Career Peace

If you’re considering a career change, you’ve probably seen ads for free career tests. These are standardized, multiple choice tests that ask you a series of questions about specific things you like and/or dislike. There are no right or wrong answers. When you’re finished, they’ll give you your career assessment results.

The results run the gamut of helpfulness. Some say “you’re an ISFE” or a “Driver-Analytical.” I’ve even seen one that says “you’re a green.” Ooookay.

What Career Tests Really Measure

What’s really going on here has to do with the way people who have gone before you answered those same questions.

The testing service essentially compares your answer choices with large groups of people who answered those questions more or less the same way you did. The idea here is if your answers match those who have a meticulous eye for detail, then they’ll label you “analytical.”

On the other hand, if your answer choices indicate that you’re more aligned with quiet, pleasant personalities, they might label you as an “amiable.” You get the idea.

Then they compare job descriptions (all of which are catalogued) with people who have held those jobs in the past. If most “analyticals” have done well as computer programmers (and they have, by the way), then you should be happy working as a computer programmer. Or that’s the theory, anyway.

Theory Doesn’t Always Hold Water

Does this theory work? Sometimes. But other times not. It all depends on the individual.

Career Tests serve as a starting point. And not a bad one, either. Especially if you’re just coming out of school or are in the middle of your working life and haven’t really discovered anything you like doing yet (don’t feel badly if you’re in the second category - you’ve got a lot of company there).

But you regardless of your career test results, keep this in mind. The questionnaire recommends career directions based on other people who answered those questions the same way. If I can coin a term from Survivor, this only tells you what “tribe” you belong to.

What no career test can measure is YOU. It’s okay to say that you’re like a certain group of people is a number of respects. But not in others. Chances are the career advice those test scores give might have some job choices on them that you wouldn’t like at all.

I’m a Real Life Example…

I know that certainly was the case for me. In 1992, I tested out to be an “analytical.” Based on that, I should have been perfectly happy with a career in accounting. I wasn’t. I hated it. But as a computer programmer - totally different story. I’ve been writing computer code since 1995, and have been there pretty much ever since.

What was the difference? I have a lot of creative juices that I like using in my job. Accounting doesn’t allow for that. On the contrary, creative accountants go to jail!

Programmers, on the other hand, have to find creative solutions to problems to technical problems - some of which other programmers have never found before. That was exciting to me. But somebody who loves accounting might not be able to deal with that level of uncertainty. YetAgain, you just never know.

My point is, you can’t blindly go by what a career test tells you. It’s a good starting point, but it can never measure the one thing that will make you happy as you change careers: You.

If you’re not happy in your current career, a new study at the University of Chicago could help explain why. The University’s National Opinion Research Center recently concluded that the happiest workers in the US are the ones who spend their days improving other peoples’ lives.

“We found that occupations that involved a high degree of prestige, particularly those involving caring for others…were the highest in job satisfaction,” Smith said in a telephone interview. Clergy ranked the highest, with 87.2 percent saying they were “very satisfied” in their careers.

Firefighters (80.1 percent) and physical therapists (78.1 percent) were close runners-up. Rounding out the top 10 were education administrators, painters and sculptors, teachers, authors, psychologists, special education instructors, and operating engineers.

These findings come as no real surprise. Most people define themselves by their career choice. To coin a line from the hit movie, Batman Begins, “It’s not who I am, but what I do that defines me.” So, I guess if you’re Batman, your job satisfaction is pretty high.

However, the study turned up one interesting fact that you might not expect. Medical doctors did not rate themselves very highly on the job satisfaction scale at all.

You might find this odd. Doctors certainly improve other people’s lives. Based on that you’d think their job satisfaction level would be higher.

What is it about being the medical profession that kills happiness?

The same study answers that one for you…

“Being a physician requires a lot more stress, a lot more danger of being sued, and this is something that lowers job satisfaction”

There’s your answer: fear of being sued creates a lot of job stress. It’s kind of hard to have a peaceful worklife if you’re constantly worried about a disgruntled customer hauling you into court to try to take everything you’ve worked for.

It would be like showing up to work every morning wearing a big bullseye on your chest - with a dollar sign in the middle.

So if you’re considering a career change to the medical profession, consider this fact of the job context. I’m not saying don’t become a doctor if you really feel called to be one. Just take this issue into consideration as you make your decision to become one.

One of the major problems in the American workplace is job boredom. And while the job you have now may stress you to your limit, don’t be quick to wish for the opposite.

A job with absolutely no stress might be just as painful as one with too much. And it might leave you every bit as dissatisfied.

A job that doesn’t make good use of your skills can be nothing short of mind-numbing. Just ask Bruce Bartlett.

He held a high profile position at the U.S. Treasury Department: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Economic Policy. Sounds important. And it certainly paid well.

So you’d think Bruce Bartlett would have been pretty happy. But he wasn’t.

According to the Washington Post, even though Bartlett had his own secretary and supporting staff, he was bored out of his mind. Bartlett’s problem was that his job carried a very specific job description.

However, President Bush is so preoccupied with foreign policy (Iraq in particular) that economic policy just isn’t a concern at the White Hose. This leaves Bartlett and his staff with nothing to do.

According to the Post…

“There is a reason why prison is considered punishment,” Bartlett said, comparing it to his former job. “You may be in a gilded cage, but if you’re just forced to sit there for eight hours all day long, staring at the wall, it can be excruciating.”

On the other hand, a job that keeps you busy keeps your mind occupied. When a lot of things are happening in a short period of time, you begin to feel valued by your organization. Even though you may have too much job responsibility, your mind tells you how valued you are by your company.

So while you may dream of a career change where all you have to do all day is surf the net. But as the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And it may not bring the peaceful and fulfilling worklife you seek.