Career Clarity with Nonnegotiables

Early in my career, I worked in several corporate jobs. While I had gone through several career assessments (I’m a Myers-Briggs personality type INFJ-T), I didn’t know my nonnegotiables.

At a time when I was interviewing for a marketing job in Connecticut, I was also interviewing for an account manager role with an advertising agency in New York City. I received job offers from both organizations and flipped a coin to make my decision on the job to accept.

While my marketing job was okay, I knew that something was not right because I was not satisfied with my job, and I couldn’t figure out why.

According to 2018, Job Seeker Nation Study from Jobvite, 30% of new hires will quit or leave a job within 90 days. Why? Most state that their daily role was not what they expected, while others report that an incident, company culture, or bad experience drove them to leave, and 11% changed their minds or received a better offer after signing.

Why do many professionals experience disconnect? 

There are a variety of assessments exposing career personalities, traits, strengths in an attempt to identify careers that may be a good match. Assessments do not ensure career satisfaction.

According to the Jobvite survey results, most employees (61%) are satisfied with their current job, yet 51% of professionals will change jobs every 1-5 years. Professionals may be changing jobs because they have not identified their nonnegotiables.

Identify Nonnegotiables

I have shared this exercise with thousands of clients, and I have yet to hear someone say it’s a waste of time. Here’s how to start:

1.     Block 30-minutes of time on your calendar– no distractions, no texts, no emails.

2.     Get a piece of paper and a pen.

3.     Get a beverage of choice.

4.     List twenty-five (or more) things that are important to you at this moment and time.

5.     Narrow the list down to your top five nonnegotiable items.

6.     Check the list to make sure there are not competing nonnegotiable items. For example, it may be challenging to find a job with no travel that is a national sales representative role.

Identifying your nonnegotiables provides clarity to what is essential to you. Use your nonnegotiables list as guidelines for considering jobs, organizations, and lifestyle choices.

This exercise does not require talking with anyone else to gather input. The clearer you are regarding your nonnegotiables, the easier it will be to make career choices. 

You can do this exercise and never tell anyone. Some professionals found that talking about their nonnegotiables with a trusted source has been invaluable and insightful.

When there is a significant change, reconsider your nonnegotiables to make sure what you identify is still valid to guide your career.