10050 Crosstown Cir.
Suite 300
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
1-800-767-7895
952-944-7575
When people are in job-search mode, it can be a very frustrating time. Whether they’re looking for a job out of necessity (because they’re currently without one) or for a change of scenery (because they’re not satisfied where they’re at), the process can be frustrating, and even grueling.
But it’s also full of high hopes for something bigger, better, more ideal, and rewarding.
There are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you make the right moves. If you know what drives you, it will keep you from applying for (and maybe even landing) the wrong job. These questions can give you a lens through which you can view companies to see if they’re a good fit for you.
The way this is written, it could sound like something negative, as though someone who’s driven by money is somehow less guided by virtue. But that’s not what this means. It means that making money is something you’re good at (or want to be good at) and you’re motivated to figure out ways to succeed.
If you are somebody that is driven by money, it probably means that you’ve always been motivated, whether with a lemonade stand when you were a kid or with goals that were a bit loftier than your friends and family members. You have a mind for business and an eye for quality. It means you will work hard to make something (and yourself) financially successful, even if it’s not the most rewarding work for you or if it requires long days and sleepless nights.
People who are driven by purpose care about what they do more than anything else. They’ll work at the animal shelter for $11 an hour when a less meaningful job is available across town for $20. They’ll work until midnight helping put on an event for their company without feeling overworked. They’re driven by a cause, by their potential to make a difference. Purpose in their work fuels their performance and is more rewarding than (or maybe just as rewarding as) a paycheck.
Many people who are driven by purpose wish that they could stop thinking about money so they could just do what they care about. They’ll work long hours for little pay if it means that they’re connecting who they are with the work they’re doing.
Some people aren’t necessarily worried about what they do for a living or what it pays. They certainly have a preference, in that they don’t want to do something they hate and they want to make enough money that will allow them to afford the lives they want. But they’re not searching for jobs that will help them change the world or make millions. They’re searching for jobs that will give them what matters most to them: TIME.
They want to know that the job they find will give them their evenings and weekends. They want to know that they can go to the cabin, take time off, pursue their hobbies, and unplug from work. They want to know that what they do for a living won’t become what they do with their life.
If this is you, the ideal job for you may not connect with some ideal sense of calling and it may not pay you more money than you ever dreamed you could make, but it lets you have your life. It makes room for you to leave work at work so that you can do the things that matter most to you.
Usually people aren’t just one of these, but a combination of them. And most companies aren’t just one of these either, but a combination.
It's important that you take the time to figure out what really drives you. The more that you know who you are, what motivates you and how you work best, the more you’ll be able to make the right decisions about the next move for your job search.