28 Career Well-being

Career Well-being

The first part of this chapter is going to focus on the dimension of wellness known as Career Well-Being.  There are five factors to career well-being.  When thinking of the impact of one’s career on their overall health, consider this quote from the National Institutes of Health (Stoewen, 2017):

“People often think about wellness in terms of physical health — nutrition, exercise, weight management, etc., but it is so much more. Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, fueling the body, engaging the mind, and nurturing the spirit. Although it always includes striving for health, it’s more about living life fully, and is “a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potentials, circumstances, and fate will allow.”

At this point in your career development journey, it is okay to not know exactly what you want to do for your future career. Instead, it is more important to understand the vital role that a satisfying career plays in our lives and to continue working towards identifying a career that YOU find rewarding.^[1]

1. Career well-being: You like what you do every day.
2. Social well-being: You have meaningful friendships in your life.
3. Financial well-being: You manage your money well.
4. Physical well-being: You have the energy to get things done.
5. Community well-being: You like where you live.

“Gallup finds that the most important element – and the foundation for the other four – is career wellbeing.”^[2]

Finding the Right Fit

It’s your first day at a new job, and it’s nothing like you expected. Maybe you write it off as first-day jitters. But as time goes by you realize that you’re just not clicking with the organization’s culture. It can be frustrating to realize that a new job isn’t the right fit. But how could you have known earlier? And what can you do to stop this from happening again? There are some steps you can take to help ensure you’re making the right choice—before accepting the offer.

Determine what’s important to you

List out what you value most in your career and workplace. Your list could include things like:

• I need to work for an organization with a mission and vision I feel strongly about.
• I thrive in a collaborative workplace.
• Lack of professional development opportunities is a dealbreaker for me.
• Compensation and benefits need to be very competitive.
• I’m looking for a truly diverse and inclusive workplace.

Research the organization

This is the time to be thorough. Start with a closer look at the organization’s own website and annual reports. Does their stated mission match your passions? If you are concerned about their commitment to diversity, look at their senior leadership and board. Is diversity truly reflected at all levels? From a simple Google search to checking rankings on sites like Charity Navigator, you can get a sense of the organizational culture and reputation.

It’s also important to consider the day-to-day workplace culture. Check out the organization’s social media posts to get an inside look at the office environment. You can get a feel for whether it’s a buttoned-up office or a more casual workplace. If you look to your workplace for social interaction and friendships, you may be able to tell if staff spend time together on outings, sports, or other extracurricular activities.

Ask the right questions

“Interview the interviewer” is a phrase you’re probably familiar with. But it only works if you’ve done your research and prepared specific questions beforehand. For example, if you’ve determined that what’s most important to you are professional development opportunities and an organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, you could ask questions like:

• “What types of professional training and seminars are offered, and do you have any programs in place to develop high-performing staff?”
• “What steps do you take to actively recruit employees from diverse backgrounds?”
• “Could you give me some examples of what inclusion looks like in this organization?”

Pro Tip: It’s always best to ask for specifics to avoid generalized or vague answers.

You can’t always know if a job will be a good fit until you work there. But there are specific things to look out for and ask about before accepting a job offer. Finding out what you can about the organization’s culture, approach to diversity and inclusion, and career development opportunities can help you make a more informed decision.

Take a look at the video below to see how MCC can help students find the right career path. Some words of encouragement to those who have not yet discovered your path: Remember that this is a process and it it okay to not yet know which direction to take.  Keep going, and keep engaging in the process of identifying career choices.

Throughout this class, you have learned about the many tools for identifying and choosing a career that is meaningful to you.  You are on the right path, you have the tools, you know the process, and you have many resources to continue using while you are on this path of discovery.^[3]

Skills to Succeed

Next, we will take a look at the important skills to help you succeed in any career or job. No matter where you are in your career development process now is an excellent time to start thinking about how to be successful on the job.  You may be surprised to learn that success is not solely dependent on how well you know your craft.  Instead, a large part of our success is dependent on soft skills and professionalism. Soft skills include people (interpersonal) skills, listening skills, communication skills, organization, time management etc. These are all skills you can be working on while you are on your path to your career.

21 Century Employability Skills

1. Digital literacy: digital literacy is the ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment where information is presented in a numerical form through computers. It also includes the ability to read and infer media, create data and images, as well as evaluate and apply new knowledge obtained from digital environments
2. Problem-solving skills: Problem-solving skills make individuals more adaptable to cope with any changes happening in the workplace. Individuals also have the ability to detect problems and generate appropriate alternative solutions.
3. Creativity: Creativity is defined as the ability to produce new ideas while integrating current ideas and applying novel ideas in a real-world environment
4. Critical thinking: employees with critical thinking skills are innovative and they are most likely to come up with innovative ways, which can add value to the workplace and increase the overall efficiency of the systems and procedures.
5. Collaboration skills: Individuals with excellent collaboration skills are able to share the workload and motivate their teammates to foster a productive working environment.
6. Communication skills: communication skills are not only limited to oral communication but also consist of effective listening, asking good questions, and writing communication professionally using social media, thus allowing messages to be delivered and received effectively to avoid any confusion during work.^[4]