What does ultimate career happiness look and feel like to you? Is it a corner office with a gardenia and a view over a lake? Is it a fat pay check? Time to enjoy with family and friends? A better work-life balance? The Bayt.com ‘Career Aspirations in the Middle East and North Africa' survey, December 2013, has revealed that professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have dreams and goals for the future. In reality, 7 in 10 have set professional goals for themselves, with 26% having set goals as far forward as the next 5 years. The most common of these goals are to get a higher salary (54%), to get a new job (53%), and to learn new skills (52%). 64% of respondents feel they deserve to work in a high level position, while 48% are prepared to move to another area of expertise or department to further their career; 43% are prepared to move to another industry altogether as a next step in their career. What about you? Are you happy where you are? Is this the best you could be? The Bayt.com team looks at several ways you can tell your career is finally in cruise mode.
You know you have arrived at a key juncture in your career when people start calling you for career or other professional advice and peers seek your wisdom, judgement, insights and experience. Building a professional brand people are aware of and value, respect and trust is a sure sign you have done something very right with your career to date.
Today on online social career platforms such as Bayt.com Specialties, peers can endorse and rank you a well as recommend and refer you for skills they value and admire in you. These online accolades have become increasingly relevant as recruiters assess your online profile for specific areas of expertise. The Bayt.com ‘Skills and Hiring Trends in the MENA’ poll, January 2015, has revealed that online hiring will be more important than ever before in the years to come. In fact, 20.2% of employers in the MENA believe that leading online job sites, like Bayt.com, will be most widely used to source candidates. In parallel, 29.3% of respondents working in the HR field maintain that the recruitment of active candidates online will become the number one hiring trend of 2015. With a majority of employers sourcing talent on the internet, job seekers are advised to maintain online profiles, ranks and conversations that stand out and to get endorsed, referred and recommended via the leading professional online platforms.
Where you once sweated over cold calls and aggressive client acquisition strategies, you suddenly find yourself regularly receiving calls from people referred by happy clients and others who heard about you through the industry grapevine. Word-of-mouth referrals are one of the surest signs that you are doing something very well. Professional know-how goes a long way as does integrity, a professional attitude and a strong work ethic. Here are five signs of a WOW professional people love to work with.
Of course they will never tell you this but you realize you are in a place where your absence from the organization deprives them of a key pillar of strength and can drastically affect the overall performance, health and wellness of the organization.
Not only are you in a comfortable place in your career but what compounds that feeling of satisfaction is knowing there is a lot more you can do and still have a lot to give. It helps here if you feel you are being fairly paid for your productivity and that you are confident the ongoing fruits of your labor will be adequately compensated with plenty of potential upside.
No one operates in a vacuum and key to your ongoing success is knowing you have unique skills and value-add abilities that few in your field have. This distinct edge further contributes to your ability to sustain peak performance in an increasingly competitive market.
Any professional who has not taken the oath of commitment to systematic and diligent lifelong learning is one who will be quickly rendered to the yesteryears of professional excellence. You are a leader in your field because you have been devoted to a program of learning and development and realize that to maintain this leadership position, the education track must continue. 20% of polled professionals in the Bayt.com ‘Workplace Dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa’ poll, June 2013, are looking above all when making a job move for companies that will provide learning opportunities and help them develop their skills and this is a trait employers of choice everywhere highly encourage and seek in potential candidates.
Far from taking the beaten path you are one who has historically questioned established systems and procedures with a view to perfecting, improving and innovating. You will continue to always overhaul tired products, systems and processes as long as you believe you are maximizing output and optimizing performance. The Bayt.com ‘Skills and Hiring Trends in the MENA’ poll, January 2015, reveals that employers in the MENA are looking above all for candidates with good leadership and problem-solving skills and an ability to think outside the box.
You feel capable enough to analyze situations thoroughly and confident enough to take decisions after carefully weighing risks and returns. You are not afraid of rocking the boat, but at the same time have reached a level of sophistication in your forecasting, scenario-dependent optimization and decision making capabilities that will help you balance risk and return wisely.
All in all, you are a happy person. You love your work and you are happy that the fruits of your labor and relationships and efforts and energies across the spectrum are finally paying off. You may be working umpteen hour days and making tons of career sacrifices still, but in general, you finally feel that everything is going… Your way.
