Just how many lives do you think you have?

A neighbor and her husband are planning on sailing across the Atlantic next year. Her husband had recently made the trip, going first to Bermuda, then the Azores, before docking in Gibraltar. I asked her if she was afraid of being out in the vast Atlantic, all alone, in a, by comparison, tiny catamaran. She replied, “Heck no. I see people die all the time. I want to live.”

My friend and neighbor is a nurse in the oncology department at a local hospital. She does see people die all the time.

It made me wonder about the difference between people who choose their work as though they will always have another shot at doing what they really want to do and people who live life by their own rules, doing work that is completely satisfying. And making certain they do it before they die. Considering a person will work 40 to 55 years of their life, why would someone choose work they didn’t really enjoy? Especially if there is something else they prefer doing or are destined to do.

There are probably numerous answers to this question but the overriding one I believe is: Fear. People are afraid if they don’t take the job offered another won’t come along and they will be destitute. They fear that following their dreams is indulgent and selfish. They fear if they don’t earn a lot of money, whether they like the job or not, others will judge them, their family will suffer, and they will be living in the streets in their old age. They fear their calling is the wrong calling. Regardless, it boils down to the same thing: They are afraid of what could happen if not taking the “safe” route. Personally, I am more afraid of dying and not doing the work I was intended to do.

Even if you can get past these fears, you may be wondering where to start. This insightful article, Career Assessment: Finding Satisfying Work is a great guide. According to the article, key to alignment is:

1. Discover what you are designed to do.
2. Do it.
3. Minimize everything else.

I don’t believe the issue so much is that we don’t know what we’re designed to do but that we enlarge everything else in our lives so that our purpose becomes inconsequential or worse, forgotten. I recall a friend from high school who had the most beautiful singing voice. Her performance in the school’s version of Fiddler on the Roof made me gasp at its perfection. Today, I understand she is a hospital administrator. Great job, no doubt, but I am saddened to think what the world has lost in not being able to hear her sing.

How to test a hiring company’s ability to meet your goals and expectations.

Nowadays, it seems a lot of companies are incorporating pre-hiring assessments into their hiring strategy. Personally, I like assessments even though no one assessment or program can really get inside a candidate’s brain matter to see what makes them tick, motivates them to do a great job, or predict how long they will stay around. I think they like to think they can but formal assessments leave out one critical component in determining a successful match – how well a company measures up in meeting candidates’ goals and expectations.

Hiring companies can rely upon validity measurements and test scores to determine if the candidate can perform the job and, hopefully, predict how well they will succeed in that job. And that is great but, like any other relationship, things can become stale when one party wants the other to rev things up a bit. While a good pre-hire assessment will be able to predict if the candidate will be adequately challenged at the time of hire, how does a job candidate measure how well a company evolves to continually challenge employees 5, 10, or 15 years down the road? Without this, it is a bit of a lopsided process.

In the beginning of any relationship, tension exists as to acceptance. Will the company offer the job and/or will the job candidate accept the job? This uncertainty and wanting can cloud the issue of whether or not the company and the employee are the best fit for each other for the long haul. Like personal relationships, there is a honeymoon period but this doesn’t occur until after the deal has been sealed. While everyone hopes the big questions are answered during the courting phase, unlike personal relationships, the courting phase for job hunters and hiring companies is short, by comparison. It is also highly subjective, depending upon the individual representing the company. A hiring manager to whom the employee will report is markedly different than a human resources professional who has likely not performed the work the employee is about to do and may not be aware of what it takes for the employee to get ahead in the job for which they are hiring. I know, long sentence, but I need to make a point.

So, how do you go about measuring how well a company will match your expectations for a long and successful relationship? The tried-and-true method of asking questions about what the company foresees for you in 5, 10, 15 years or more down the road and their plans and ability to get you there.

Who said finding your calling would be easy?

I was struck by Daniel Seddiqui's 50 jobs in 50 states adventure. If you don’t know Daniel’s story, he is the University of Southern California graduate who, unable to find a job in his field, set out to do something remarkable – get a job in each of the 50 states and chronicle his experiences. Daniel wrote:

Ever since I graduated from the University of Southern California, I have experienced uncertainty regarding my career path. Interviewing for a position was a full-time job and I wasn't having any luck; failing 40+ interviews. I never received feedback from any employers, so when I was offered a position no matter how irrelevant it was to my field of study, I accepted. I took my first position tutoring elementary students part-time. I knew right off the bat tutoring wasn't for me. I was realizing that I had to find a position that motivated me to wake up every morning.

What were hiring managers thinking?

Daniel lists on his resume, lobsterman in Maine, a surf instructor in Hawaii, a roustabout in Oklahoma, and archaeologist in Arkansas, among 45 other professions, and only one to go. When Daniel first started looking for a job in his hometown, how did hiring managers overlook this kind of initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity? Or, is it, perhaps, that the best of the best actually require adversity, need that testing, to have them find their true calling? What is Daniel’s mission now?

“My goal is to help Americans understand each other’s lives, respect each other’s hard work and stimulate peoples’ curiosity about different lifestyles.”

It appears Daniel has discovered what he had hoped to find at the beginning of his journey, namely, to find work that motivates him to wake up every morning.