Career Insights – Reflecting on Your Most Valuable Asset
While most of our clients are retired, for those still working their careers are often their largest financial asset when you tally the potential income they have yet to earn. Reflecting on your career is a worthwhile endeavor to ensure you’re maximizing not only the financial value but also your career satisfaction.
There are a number of questions and tools to consider when evaluating your career. We’ll consider a number of these as part of this article, but I’ll also provide some additional resources for further discovery.
The first question to periodically ask yourself is: What’s your level of satisfaction with your current role? Sometimes it helps to answer on a numerical scale from one to ten. A ten response would be similar to “I can’t believe I get paid to do this job; I’d almost do it for free because I enjoy the work so much!” Conversely, a score of one would be equivalent to “There’s no amount of money that would make me happy doing this job. Instead of making a living, I’m dying in this role.”
A couple additional questions to understand the evolution of your role include: What’s the likelihood of losing your job? This question can be impacted by the economic environment (e.g. recession), your company’s success (or lack thereof), department reorganizations, etc. Ranking this question from low to high may influence some of the next actions you take regarding your career.
Even if your job is secure, another question to ask yourself is: How much can your income fluctuate from one year to the next? The answer to this question directly impacts the amount of money you should set aside to cover income gaps and the scope of financial commitments you can make without exposing yourself to heightened risk and stress. If more of your income comes from bonuses or commissions, then managing your cash flow becomes even more crucial.
There’s been interesting research linking the answers to some of these questions to how you should even manage your investments (which is beyond the scope of this article), but the answers can also provide guidance to key next steps for managing your career asset. There are three proven habits for enhancing your career, which lead to the next series of questions.
What are you doing for professional development? Attending conferences or other formal training programs is just the beginning for the habit of lifelong learning. Even if you have to pay for the program or knowledge yourself, there’s often no better return on investment than your own career.
How does your compensation compare with similar roles? Whether you’re underpaid (or even overpaid), you won’t know until you benchmark yourself to peers in similar roles. While being overpaid may sound alluring, it also means you’re at risk when the inevitable corporate restructuring occurs. Of course, if you’re underpaid, further exploration is necessary. Perhaps you’re intentionally trading off income for more flexibility or less responsibility. If not, it may be time for a conversation with your manager about your compensation and how you create value for your employer.
What kind of networking do you do within your company and industry? It’s unlikely you’ll succeed in your career staying in a narrow silo of the people immediately around you. While it takes effort, creating connections with other people (especially in advance of when you actually need help) can pay dividends many years into the future. A simple next step would be to invite a colleague to coffee to build rapport. Actively utilizing online networking sites (such as LinkedIn) is another helpful strategy.
If you’re interested in enhancing your career further, here are several resources for consideration:
- Mike Haubrich’s book “Career Asset Management” served as the inspiration for this article, and many of the concepts are expanded further in his book, which at under 130 pages is easily digestible. Be sure to reflect on the “owner versus renter” mentality for your career asset.
- Janine Moon’s book “Career Ownership” includes many wonderful exercises for aligning your skills/strengths with the work you do. Janine’s decades of experience as a career coach are evident in this book, which is under 100 pages but full of insights. The person you see in the mirror is the one in control of your career!
- If you’re interested in connecting your work (“life energy”) to your money, then the classic book “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez will provide the roadmap to financial independence. Enhancing your career only to see your income slip away through unconscious spending won’t get you any closer to your financial goals. What’s your “gazingus pin” for spending?
While we may not be experts in your industry or profess to be career counselors, the financial advisors at FSG typically know more about the various facets of our clients’ lives than just about anyone else, AND we’re an objective sounding board to bounce ideas off. We can also help with employer benefit elections, retirement plan contributions and income tax withholdings to avoid nasty surprises next April. If you’re interested in a facilitated discussion around your career, we’re available to help.
