What should you be looking out for when searching for a job?

What's the most important thing to look out for selecting a job? You might be thinking that the answer to the above question is very straight forward. The career that pays the MOST money of course! How much you get in terms of dollars and cents is important(you wouldn't want to be shortchanged), but there are other things that are just as important to be looking out for as well!

When I started my current job fresh out from school with a banking and finance degree, I didn't really know what I wanted in a career and sent out resumes to whatever finance-related position I came across. After multiple interviews, hopes and disappointments later, I finally ended up with three job offers, and of course I chose the one that was the highest paying. Thankfully, the decision wasn't too bad and built me a strong foundation for my future.

However, after spending almost two and a half years on the job, I feel that I have reached a plateau in terms of knowledge gained and the nature of the work does not seem to offer as much progression as I expected it to have. Hence, the decision was made to move on as I do not want to be stagnated so early in my work life. Ever wiser after working for a few years as compared to being a wide-eyed fresh college graduate, there are additional factors I will be looking out for in my next move as compared to just compensation-wise. Let me share what these considerations are.

First factor would be value-add, both to oneself, as well as what can be contributed to the employing organization. What I mean by value-adding to one self is how a new job can help you to grow in terms of knowledge, experience, competencies and skill sets. The moment you stop learning, you start dying, and lose your worth in the competitive world that we live in. So when choosing a job, select something that will help develop you into a better person. Of course, to be fair, you would also have to create value for the company within your capabilities, as employment is always a two way relationship.

The second thing that I would look out for is the risk-effort-reward ratio, and this has to be high or at least directly correlated. There are industries that pay much more than others and even within the same industry, certain roles are always more rewarding than others when comparing the same amount of effort put in. Logically, if you are to go all out to succeed in your career, it would be wise to choose your battleground carefully, and be sure to choose the one that is most rewarding!

My third and final consideration would be the career prospects. Would the job bring you closer towards your goals and dreams or would it lead you further away from it? Is there a path of advancement to continue on, or would it be able to open new opportunities for you? The last thing you would want is another job just to pass time or pay the bills!

What I've shared above are factors that I will be considering for my next move and I hope they will come in useful for you as well. Feel free to share any additional factors that you find worthy of consideration!

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When giving up sometimes means gaining more in return

Do you dread waking up for work everyday and having to drag yourself to work? Fact is , if you hate your job, you also hate half of the time you spend on this planet! If you hate half the time you are spending, then it is really time for a change!

Having worked in the same role for two over years, I'm at a point where I feel that I'm not being challenged enough. Although hours are good and I've just gotten a decent pay rise, I feel that I've reached a plateau in the current role and feel stagnated. Everyday at work feels like a drudgery as it is more or less a repeat of the previous day's routine and I don't seem to be learning anything new. There could possibly be better use of the time spent at work which has ceased to have any more meaning.

A conventional job takes up at least 8-10 hours of your day, not counting time commuting, meals and breaks. Factoring in another 8 hours per day for sleep, there's probably only 4-6 hours left over to split between family, friends and personal time. Hence, if work is already taking up so much of time, make sure that you love it, or else you are just wasting away days of your life!

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are also times when the work environment tries to mold you into something that you might not want to be. Are you losing yourself due to different expectations from your superiors, stress from work, pressure from your peers or from the highly competitive work culture?

Having talked to my bosses, I'm being offered a change to a different role which can only take place earliest in August. I've talked to people doing that specific role currently, and it seems enticing enough as there are lots of new things to learn. However, after giving due consideration to the long term prospects and the need to waste another few months in order to change to that role, I decided that it is not worth the wait.

If your work does not bring you closer to achieving your personal dreams and goals but instead tries to steal them away from you, then it is better to quit and retrace your path in life. Sometimes, you have to learn to give up something in order to gain something more in return. Giving up might be hard as it is very easy to get comfortable, but settling for work where your potential is never realized means you are actually missing out a lot more in life!

Having juggled both a full-time job and running a business for almost coming three or four years, I feel physically and mentally drained. I intend to take a month or two hiatus in order to recharge, recuperate and basically refocus my goals and path in life. Wish me luck!

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” - Andre Gide

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What are true entrepreneurs made of?

Just read a blog entry "Escaping the entrepreneurial seizure" over at the Four Hour Work Week and it struck a chord with me. Does firing your boss and starting your own business equate to entrepreneurship? Or does it just mean that the status quo has just changed from you being an employee to you being "self-employed"?

Quoting Michael Gerber of "The E-Myth Revisited" fame, entrepreneurs "invent businesses that work without them. Technicians create businesses that work because of them. The entrepreneur is liberated from what I call the “tyranny of routine,” and the technician becomes a slave to it. In the entrepreneur’s case, the business works. In the technician’s case, the technician works." The above few sentences capture the essence of true entrepreneurship.

Well, to paraphrase, one cannot claim to be a true entrepreneur if you merely jump from being an employee to starting your own business but continue to use your own time to do exactly the same things you used to do as an employee. ie. you are basically still exchanging your personal time for money. Instead of freeing yourself from the slavery of your ex-boss, you have evolved to become a slave to your own business.

To be a true entrepreneur, value has to created, predominantly in the form of a scalable business model that are based on rules, systems and processes, that ultimately frees the entrepreneur from having to micromanaging employees or firefighting. Instead, the true entrepreneur should be focused on steering the business towards his dream and vision, to plan, organize and direct instead of getting stuck managing routine work. Instead of letting the business run you, an entrepreneur runs the business!

Being an employee, you are given a job. By starting your own business but doing the same thing as you did as an employee, you become self-employed and own a job. But as an entrepreneur, you captain a self-sustainable business system that is profitable, creates value, and gives jobs to other people while freeing your own time . Who would you rather choose to be?

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Inspiration: Journey to the heart of the world

"The nature of Mind is emptiness and Luminosity
Inseparably conjoined...
Spontaneously merging with the original state
I am indifferent to experiences of good and bad.
With mind free and effortless, I rest in happiness and joy.

Where subject and object are realized as a single sphere
Happiness and sorrow mingle as one...
Whatever circumstances I encounter,
I am free in the blissful realm of self-awakening Wisdom."
-Buddhist Sage Milarepa

I've been mesmerized the whole week by a book "The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place", Ian Baker's account of his amazing journey through Beyul Pemako in Tibet, describing the many difficulties and the personal insights he gained as he made this mesmerizing pilgrimage to uncover a hidden paradise over the course of five years. I'm just halfway through the book but already feeling truly inspired.

I've always been entranced by the concept of paradise, a place where all needs can be magically satisfied and happiness and enjoyments are equal to a god-realm, as Pemako, the "Bermuda Triangle of Tibet" was depicted in ancient texts outlined in the book. As opposed to the high-stressed, fast paced economy of today, of which most of us are inevitably stuck in, such a place seems dubiously existential, although everyone is invariably in a quest to find success in their life and seek their own Shangri-la.

The idea of a pilgrimage does not merely mean to visit a sacred place, but to facilitate an inner transformation at places that challenges conventional ways of seeing. In this sense, the more destabilizing the surroundings the better. As described in the book, Ian's trip was as much a spiritual journey, as much as it was also a physical trip through uncharted territory, as he battled against blood-sucking leeches, extreme temperatures, insurmountable physical obstacles, bureaucratic red-tape, before culminating in the discovery of a magnificent 108-foot high waterfall in the very heart of the Tsangpo gorges.

"To reach this secret place,
your meditation and insight should be confident;
free of any fear or doubt...
In order to pass through the tunnel of obstacles,
one's behavior and actions must be impeccable..
otherwise hidden places will never be revealed."
-Rinchen Riwoche Jedrung Jhampa Yungney
(Clear light: a Guide to the hidden land of Pemako)

Although most of us will never ever make such an equivalent arduous physical journey in real life, I'm sure that we will still encounter many set-backs, obstacles, and failures as we search for success with our personal goals. We should take such challenges in stride and never stop trying to build our own utopia, as paradise is truly found within ourselves. Have you found your own Shangri-la yet?

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