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Keys to job Satisfaction

 

A common misconception in today’s job market is the equation of job satisfaction to remuneration and anyone that has worked with the stereotypical boss from hell will tell you that is so not true, in fact, most of those employees will tell you they’d gladly take less to work at a job where they are respected and at a role that they love.

So, what exactly is Job Satisfaction and how can you thrive to get it. It is simply put as contentment with and in your job.  Several studies have been conducted in delving into job satisfaction especially amongst government employees in Nigeria and it’ll come as no surprise that an alarming number of these employees report that they are not satisfied with the jobs that they have mainly because they are not provided with the amenities and tools to be able to adequately execute their roles, but that is a discussion for another day.

Lots of factors key into job satisfaction most of which are within your control, with effort you can either find a job that gives you the satisfaction you desire or learn to derive satisfaction from the one you currently have, some of this factors are discussed below.

 

Engagement

Engagement requires hard work, dedication and focus to whatever activity you are conducting, and it comes as no surprise that jobs that utilize your complete skillset are usually the most engaging and take up 100% of your focus and attention.  A reason you might not be fully engaged at your work is that you do not feel like you are utilizing your full skillset. People are more engaged in jobs that require use of their talents and skills and the truth is, your talents can be utilized in any job you find yourself doing. Yes, you might be better suited for some jobs than others, but fully engaging in your work and finding ways to add your talents to your job description will positively impact your perception of the job and improve your contentment with the job. It also impacts your colleagues.

 

Respect and Appreciation

Regardless of the job, every human love to feel appreciated, and a survey in 2015 conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that over half the employees surveyed placed supervisor’s respect as very important to job satisfaction.  Supervisors or manager vocally express their discontent when they are not happy with their subordinates or employees work, it is only right that they express appreciatiation when the reverse is the case. In short, working at a job where you feel underappreciated, undervalued or disrespected will most likely lead to feeling dissatisfied at work.

 

Motivation

Motivation is what gets you up in the morning, and the moment you start dragging your feet trying to get to work in the morning is when you need to conduct a self-audit of  what your drive is at you place of work. If your motivation is just getting to pay day, then do not expect to be much energized at work. I suggest that you find a goal other than the obvious monetary ones that inspire you to want to be better at your job and gives you the motivation to work harder. Set short term and long term goals that are within reach, this gives you something to work for and look forwards to. If you can’t do that, then I suggest that you begin to search for other jobs.

By Olamide .T. Akinnagbe-Gbenga

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Career Planning Tips to help you succeed

Planning your career is not an activity that should be done once -in secondary school or university- and then left as you embark on your career. Rather, it’s an activity that is best done on a regular basis. According to a recent survey, an average worker is expected to shift careers multiple times in a lifetime, so it’s never too late to start planning your career. A successful career usually begins with careful career planning. It is your responsibility to give it the seriousness it deserves. A career plan helps you chronicle both your long and short-term career goals and allows you measure success, career moves, training and choices to make in the bid to attain your planned-out career footprint.  This will ultimately steer you on a path with measurable goals. Here I’ll share some tips to aid your career planning.

 

Self-Audit

Carrying out an evaluation of yourself, interests, and your skills is important to knowing what you first or next career step should be. If you’re on the lookout for a new career, the field you’re most interested should be the deciding factor. If you’re looking to advance yourself in your chosen, your present skillset and how you can improve on that should be the most important thing to you. From these, you can then begin to set career goals for yourself. The goals you set for yourself have to be of the right mix of realism and ambition, do not set goals that you are sure you cannot reach but at the same time remember to push yourself out of your comfort zone. A major component of career planning is setting short-term (in the coming year) and long-term (beyond a year) career and job goals. Once you initiate this process, another component of career planning becomes reviewing and adjusting those goals as your career plans progress or change — and developing new goals once you accomplish your previous goals.

 

Career Plan Research

After identifying the career path that captures your interest, you need to dedicate time to research your career plan. Research jobs related to your career path and plan. You should also look beyond your current job for transferrable skills, some workers get so wrapped up in their job titles that they don’t see any other career possibilities for themselves. Every job requires a certain set of skills, and it’s much better to categorize yourself in terms of these skill sets than be so myopic as to focus just on job titles.

Do not forget to review current job and career trends, having information about career trends is vital to long-term career planning success. Besides knowledge of these trends, the other advantage of conducting this research is the power it gives you to adjust and strengthen your position, your unique selling proposition. A key aspect to job and career success is having a unique set of accomplishments, skills and education that make you better than all others in your career.

 

Execute, Review and Repeat

It is supremely important that you remain consistent in planning and executing your career plans. You should review them, repeat what works and get rid of things that don’t yield results. When planning, ensure your goals are SMART; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

Planning your career with the techniques above will help you clarify career ideas and focus your effort, time and resources on driving your career forward.

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Negotiating a remuneration package with your boss ?

This write-up will focus on new-hires into a company or organization negotiating a pay package with their prospective bosses. Before you even begin salary negotiations with a prospective employer, you need to find out how much the job is worth – and how much your skills and experience are worth to the employer.  Take the time to  research salaries long before you even begin discussing pay.  That way you will be prepared to make your case and land a job offer that’s realistic and reasonable.  Sometime during your interview, your prospective employers will ask what your salary expectations are, employers tend to use this to wean off interviewees that have too high a salary expectation and to find employees that fit their budget for this vacancy.  It is therefore important that you don’t price yourself out of contention for the position, try to find as much as possible about this organization so you can be able to make a well-educated guess, your main goal during this first interview should be getting a call back.

After the string of interviews, you eventually get the call offering you the job. Typically in Nigeria, benefits a company provides are a given and is standard for all employees, so there’s no negotiating there. The salary package however, is up for a bit of negotiation, here are some tips to help that negotiating process.

Let the other side make the first offer

Your goal is to allow the employer to suggest a salary, from this figure you can begin decide if the job is worth you negotiating, it will also give you a sense of how much wiggle room your prospective employers have.

Counter the offer with a researched response.

Your counter-offer should be based on what you know about yourself, the market, and the company. Therefore, it is vital to do some research before the interview so that you know a reasonable salary range for your position.

Be persistent

In many cases, the employer will reject your first request for a higher offer. Don’t let this deter you. Push back gently, justifying your proposed salary. Explain how the company will benefit from the investment.

Be flexible

If the company won’t budge on salary, negotiate other compensation. Ask for things like an extra week of vacation, a private office, or a flexible schedule. (Maybe you can work four ten-hour days instead of driving to the office five days a week!)

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Stand Out in that Interview!

To be irreplaceable, one must always be different; the sentiment of this quote is one that you have to embody at your next job interview.  Interviewers typically invite hordes of people to interviews for any position, it is therefore imperative that you make sure that you stand out in some way (preferably for good reasons) and if your resume isn’t so remarkable, here are some tips that will help your interview be memorable to your interviewers.

 

Know more about the company than anyone else

The first question you need to ask yourself when you’ve been invited for an interview, is what you know about the company. At some point in the interview, you will be asked what you know about the business —if you can’t answer that question, it makes you look like someone that doesn’t care too much about the opportunity.  Go into the interview knowing their mission statement, understanding the company’s target market, and knowing more about the history of the business than anyone else. Research can be easily conducted via the company’s website, trade publications, and by asking current employees (if you know any).  Being prepared and being someone that can show you are prepared provides the interviewer with the impression you are interested in the potential job, took the time to plan ahead, and care about the outcome.

 

Turn the interview into a conversation

We tend to think of interviews like a press conference or a question and answer session. Stop thinking of an interview as a series of questions you have to answer correctly to “pass”, this gives the feeling that the interview is a test. Think of the interview as more of a conversation with your boss. To aid this, come to the interview armed with a good question, for example if they ask

“why did you apply here” you can say,

“I’m interested in virtual reality, and marketing is what I do best, so when I saw a virtual reality company like yours needed a Marketer, it was a no-brainer for me to apply.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity. One thing I noticed when reading about your company is that you seem to take a different approach to marketing than most of your competitors, can you share why that is?”.

You can also find other ways to work in your questions asides from the typical “Do you have any questions” question that the interviewer asks, you can ask about current projects the company working, the challenges they are facing, work in an appropriate joke or a personal experience into the conversation and before you know it, the interview starts to feels like a regular chat between colleagues.

 

Deflect trick questions

Interviewers like to ask questions that back interviewees into a corner, when the interviewer invariably asks “You had a boss from hell didn’t you”, what do you do?  You can’t exactly answer yes and saying no might not exactly be the honest response, its best to be diplomatic and deflect those kinds of questions.  You could respond with not everyone is meant to have great bosses, but that you’ve learned techniques to work well with all kinds of challenging personalities.

Interviewers also like to ask you what your negative traits are? Some advisers recommend you use your hyperactivity or your impatience to your advantage, saying it helps get things done. Although it sounds like solid advice, it still sounds forced. Why not move the conversation forward, saying “I really can’t think of anything offhand.  Can I get back to you on it?” Maybe what they’re really looking for is to see if you’ll falter. If you come up with a quick answer and a sincere smile, then maybe you gave them the answer.

 

Focus on personal branding.

One of my favorite quotes by American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  Several people tend to project personalities that they feel the company would like to hire.  They often find themselves not being themselves during interviews and put up an interview persona and end up faltering during the interviews.  It is always best to be you during interviews because that’s what you’re most comfortable with and you can’t put a premium on being comfortable during interviews.  I am not saying you let go of professional norms, I do encourage you to bring your authentic self to the job search process. Being you also helps you highlight your passions and interest, you should also share your areas of improvement (and not just fake ones that you spice up for interviews). Your honesty will be a breath of fresh air for the interviewer.

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Ways to avoid stalling your job search

It’s a jungle out there in the wild, wild world of job search in today’s world.  With so much competition and so few jobs to be had, the last thing you want to do is sabotage your job search efforts. That’s why it’s important to know the thing that you do that could be inadvertently wrong.

  • The job search can be a draining experience with a lot of emotionally yo-yoing, and it’s very easy to fall into a negative mindset. It’s also very easy to get discouraged but you need to find a way to channel a positive attitude towards negative situations like rejection emails or poor interviews. A positive mindset can be one of the most powerful asset; attitudes are contagious and can be passed along during interviews, applications and cover letters. You want to remain positive so that you don’t accidentally damage your chances at getting the job you want.

 

  • Waiting for the perfect job to come around. Right now, there is no such thing as the perfect job.  Obviously, there are jobs that are better than others, but these days most jobs require some sort of give and take by both the job seeker and the employer. There is a saying that goes, “a bird in hand is better than ten in the bush”, it makes no sense to reject a perfectly good job in your field because it doesn’t fit your schedule or is located too far from your residence. The job market is so competitive these days that an employer can easily find a replacement, so don’t do yourself a disservice by rejecting a perfectly good job.

 

  • Going it alone. No matter how good and resourceful you think you are, two heads will always be better than one especially if you turn to someone who’s well connected in your industry, networking is so important no matter what field you are.

 

  • Applying above your head. It’s great to want to move up as you explore new career options, but if you go too far beyond your experience you will be shooting yourself in the foot. Apply for jobs you’re qualified to hold; then work on advancement once the job is yours.

 

Finding a job in today’s market is possible.  It’s much easier to do if you aren’t stepping into any of these pitfalls to the job search process.

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Recovering from common interview blunders

Despite your best efforts, unexpected slip-ups could still occur during your interview, either due to foreseen or unforeseen circumstances.  Here we are going to help you correct these errors or at the very least mitigate their impact.

 

Late!!

First Impressions matter and nothing raises a red flag to interviewers more than a late interviewee. If, due to no fault of yours, you get stuck in traffic or possibly have motor troubles and there’s a slight chance you are going to be late to the interview, try to alleviate the situation preemptively by calling your interviewer. Explaining your situation, giving them a heads up, and apologizing before you are late, this makes a better impression instead of having them wait for you. The most important thing to remember is to not offer lame excuses for your lateness, accept responsibility for your tardiness and apologize for the inconvenience.  If you realize you are going to be more than 15 minutes late, ask if you should still come in or if the interviewer would like to reschedule.  Once you arrive at the interview, apologize again, and then move on because your interview may be cut short or may be rushed due to your tardiness.

 

Flubbing a question in the interview

A lot of things can go wrong when you answer a question during an interview,  if you are not comfortable with your answer to a question, you can start over by saying something like “Can I rephrase that” or “what I meant to say was”.  If the interviewer has moved on, its best to readdress it again naturally in a later question.  For example, if an interviewer asked about your leadership abilities, and you feel you didn’t answer as well as you could, when a question comes up such as “Why should we hire you?” or “Why do you want to work for us?” refer more effectively to your leadership abilities. If you are stumped by a question, the first option is to stall for time by asking the interviewer to ask the question again, if after that you still don’t know the answer to the question, its best to keep your answer short and in a general way, for example “I’m not familiar with the technique you’re describing; my experience in the area has included …” or “I have not encountered that before, but I’d love to learn more.”, either way do not pretend to be more knowledgeable than you actually are.

 

Poor Closing

Interviewers like to end interviews by asking their interviewees if they have any questions or would like to say anything to help their cause. If it seems like this question is optional you are sorely mistaken. Asking no questions can imply a lack of enthusiasm, interest or passion, it is always advisable to prepare a few insightful questions ahead of the interview.  So if you can’t think of a question, its ok to circle back and use phrases like, “this is a lot of information to digest, I’d like to think through the questions and follow up by email.”.  If you didn’t ask a question during the interview, it’s advisable to prepare some for the next time you are in contact with the interviewer. Researching the company makes it easier to ask questions.

 

Some blunders you don’t recover from though, so it’s best to keep away from the following:

  • Coming to the interview unprepared
  • Showing up at the interview without having thought about it at all
  • Looking at your phone during the interview
  • Conveying to your interviewer that you don’t care about the job at all — you just need an income
  • Answering the interviewer’s questions without listening to them
  • Bashing your last employer
  • Talking about politics or religion (hot button issues)
  • Expressing disdain for work

Good luck at the next interview!!