The end of the year is quickly approaching, and 2012 will be here before you know it. This is an excellent time to take stock of where you are right now, specifically in terms of your current employment situation.
A new year could mean a new beginning and a fresh start for your career. Unfortunately, many candidates these days have chosen to “hunker down” in their current situation, regardless of how they feel about it. Even if they’re overworked and underappreciated, they cling to the “devil they know,” as opposed to the “devil they don’t.”
However, making a change shouldn’t be viewed in this fashion, especially if the “devil you know” is making you miserable. Instead, prepare yourself for the opportunity you don’t know about . . . yet. That opportunity might be just over the horizon.
Below are some questions to help you prepare—and to take stock of your situation:
- Do you feel engaged in your current position? Do you enjoy going to work every day? Do you even look forward to it?
- Do you enjoy the work that you perform on a daily basis? Are there additional duties or other duties that you would like to perform?
- Are you content with your current level of compensation? If not, what compensation do you desire or you believe that you deserve?
- Are you happy living where you’re living now? Where would you like to live, if you could?
- If the right opportunity was offered to you right now, would you be willing to accept it? If not, why not?
- Under what conditions would you be willing to make a job change? Do those conditions exist at the moment? If not, when do you think they will exist?
Some of the questions listed above are difficult questions, but the answers could be very enlightening. As a result, those answers might point you in the direction you don’t just need to go, but you want to go. Think about your answers to these questions. Are you satisfied with the answers? If not, what must you do to achieve such satisfaction?
A new year will be here soon. Will it mark the beginning of a new and exciting chapter of your career . . . or signify the continuation of the same old story?