The Wall Street Journal is offering a free article on evaluating motivation before changing jobs. The article doesn’t give much advice other some throw-away lines from career advisors, it just chronicles the stories of two individuals who recently made the decision to take a turn in the woods and forge a new career path.
“The grass may look greener, but in fact, it may be the wrong job,” says Jan Cannon, a career adviser and author in Boston. She recalls a client who was miserable in a market-research job, moved to another employer without adequately considering the reasons for her unhappiness, and was miserable again. She is now training to be a teacher. The problem, the woman now realizes, wasn’t her former employer, it was working in market research, Ms. Cannon says.
It can be really difficult to analyze happiness or unhappiness in a vocation. I’m going through a bit of this myself. It’s been a difficult path for me so far. My interests and abilities run the gamut, and not having focused enough on any one thing, I find myself a bit lost. That’s something I’m actively working on, though.
Published or updated September 26, 2005. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Please keep us posted. I’m going through something like this myself, but I realized that it was the vocation, as opposed to employer, that was making me miserable. I’m scouting around for other options, but I’d be keen to hear what you’re doing. :)