Sometimes it seems that there was a mistake with the choice of profession. Although in fact, the problem is in choosing the type of career. It is enough to reconsider your vector of promotion and development, and the feeling of work will become completely different.
For example, you work as an accountant or a lawyer, feel disappointed in your profession, and envy freelance artists. This does not mean that you need to quit your usual business and urgently learn painting. If you analyze the situation and your inclinations, it may turn out that what really attracts you is not an easel with brushes, but independence and the ability to manage your time. Or a chance to express yourself brightly. This means that to get rid of discontent, it is enough to organize work in one’s own profession in such a way as to satisfy these needs. Freelancing is suitable for someone , and someone can truly open up only in their own business .
This is the type of career. This is not about the categories of “technical staff”, “specialist”, “middle manager” and “top manager”. More precisely, not only about them. The concept of career type is much deeper.
What is a career type?
We are all different. For some, work is just a source of income, because the main values and interests are in the family, travel, and hobbies. And for some, work is the meaning and main interest of life. People of the first type are relieved to “turn off” all thoughts about work as soon as the time on the clock shows the end of the working day. People of the second type never let go of the thought of work.
Someone has a fair amount of ambition and considers it important to achieve leadership positions or create something fundamentally new. And someone just wants to calmly do their job and that “no one touches.” For some, difficult tasks and risks are stressful, for others, they are an invigorating challenge.
Someone needs clear instructions on how to act in this or that case. If there are none, it seems like a nervous task from the series of “go there – I don’t know where to bring that – I don’t know what.” And someone, on the contrary, is killed by the need to act according to the instructions, the task is enough. The person will find a way to solve it himself.
Such pieces form a single puzzle of the most appropriate style and format of work, in which a person will best reveal his potential and not experience severe discomfort. This will be the type of career. Within the same profession, different types of careers are possible. Let’s see what they are.
Also read : Questions to ask yourself to reach a new career level
1. Corporate type of career
Suitable for: practical and cautious people, ready to compromise, but not without ambition.
The main expectations from work: stability, income, comfortable conditions & prestige.
What scares: risks, vague prospects.
It would seem that such expectations are basic for all people. Not really. It is no coincidence that stability comes first here. People of this type value it above bright, but risky prospects. And it is also difficult for them to endure heavy and uneven loads “here and now” for the sake of unsteady chances for a brilliant future.
Therefore, entrepreneurial activity is not very suitable for them, even if it promises much higher income compared to the salary. Hard work in a startup with small incomes is also not for them: “What if the project doesn’t take off, and I’m wasting my time?”
People of this type are ready to obey strict rules and sacrifice a lively interest in work for the sake of a good salary. Conversely, even the most interesting and creative work in the world will not suit them if they are not paid enough for it. They can change the profession they have dreamed of since childhood to a higher paying one and not regret it.
What suits: demanded highly paid professions and work in large, stable companies with a good level of salaries and a clear career prospect.
2. Static career type
Suitable for: unambitious people for whom work and money is definitely not the main thing in life.
The main expectations from work: stability, complete clarity of tasks and functions & psychological comfort.
What scares you: blurry tasks or multitasking, high workload and responsibility.
People of this type can cope well with the routine tasks assigned to them. The main thing is that they do not endlessly throw more and more new ones. Do not complicate, do not set vague goals and do not require initiative and processing. Work that requires serious involvement or creativity, making responsible decisions, does not allow you to forget about yourself even on vacation and on weekends, does not suit them. It can cause serious stress that outweighs the benefits of a high salary. Prestige and career growth do not appeal to them, enough comfort.
What suits: Performance work with well-defined functions, no multitasking, with a normalized mode or a mode that you can adjust yourself.
3. Professional type of career
Suitable for: practical, but at the same time enthusiastic people, for whom not only income and comfort are important, but also self-realization in their favorite business.
The main expectations from work: professional growth and self-development, interesting and important content of the work, but subject to comfortable and stable conditions, good salary.
What scares me: boredom, stagnation and low salary.
For such people, work is more than a source of income. At work with boring responsibilities and a lack of professional development, even a high salary does not save them from longing and a sense of dissatisfaction with life. But they are not ready to work only “for the idea”.
Finding an ideal option that combines both is not easy, the main problem of such people is a bias either in one or the other direction.
What suits: expert positions with interesting functionality and a good salary, private consulting.
4. Creative type of career
Suitable for: highly passionate people for whom vocation is most important.
The main expectations from work: an interesting and important thing, self-realization, a chance to create something new & outstanding.
What scares: routine tasks, working according to instructions.
This is a rare type of people who are ready to work “for an idea” with burning eyes, without thinking too much about money and comfort. It’s not that the material side of life didn’t bother them at all, it’s just that the need to do what they love is more important.
If such people are forced to find themselves in a job that is not interesting for them, no salary can save them from feeling strong dissatisfaction with life – and sooner or later a crisis sets in.
What suits: working with creative problems and developing new products & services.
5. Entrepreneurial career path
Suitable for: active, ambitious and gambling people.
The main expectations from work: growth of income and life status, independence, the opportunity to prove oneself, to do something that will cause respect and admiration.
What scares: the role of a simple screw in the mechanism, routine.
People of this type enjoy the development of new projects, are not afraid to take responsibility for decisions, are ready to take risks for the sake of bright prospects and are able to work hard. The more difficult the task, the more excitement. What is a huge stress for other people is a drive for them. They can be compared to lovers of extreme sports.
In a job where they have to be just performers, especially if they have to carry out other people’s decisions that seem unsuccessful, they are very uncomfortable.
What suits: project management, creation of new activities within the company, entrepreneurship.
Also read : How to know that business is good for you?
How career types are changing
The propensity for a particular type of career can change throughout life. At one stage, one thing is more important for us, at another, another.
For example, many (although, of course, not all) women, while they have small children, are focused on a static type of career, then there is a great desire to prove themselves. Routine work in an ordinary position begins to be burdensome.
Conversely, former careerists who have spent many years working in a top position in a large corporation may one day feel an urgent need to trade it all in for a simple, unstressed freelance job to be able to “breathe” and just live.
Many of us make mistakes in choosing the type of career. A typical example is a talented specialist inclined towards a professional career type who rushes into entrepreneurship for the sake of money or agrees to lead a project where he will have managerial rather than expert functions. But it turns out that the entrepreneurial type of career does not suit him, he is constantly stressed and misses expert work.
Or a person, reluctantly, betrays his beloved business for the sake of a stable income. At the end pays for it with severe depression.