Sweats to Suits Your transition from campus to the workplace

Don’t Rain on my Parade

I grew up in the kind of household when any minor stressor led to a reaction on par with World War III.  When someone had a problem, we knew about it, and we suffered while we were convinced of the validity of every last detail ad nauseam.  Obviously, taking an optimistic outlook on life’s lemons was a learned behavior for me.  The idea of making lemonade from the stressful lemons life sent my way (or channeling my "inner Barbra Streisand") never even occurred to me until I got to college and started taking Psychology classes.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend an excellent career coaching training this week, led by psychologist and Career Center Director, Dr. Katharine Brooks.  We learned that although coaching is not a regulated profession, the concept of coaching has legitimate roots stemming from four different psychological theories.  While I could easily transcribe many weeks worth of blog entries from the training (and these theories), I wanted to focus on the field of Positive Psychology as it relates to job satisfaction.

What is Positive Psychology?

According to our instructor, Positive Psychology gives us language to define happiness.  The term “happy” means different things to different people, and as colleagues, friends, and family to others we should be leery of injecting our own definition of happiness into those with whom we interact.  According to the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania:

Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

Right now you are probably thinking to yourself, “what a bunch of meaningless fluff!” That’s what I thought too until our instructor shared research around job satisfaction, namely that optimistic people tend to perform better at work and are more satisfied in their jobs, with the exception of people in the legal profession (not all that surprising since they are trained skeptics).

The main idea is that by identifying your strengths, leveraging them in your work, and perhaps most importantly maintaining a positive outlook, you will be happier at work and in life.  According to Psychologist, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, there are ten forms of positivity: joy, gratitude, serenity, interests, hope, pride, amusement, awe, love, and aspiration.  We should strive to have a 3:1 ratio, i.e. three positive thoughts for every negative one.  Check out her positivity test to see where you fall on the spectrum.

What does this mean to me as an Employee or Job Seeker?

Most people’s impressions of work fall under one of three categories or orientations according to Organizational Psychology professor, Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, and are explained in her article entitled It's Not Just a Job: 1.) Job Orientation (TGIF mentality), 2.) Career Orientation (primary driver is getting into the C-suite as soon as possible), or 3.) Calling (I’d do this job for free).  For the record, I tried to download her unpublished dissertation (thus making me supremely nerdy) on the same topic, but it was almost $40.  I hope you find the article sufficiently stimulating.

If you ascribe to the Positive Psych. mantra, then you may want to seek out a vocational path, which speaks to your calling or purpose in order to feel completely fulfilled.  That said, many people are satisfied with a balance between their job, which fulfills the job or career orientation while simultaneously pursuing a passion outside of work, i.e. acting (through community theater), athletics (intramural or work sports teams), or writing (blogging or journaling).  It all comes down to your values and where those values fall on the happiness spectrum.

Career Blunder: I met with a student (who I’ll refer to as Jamie) and her father several months ago who was pursuing a major in accounting.  Jamie’s father was insistent upon her sticking with accounting as a major even though she had performed VERY poorly in two accounting classes.  I try not to mince words, especially with parents, so I attempted to make it crystal clear for Jamie’s dad that it would be very difficult for her to secure a competitive employment opportunity with grades like hers.  A week later, I had an appointment with Jamie, sans father.  My first question was, “Are your grades reflective of a lack of understanding or a lack of motivation?” Her reply was “both”.  Then I asked “on a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in majoring and pursuing a career in accounting?”  I never got a number, but she made it abundantly clear that being an accountant was not her idea of a dream job.  Moral of the Story: We all have external pressures which may prevent us from pursuing our dream job, but nine to five (or longer) is a LONG time to be unhappy.  When you are unhappy at work it can permeate through every other element of your life (I have been there – it sucks).  If you are a new job seeker, take the time to evaluate your own definition of happiness and what you need from a job to derive a level of satisfaction congruent with your values.