by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS
The VET Recruiter®
Although the Valentine’s Day holiday is a good time to gauge exactly how much you love your current job, you should be conducting such an assessment at periodic intervals. The reason for this is simple (and it also happens to be the title of this article):
If you don’t love your job, then what keeps you there?
You might be thinking to yourself, “It’s impractical to love your job. It’s work, after all. Who loves work?”
That’s a logical question to ask, but there are plenty of people who love their job. I know this because I speak with them on a regular basis. As an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter, I’m “in the trenches” of the employment marketplace on a daily basis, and I can say with 100% certainty that you can love your job.
Now, as you might have already guessed, I also speak with people who do NOT love their job. During the process of speaking with them, a common theme often emerges. In other words, they share some of the same stories and reasons for how they feel.
Below are five typical reasons why people don’t love their job:
- No opportunity for advancement
- The company culture
- Their boss
- Lack of recognition
- Low salary and/or poor benefits
A person could be facing just one of these reasons or more than one of them. In fact, they could be facing all of these reasons at once, which would easily explain why they feel the way they do.
The main problem, though, is not the fact that they’re not in love with their job. The main problem is what they do even though they’re not in love with it. Specifically, they commit mistakes that do not alleviate their situation. In fact, these mistakes actually serve to make their situation even worse.
Below are four common mistakes that people make when they don’t love their job:
#1—Accepting more responsibility
If you don’t love your job, then why would you accept more of something that you don’t love? There are many answers to this, but the main one is the fear of what would happen if you don’t accept the responsibility and instead say “No” to your boss.
#2—Accepting a promotion
Perhaps the new responsibility brings with it a promotion. (But then again, perhaps it doesn’t.) If you accept the responsibility, then you might as well accept the promotion, right? There might even be a small raise with the promotion, which could lessen the blow of added responsibility even more. But the fact remains: you’re still not in love with your job.
#3—Being okay with tolerating the job
This mindset does not happen overnight. And a person will tolerate a job more easily if they’ve been given both a promotion and a raise, even if they’ve also been given more responsibility. Once again, though, this does not mean that they now love their job. It just means that they’re willing to deal with it, at least for a while longer.
#4—Not being open to opportunity
Can you see how all of these reasons can build upon each other? A person accepts more responsibility and they also accept a promotion and/or raise. Then they get to the point where they’re tolerating their job. They don’t love it, but it’s somewhat comfortable. They become inclined to simply maintain the status quo. Their situation isn’t great, but it’s not the worst, either. As a result, they don’t know what’s available in the marketplace and they won’t consider other employment opportunities, even if those opportunities are presented to them. This is perhaps the worst of the mistakes on this list.
If you don’t love your job, then remember that we are in a candidates’ job market right now. That means there are plenty of Animal Health jobs and Veterinary jobs available. This is especially the case in the Veterinary profession, where the unemployment rate is hovering right around 1%. This is an excellent time to explore the opportunities that exist in the marketplace. That’s because candidates (especially the best candidates) have more options and more leverage.
One of the best ways to take advantage of these opportunities and these options is to align yourself with an experienced Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter. Below are just some of the advantages of doing so:
- An Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter has access to the “hidden job market.” These are open positions that employers choose not to fill through traditional means such as online job postings. Because of the confidential nature of these openings, the only way to know about them is by working with a recruiter.
- An Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter can let you know when they come across an opportunity of interest to you. That way, you don’t have to spend time, energy, and effort and instead can conduct a passive job search with their assistance.
- An Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter has knowledge of the best employers within the marketplace and they also have relationships with hiring managers who work at some of those employers.
- An Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter can provide advice during the hiring process of any employer. This is especially the case during the interview and negotiation stages of the process, where you can use their expertise to emphasize the value you bring to the organization and also get an offer of employment that accurately reflects your value.
Do you really want to spend another year in a job that you don’t love? Especially when there are other opportunities available to you? Don’t be resigned to that and don’t just tolerate your job. Make the decision that you deserve better and do what is necessary to advance your career and enjoy it more at the same time.
Once again, I’ll ask this question:
If you don’t love your job, then what keeps you there?
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1.By helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2.By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of Animal Health and Veterinary organizations. If this is something that you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.
Copyright © 2020 The VET Recruiter