So Why Don't You Have Your Dream Job Yet?

08 Jul 2016

So Why Don't You Have Your Dream Job Yet?

Re: Jim Citrin (MBA 1986)

Topics: Career-Career Advancement Psychology-Happiness Competency and Skills-Experience and Expertise Human Resources-Compensation and Benefits

There are three forces, says author James Citrin (MBA 1986), that are “at fundamental war with one another” when people are trying to find a job: compensation, lifestyle, and job satisfaction. “So if you think about those three points and what I call the career triangle,” says Citrin in a piece at Big Think, “it's relatively easy to maximize one point on the triangle and it's often okay to maximize the second, but usually the third point slips.”

Citrin, partner at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, offers a few potential examples: A job in a law firm that offers satisfaction and money, but requires long hours. A role at an environmental nonprofit that meets interests and lifestyle needs, but doesn’t pay well. “At least recognizing that there are trade-offs is really powerful. And what I like to say is you can have it all those three dimensions, but not necessarily at the same time and certainly not in your first job or two or three coming out of college.”

His advice to new grads? Don't hunt perfection.

Now, you know that the first thing you do you will actually have massive downstream effects, because who you get exposed to, what brand you get affiliated with, who you meet and what you actually are working on—that will become kind of the basis of your next job and your next job and your next job. So yes it is very important, but at the same time it's too easy to get paralyzed looking for perfection versus just getting in there. And your story will evolve based on what you’re doing. And it's important to you to kind of control your career narrative. It's like, “Here's why I did this and here's therefore what I learned and here's what I'm looking for.”

Featured Alumni

Jim Citrin

MBA 1986

Featured Alumni

Jim Citrin

MBA 1986

Stories Featuring Jim Citrin

- 01 Mar 2008
- Alumni Stories
Alumni Books

Re: Leslie Crutchfield (MBA 2001); Gordon Binder (MBA 1962); Dermot Berkery (MBA 1991); Jim Citrin (MBA 1986); Jane Linder (MBA 1976); Jeffrey Cruikshank (PMD 51); Matt Morgan (MBA 2007); Brenda Bence (MBA 1991); Chris Leinberger (MBA 1976); Don Olexa (AMP 82); Dennis Powers (MBA 1969); Gordon Shearer (MBA 1978)
- 01 Sep 2004
- Alumni Stories
Inside Executive Search

Re: Jim Citrin (MBA 1986); By: Julia Hanna
- 01 Mar 2004
- Alumni Stories
Alumni Bookshelf

Re: David Carter (OPM 26); Jim Citrin (MBA 1986)

Stories

Stories