5 Tips for Finding a Fulfilling Job or New Career

by Sherry Amanpour

NAFE member Sherry Amanpour is founder and president of AMAN Consultants, a career transition, career services and search firm founded in 1991. Sherry's background includes diplomatic service - she was one of only eleven women in a 400-person diplomatic corps in the Iranian Foreign Service during the Shah's regime. She has placed hundreds in new jobs, counseled others towards career change and helped still others to identify and change self-defeating work patterns.

The Conference Board states that 50% of Americans are dissatisfied with their work. Here are Sherry's tips on securing a job that's the best match for your skill set and personality.

1. Self Understanding:  Women must be captains of their own careers, working at jobs that use their inherent strengths. These strengths are hard-wired in each of us and must be identified to match with a rewarding job. When you gain self-understanding, you can find a rewarding position - 70% of proactive job search methods result in satisfying jobs. 

2. Avoid Constraints: Just as each of us is hard-wired with strengths, we are equally made up of constraints. Identify these constraints and stay away from work that requires what you are not hardwired to do. A good example is a right-handed person attempting to write with the left hand - it doesn't feel right, uses great effort and results in illegible penmanship.

3. Continue Learning:  The average corporate job in America lasts 4 years. Since tenure of work is shorter, you must constantly be able to change. Learn new skills - and be ready to use old and new skills in current venues.

4. Identify Self -Defeating Patterns: Think back on your personal and professional life. Are there reoccurring circumstances that resulted from your own sabotaging behaviors?  Such assessment can be done with a friend - or even better, a career professional.

5. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone:  Do two or three things every day you are not comfortable with. Embrace uncertainty and lose sight of the horizon for a while to discover opportunities that would not appear under more rigid scenarios.

It's an exciting workplace out there. If you trade certainty for change, you may be surprised at the outcome!