People search for jobs, not careers. There are so many job-search engines, job boards, and recruitment websites on google searches. I was doing a keyword search and found that there is so little search on career development and career management compared with searches for job opportunities. Of course, a job pays the bills, career not always.
Career searching is very much like soul searching. You go where your spirit moves you. Your spirit is animated, playful, and energetic. It is enthusiastic and always interested. It likes change and innovation, improvement and development. Organizations aim for stability and predictability, order, system and control. What’s wrong with this picture?
There is an innate disconnect between the nature of our spirit and what we need to be when at the workplace. Needless to say that the longer we work in a stifling corporate culture, the more oppressed it seems your spirit becomes. How do you address this problem?
Metaphorically, you need to become like a warrior fighting for an authentic expression of yourself. You want to become clear of your personal core values and stand by them, guard them, nurture them. This is why integrity is a big thing not only as a corporate virtue but more so as an individual value. People and leaders make up the organization. Individuals in it collectively define integrity for the company. An organization that cares about career development is the company you’d want to work for.
