As we approach the end of the year, we sometimes look to resolutions to guide
our way. Instead, this year, I found myself thinking of the Career Opportunities
Vision. What goals am I trying to accomplish with this column? What do I want
to impart to you? How can I make a difference in your career and, possibly,
in your life? This column is the sum of my thinking and will be my guiding light
for Career Opportunities in 2007.
I would love to hear your comments and questions on this and any
other Career Opportunities column, past, present or future. Your
email is always welcome
at career@welchwite.com or you can call the WelchWrite
Reader/Listener line and leave a message at 206-338-5832.
The Vision
The Career Opportunities Vision is:
* To help you find a job and a career where you can achieve your
goals while simultaneously helping your organization achieve their
goals
Today, your work is (or should be) a partnership -- two equals coming
together for a common good. If either partner succeeds at the cost
of the other, then
it is truly no success at all. Success, real sustained success, can only
be found where both company and employee are working at their best
for a common
goal.
* To help you to benefit from your work as much as your company --
sharing prestige and income in a fair ratio
When your company succeeds, you deserve to succeed as well. Your work
directly benefits the goals of your company and should be recognized.
Outrageous executive
pay and bonuses have no place in the best environments. Employees should not
be forced into "work for hire" agreements, nor should you allow yourself
to work for companies that seek them. You deserve to be rewarded for significant
developments and income generated by your work including patents, licensing
and notoriety. Anything less stunts your career and puts you at the mercy of
your employer.
* To help you improve the world through your work, not diminish it
You should never feel you must work for companies that engage in
abhorrent activities of any sort. Companies that, through their
actions, contribute to the destruction
of the environment, destruction of people or the destruction of quality
of life should be avoided. Working for such companies, especially
when
their actions
go directly against your own personal morals, wishes and desires only strengthens
them and allows them to continue their activities.
* To help make yourself the best person possible while assisting
your company in doing the same
Growth is essential for any human being as well as for your career.
Companies that seek to limit your growth, through ignorance or
action, damage both you
and themselves. You must grow and you deserve to grow. Anyone or any entity
that seeks to limit this is to be avoided.
* To help you to have the time to explore relationships and knowledge
outside of your work
Your work and career is only one small part of your life and should
be treated accordingly. Burying yourself in your career, at the expense
of family, friends,
love and knowledge is damaging to you and those around you. All careers should
allow you time to pursue "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" without
attempting to monopolize your time, energy and intelligence. Companies should
know that growth, whether directly related to your work or not, illuminates
and expands their opportunities.
..and finally...
* Career Opportunities seeks, above all, to help you build the career
you deserve.
Everyone truly deserves the most fulfilling and the most rewarding
career available. Never let anyone tell you that your career must
be drudgery, filled with abuse
or unfulfilling. The greatest accomplishments of mankind come when we all
work together, as equals and apply ourselves to a task that is
far bigger than an
individual could ever conceive.
Those who seek to coerce, control or compromise are the foes of us
all. Those who seek to raise their own position by the abuse of
others instead bring about
their own failure. We all are partners in our endeavors and those who forget
that, on either side, will surely suffer. For your part, remember that you
do deserve as much as you can accomplish in your life and no one
has the right
to stop you.
Now let's all move forward into the New Year and your great career!
Comments, Questions, Reviews?
Career
Opportunities
