shift all the way up line might occur) or you might want to consider moving to another company, which leads me to...

6. Map opportunities outside your organization. What organizations are the leaders in your industry? Are they looking for highly-skilled people like you, and if so, what could they offer you? Look for industries that are complementary to yours. There may be opportunities to not only bring your insights into a new industry, but also for you to be invigorated by a new set of challenges.

7. Assess people in higher levels of your organization. Give them a report card. Who does a great job? Who might be on his or her way out? Who might be open to talking to you about their position? What are their skills...and do you have them?

8. Make a list of people who would help you if they knew your career aspirations. While it's a good idea to be tentative about who you share your career plans with (especially if they include chucking your current job for another), you have people in your sphere of influence that can help you attain your career goals if you talk to them about those goals. Be selective in who you share your dreams with, but make sure you share your dreams with someone!

9. Use an interview as an excuse to go and speak to someone who has the job that you want. Does your company have a newsletter or a website that highlights employees and bosses? If so, go to the head of these departments and ask if you can do a profile on the person who has the job you want. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have some of the burden taken off them, and I'm sure that the person you interview will be flattered that you're so interested in them and their job. Asking for an interview is a non-threatening way to do your research and gather information.

10. Join an industry organization. This is a primo networking opportunity just waiting for you to reach out and grab it. Learn about other companies in your industry, other positions you may be qualified for, and loads of other inside scoop that can help you strategize your next career move.

Labels: career opportunities, career-advancement, interview, job hunt, kitchen to corner office, leadership, mother's wisdom, networking, news, personal growth, strategy, workplace-survival

Hope you enjoyed the long 4th of July weekend! There's still a hint of barbecue smoke in the air here, and I'm already craving another batch of potato salad!

I'm off to Boston today to meet with a coaching client, but I saw an interesting article on Yahoo! HotJobs that I wanted to share with you.

"Most Lucrative College Majors" by Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes.com

Now you might be wondering why this topic would pique my interest - or yours, for that matter, if you don't have college-bound kids - but when I read it, I saw it from a new perspective: professionals contemplating going back to school and making a career change.

If making more money in a new career is your goal, check out what this article has to say about which education path you might want to look into.

Boston, here I come!

Oh, and if you haven't already, don't forget to submit your stories about how your mother changed your life and made you into the successful career woman you are today on my site at KitchentoCornerOffice.com! "Lipstick Leadership Week" is rapidly approaching and I don't want you to miss the opportunity to be a part of it!

Labels: career-advancement, education, job hunt, kitchen to corner office, personal growth

"What kind of salary should I ask for?"

This question came from my friend Anna and was accompanied by a worried frown. Anna lost her job recently (cutbacks, cutbacks, cutbacks) and had a promising opportunity in the works. I was prepping her for an interview this week, and we'd finally gotten around to the salary question.

"Well, what's the salary range for a position like yours?" was my counter-question.

"I don't know," came her response. She knew what she had been making, after several years of being with the company she worked for, but didn't have a clue what someone in her position should/could ask for coming into a new company. And being isolated from the job market, she didn't know the salary trends for her industry.

Since I know that Anna isn't the only one who's unsure of the answer to the big salary question, I thought I'd do a little research on the subject of salary ranges and post a quick tidbit of salary info here on my blog.

Here's a quick list of salary resources to get you started:

* My personal favorite is www.Salary.com
* Job posting sites can be a great resource: sites like craigslist often have salary info along with job descriptions, and sites like CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com have salary calculators and wizards.
* Tons of salary info here: Economic Research Institute - www.erieri.com
* The good 'ol government site: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - www.bls.gov
* Professional and trade organizations often have a slew of info and some even have message boards where you can post your questions and get answers from other professionals like yourself.
* Don't forget your research! Check out the company's website and tap into your personal network and ask around. First-hand knowledge direct from a reliable source can be valuable.

I hope this info helps all of you job seekers out there and even the non-job seekers, too. It's always a great time to make sure you're getting paid what you're worth!

Labels: career-advancement, job hunt, salary, workplace-survival