Finding Success and Fulfillment in Your Career

by Georgia C. Stelluto

Can we find both success and fulfillment in our careers? Peggy Hutcheson, a session speaker at IEEE-USA’s 2005 Leadership Conference, said that achieving both is one of the leading career challenges of the 21st century. In her session, participants learned to analyze their most important skills and values; examine the “payoffs” from work that were most important to them; identify their career orientation; and differentiate between success and fulfillment.

Hutcheson challenged participants to examine what their response is if someone asks them about the company they work for. Is the answer better than — Ok? She said that we should ask ourselves what we are looking for in our work, and what makes a company an “employer of choice” for us. Do we want freedom in choosing our work? A friendly working environment? How about security, compensation, mutual respect or recognition? Hutcheson said it is crucial to determine which factors are the most important to you personally.

What People Want

Studies reveal, Hutcheson said, that topping the list of what people want at work are opportunities to contribute — a challenge. Others high on the list are working with people who care about them as professionals; competent supervisors; opportunities to grow, learn and develop; employee-friendly environments; socially responsible organizations — and fun! In general, most people would like new challenges, variety, continuous learning and a journey of growth and learning in their jobs.

To determine the factors most important to finding job fulfillment, Hutcheson advised attendees to analyze the skills and values most important to them, and examine work payoffs that are personally valuable. She suggested identifying personal career orientation and then differentiating between success and fulfillment when one thinks about jobs and careers. “Be clear about what you want,” Hutcheson said.

What You Bring

According to Hutcheson, competency is a skill, knowledge area, or attribute which, when applied with excellence, leads to higher performance and goal attainment. What kinds of skills do you bring to work? She counseled workshop participants to examine their knowledge, skills and attributes — to look at all their areas of competence. Then, Hutcheson guided the audience to decide their work preferences — in terms of work environment, style of supervision, challenges and values. She asked them to think about what kinds of people, data, things and ideas interest them.

Work Payoffs

“What aspects of the work and work environment are most important to you?” Hutcheson asked the audience. She said the top three people cite most often are challenge, making a contribution, and competent supervision. Interestingly, the least important aspect for most folks is high earnings. The reason? “Most people don’t want to pay the price that comes with making the big bucks,” Hutcheson said. She asked attendees to take a hard look at their values to determine their individual payoff factors at work. To some, location is important. For others, leadership opportunities to direct and influence is key. Some ranked leisure time important — where their schedule would allow non-work pursuits and no significant overtime would be required.

Success and Fulfillment

“Sometimes the work you enjoy most is not a priority of the organization you work for,” Hutcheson said. She suggested examining these career orientations: getting ahead, getting secure, getting free, getting challenged and getting balanced. Hutcheson noted that an imbalance could indicate not being clear about what one wants or doesn’t — what’s important or what’s not. She said that alignment requires a balance of competencies, values, interests and goals — yours and your organization’s.

Hutcheson told attendees to look first and always at having the lifestyle away from work that they want; and to free themselves from continuously being cycled into doing things they don’t want to do. She encouraged participants to strive for balance in all aspects of their lives. “True alignment,” she said, “is when success and fulfillment square off right in the middle of overlapping circles of your competency, the organizational need, and your passion.”

In closing, Hutcheson quoted Ben Franklin to illustrate every person’s right: The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. So, take the time to look at all the factors that will help you find success and fulfillment in your personal life and at your work. You’ll be much happier for it — now and over the long haul.

Georgia C. Stelluto is IEEE-USA’s Publishing Manager and Managing Editor of IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer quarterly print digest. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.