What do I want? As time ticks by and I seem to get no closer to finding a job in my current career (VAT consultant / manager) I have to consider the possibility that I need to pursue a different career path. This has many problems, not least of which is the resultant drop in earnings until I achieve a seniority equivalent to my lost post. However the most immediate problem is deciding what career paths I should try to pursue.
Since leaving school I have been a specialist in
Value Added Tax (VAT). I have
visited companies to check that their VAT declarations are correct, I have
advised companies faced with tricky VAT technical issues, I have helped companies minimise the cost of VAT on their outgoings, I have trained people in the ways of VAT and I have completed the VAT returns for a wide variety of companies. Unfortunately this qualifies me only for a
career in VAT and, whilst I have skills that are transferable to other careers, I have no experience or qualifications that would allow me to swap to any particular career type.
I have recently been reading a number of articles that are supposed to help you decide where to restart your career. Articles written by acknowledged experts on career changes. They don't take me any closer to a decision. The problem is I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what my dreams or goals are any more. I have no aspirations.
Many articles ask questions like
"If you won the lottery or somehow had your financial needs taken care of, how would you want to spend your life? What would be the purpose of your life?" or
"If you knew you had all the support you needed, what would you begin creating?". To be honest, I have no idea what I would do if I was financially secure but I sure as hell wouldn't work. All of the dreams I have left are relics from my childhood; I want to be a racing driver, I want to be famous, I want to invent something that makes me shed-loads of cash.
So I looked for something to help me realise what is important to me, what it is about my work that makes me happy.
This tool helps identify and then rank values that are important to you. My results suggest the following values:
1 Investing in close relationships with family and friends.
2 Having fun, laughs, time for leisure and pleasure.
3 Being creative, imaginative and inventive.
4 Wide variety in work tasks and situations.
5 Maximising my learning and personal development.
6 Recognition, respect, praise or acknowledgement for my work.
7 Being widely recognised for my expertise.
8 Status, prestige and visible success.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with the appearance of numbers 6 - 8 over some of the other values that could have appeared but the top 5 are pretty true. Items 1 and 2 are, I think, for consideration at a later point to use to decide between possible career paths or job opportunities. So that leaves me looking for a career where I can apply my intelligence and problem solving abilities in creative and imaginative ways in a wide variety of tasks and situations. The opportunity to expand my skill set through training and development would also be a big attraction.
So having decided what I want out of a job or career, I need to find out what I'm good at and then match the two.
that's a nice rock!
me:
sex:male
age:30
status:married
children:3
Listening:
Barry Diston:Unreleased Stuff
Reading:
Weblogs
Terry Pratchett
Maps
Watching:
Bugger all at the mo, to be honest
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