10 years ago I needed a change. I was in between jobs temporarily providing legal services at Bear Sterns as legal counsel in the IP department while seeking a new place of employment. During my quest, I was diligent, finding jobs on the Internet, posting a letter plus resume and sending them regularly at least once a week for a few months. I was trying to 'find' that right opportunity but often waited for a reply to see which one would seem to 'pick' me.
One day as I was reflecting on my process, I decided to give meditation a try and came to a very interesting conclusion. During my quiet moments, I came to a lake side neighborhood that I used to live in where my father and I would often walk around the lakes after dinner and talk while he would smoke his cigar. He died during my 1st year of law school and I miss him all the time. But at this moment, I could feel his presence and kind eyes asking him a question and really just clarifying the dilemma I was facing.
"What do you want? Name 5 things that are important to YOU in a job. Don't let one pick you, let the right one come to you"
I'm not sure what happens during meditation except time and logic seem to fall away. At that moment I thought really hard to find out what were the essential keys that I was looking for? The next few ideas that landed shaped my requirements for the job that I was looking for.
Culture - because working in a place that was 'un' progressive, stagnant and too slow was not aligned to my type of energy and I realized I needed something that made sense on an everyday level.
Flexibility - I had two young children, a baby and a 4 year old I was not going to leave them and be away 15 hours a day. At the time Bear Sterns was requiring me to do this and it was really untenable. I felt like I was in Boot camp in NY living with crazy early hours and not getting home until late. I was NOT interested in this type of work cycle.
Well Paid - this was important because for a few years I took a big pay cut to justify a calmer work life balance and realized that the ultimate job that I knew I could do would be more high paced, exciting and passionate in every way, so I set my sights on something better.
Challenging Work- legal is my passion, it is not a job. I cannot be in a work environment where my 9-5 is clocking in and out working through the legal side of things and going home. I crave excitement, newness and love to exercise my creativity in my work. I know that not being challenging would dry my energy right up.
Objectivity- forming legal judgment requires honesty, accuracy and well analyzed though process that cleanly identifies the issues. Once you form a view point, there should be no 'pulling back' or 'changing up' the view simply because "they" are in the room. I experienced a job where I had to be very careful who I said what to, and without reason or justification my approach would need to change because of a political gain. I cannot be a face for hire that changes on whims of political or personal gain. I promise my best work in a well reasoned way and through time one learns how to use wisdom and tact to carry the information forward to the audience but it should not be pushed nor reshaped for personal gain.
These were the 5 for me...and they still hold true 10 years later. As I reflect on these ares, I find maybe one or two of them could be at risk and it makes me realize that being true to myself is as important now as it was then. No matter how far I have come in last 10 years in my current role and company, it is still essential to reflect again see what happens...next.
No comments:
Post a Comment