Exit a Dead-End Job 2: Identify Your Motivated Skills

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Brad was business manager for a large college within a major university. He enjoyed both the college and the university and his co-workers. He had been doing the same job for 12 years. While the college changed deans three times in those twelve years, his job did not change. He felt he was going through the motions on the job. His problem, however, he didn’t know what he could change. Most importantly, he didn't didn’t know that he wanted to do. He lacked the excitement to go to work, but did not want to change his co-workers, workplace environment, or status. He just wanted to feel greater fulfillment and challenges from his job.

Discover Your Motivated Skills

Stewart, Cooper, and Coon (the executive placement firm) offers Richard Knowdell’s Motivated Skills Test on their web site. It will help you identify your

• “Level of proficiency in a broad range of functional-transferrable skills”
• “Level of motivation to use these skills”
• “Plan to develop skills you enjoy but lack competency”

They also offers his Career Values Test. The values test will help you

• “Define factors affecting your career satisfaction”
• “Determine the intensity of your feelings about these factors”
• “Determine areas of value conflict and congruence”
• “Apply what you learn to your career decisions” that we will discuss in future posts

Explore How to Spend More Time on Motivated Skills

You can enhance the fulfillment of a dead-end job by performing the skills that motivate you the most. So, analyze what percent of your time you spend performing each skill listed. Explore how to increase time performed on those you enjoy and decrease time spent on those you don’t.

For example you might—in consultation with your supervisor:

• Trade certain tasks with a co-worker who doesn’t enjoy doing what you enjoy and vice versa
• Negotiate appointments to projects using the skills you enjoy most
• Look for other opportunities to use your motivated skills

Friday we examine the benefits and risks of moving to another company