Nowadays we got no time to think of our passion. They biggest problem: most companies do not offer flexibility, development and room for experimentation.
Money, money, money
I was only 17 years old when I found out I had to think of a big question: How do I want to earn money? Being honest, I was not prepared for that question. The idea of earning my own money had never crossed my mind before. It was the time to cope with reality.
When talking about choosing a career, we can clearly identify two paths: either you have an innate passion and you go straight for it or you will find this passion only with the time through experimentation, discovering and patience. Nowadays, from the two of them, the second one is proved to be the most common and even thought it should not pose any problem, it would require a new working scheme, which could concede us more flexibility and consequently more time.
No space to think of our passion
Sadly, our society doesn’t give us much free-room for experimentation and the process of finding out which might be our dream career. We feel pressure instead. The result is we might end up studying something that we don’t even know if we like or not in order to get a job and earn money (if it is a lot of money, way better).
The big problem we’re facing is that both companies and ourselves aren’t paying attention to the most important: satisfaction, motivation and self development. We already know that we will be spending most of our time at work, more than with our family and friends and what that means is very simple: if you get a job that discourages and demotivates you (even if you earn good money), it will make you ill and it will also damage the company.
What makes us happy?
At this point three typical reactions stand out. One is conformism, which consist on coping with the situation. People who reaction like that are most likely to get burnouts and depression and have a high work sick rate. The second reaction is the desperate need to look for another job (normally a job that would fit this persons studies but it is not necessarily what he likes doing). The third one is to freelance.
This problem causing an era of unhappy workers should be cut from the roots and I am happy to confirm that some companies are starting to do it right by paying attention to the most current needs of their employees: flexibility, self development and room for experimentation. Luckily, I landed in one of these companies one year ago, where I am currently employed. Every six months my bosses and I meet up and we have the opportunity to review and analyse my work. This meeting can take more than two hours but we make sure that my needs are being listened to, my skills and strengths evaluated and I am helped to define my path. This is something companies should start doing, if they are not doing it already, to enable a win-win situation.
One year ago I started working as Marketing Assistant at Appmotion. Now I am Visibility Manager. Since the beginning I was given the opportunity to discover my role within the company and after assessing my strengths and weaknesses we found out that a job description for me was something that didn’t existed yet. We tailor-made it exclusively for me and nowadays I work hard to develop it further. I am always looking forward to the next meeting with Martin and Lasse to put everything again on the table. That is the way things should work.
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