5: Stop Looking for The Perfect Job, Try This Instead

 Unless you're looking for the very last job of your career, you know, the one where you establish your legacy, then your next job doesn't need to be the perfect job. Honestly, from what I've seen, the perfect job probably doesn't even exist. Yet many of the people who reach out to me seem to be looking for that perfect job. It's an awful lot of pressure to put on yourself. 

But I get it. Most of the people I work with, they're achievement-oriented MBAs. Maybe that's you. So anything less than an ideal outcome for a job search can seem like a failure. Especially if you have a reunion coming up.  You want to present the ideal story or narrative. 

You may have a list of half a dozen to a dozen criteria that your ideal job needs to have. And in my experience, after working with more than a thousand people who want to advance their careers, you're probably not going to satisfy all of them. So, if you expect to, then you're setting yourself up for failure, even before your first networking conversation or interview. 

 Instead of promoting a pressure-filled approach to career advancement that can often lead to disappointment, I advocate for what I think is a more sensible and ultimately more motivating approach that's focused on continuous improvement.  I encourage the people I work with to focus on their career direction or trajectory. One that can ultimately lead toward that legacy role I mentioned but can have a few bends and learning experiences along the way. 

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Sure, there are times when people do find what seems like the perfect job. But even the, and I put it in quotes, "perfect job" can turn into the "not so perfect job" after you've been in it for a few weeks or even a few days and you begin to see the imperfections in your new role, company, boss or colleagues that were just below the surface during the recruiting process. 

So rather than endlessly searching and holding out for that elusive perfect job, focus instead on identifying what your actual criteria for it are. Recognize that you might not satisfy every one of your criteria for the ideal job in your next move.

Instead think about your career as a progression in which you steadily check off all of those boxes over time until you ultimately arrive at what is, or is very close to being, the perfect job. 

 So to be moving in the right direction toward your ideal job, you need to know what that direction is. I prefer a holistic approach to develop your criteria, one that incorporates considerations about both work and life. It's getting harder and harder to separate the two, so why not consider them as a whole and make sure they're compatible?   

To get started on your criteria for the perfect or ideal job, think about the following: 

First, the role. What do you actually do every day? What types of activities make up your minutes, hours and days? 

Next, think about context. What industry or industries do you work in? And who are the people you interact with on a regular basis? What are the characteristics of the business or organization you'd like to be a part of? 

Next, think about impact. Who or what does your work ultimately benefit? 

If you've listened to the first episode of this podcast titled "What's Your Career Narrative?" then you might recognize these three criteria. They're an essential part of your positioning or narrative. 

Your list of criteria should probably also include the following considerations: 

Finances. What are your financial requirements now and in the future?  

Geography. Where do you want to live? And if you have a commute, where are you commuting to?  

Personal. How much time and flexibility do you need for personal interests and commitments to family, friends and community?  

Health and wellness. What do you need in your life to feel at your physical and mental best?  

Try writing a sentence or detailed bullet for each of the points I mentioned.

Consider if there's anything else you want or need to have. You could have criteria that fall into other categories that I didn't mention, and if you do, include them,  

Let it sit a while. See how your ideas develop. Challenge yourself. 

Ask if the criteria you've listed are truly important to you, or if they're the internalized expectations of other people in your life. If you suspect they're other people's criteria, consider if they really belong on the list, and if they don't whether you feel ready to part with them yet.  

Recognizing that your next job may not satisfy all of your criteria, you'll need to prioritize them. Ask yourself. What are your must-haves and what are your nice-to-haves? 

If one or more of your criteria include a number, like a salary, is meeting that number absolutely necessary or would you consider a range of outcomes?  

Document your results and make sure you keep them somewhere where they're easily accessible. When you're under pressure to make a decision about whether to pursue or accept a job, you'll want to be able to refer back to this list. Apple Notes, Google Keep, a starred Google Doc, a favorite notebook. Use whatever is your favorite and most readily accessible and retrievable method of storing important notes. 

In the approach I'm proposing, you would typically start a career with just a few essential criteria in the must-have category and the remainder would be in the nice-to-have category. As you gain experience and you learn more about yourself, you might adapt your criteria. You'll also end up moving nice-to-have criteria to the must-have category. And with more experience, self-knowledge and credibility, you'll have the leverage and the confidence to insist on a longer list of must-haves. 

By the time you get to the latter part of your career, assuming you've achieved a degree of success and credibility, most if not all of your criteria will have moved to the must-have category and you'll be primed for that legacy role.

As an executive recruiter who worked to fill roles that would likely be the last or second to last role of a candidate's career, I noticed that criteria related to impact or mission took on greater importance. Often, the people I worked with had achieved enough success in terms of title, prestige and compensation that they felt free to focus their attention on legacy and the impact of their work. 

That's not to say that impact or mission aren't important at the earlier stages of a career. It's just that they seem to become even more so as people advance in age and they achieve greater levels of success.  

The evolution I just described is a gradual process that happens over many years and possibly several roles or even phases of a career. I've noticed that rather than resulting in, I guess you could call it a lazy attitude toward career management, I know some of you were wondering, the recognition that you typically move toward the ideal job over time is motivating and fosters resilience when things go wrong. This gradual approach helps the people I've worked with weather storms and see past the inevitable bumps in the road they're likely to face as they pursue career advancement.  

So take some of the pressure off yourself and don't expect your next job to be the perfect one, one that satisfies all of your criteria when it comes to work and life.  

First, get clear on what your criteria actually are. Write them down. 

Prioritize them and understand that at the point you're currently at in your life and career, which criteria are must-haves and which are nice-to-haves.   

Pursue your must-haves with intent. And with each new job and opportunity, increase the number of your must-haves until you one day realize that you're in the ideal or close-to-perfect job for you.