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If you jumped ship from your current job either voluntarily or involuntarily, what would you do? Where would you go? Would you view it as a blessing or a curse?
It seems that while there is a small percentage of people who would frankly just do the same thing they were doing, many more, close to 70% in fact would do something different. I'd also guess that of that small percentage that would do the same thing, a portion of them would simply choose that because it was the seemingly path of least resistance (total illusion!) verus truly what they wanted.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal called "Escaping Your Job: What Would You Do? shares these statistics:
Exactly what constitutes “greener pastures” is different for different people, and there is even a gender gap, based on a study of 1,525 white-collar men and women earlier this month by McKinsey & Co. for participants in the Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy conference.
Asked what they would be most likely to do if they jumped ship, about a third of men and women alike said they would stay in the same career field, but seek out a better job at a different company.
Beyond that, men’s and women’s preferred escape routes diverge.
So the escape routes diverge, but again the remainder of the article doesn't really shed a great deal of light on this. While women tend to place a higher value on work-life balance, beyond that priority, a fresh start tends to be much more blind to gender roles.
What interests me most about this article and study is how little clarity there seems to be across the board around the question "What would I like to do?" In today's environment of layoffs and more frequent career changes, it amazes me that we give more attention to where we go on vacation or the movies we might go to see this weekend than we do to the work we're most meant to do in the world. If you're not already doing it and feeling it deep in your bones, then it is always time for some inner inquiry. As people we grow and evolve, life circumstances change, and new professional opportunities are created every day (out goes COBOL programming, in comes Social Media, you get the picture). There are fields people earn a living in today that didn't even exist a few years ago. So ask yourself:
- What are my strengths?
- Where do my skills lie?
- What are my passions?
- What do I feel called to do with my life?
- What legacy do I want to leave?
- What do I want my experience to feel like each and every day?
These are questions worth answering and worth revisiting with regularity. These are the types of questions I work with my clients on each and every day in a way that is far more productive than trying to perform a lot of mental gymnastics to "figure it all out". Mainly because figuring it out doesn't work. If it was so straightforward, wouldn't 95% of the people in this study be able to clearly articulate what they really wanted?
So when you think of your next escape hatch... Do you know what you reallly want it to be? Or would you just be tossed about by the waves of change? Know that if you give it some heart-centered reflection you are giving yourself the best career gift you could ever receive.
What do you think - of the study? of your own escape hatch and career next step?
Credit Image: elisfanclub via Flickr
Paula Gregorowicz, The Intuitive Intelligence™ Coach
Download the Free Report: Your Own Uniqueness: The Path to Purpose, Prosperity, and Playfulness at http://www.intuitiveintelligencecoaching.
