Assessing Career Satisfaction

Career satisfaction relies on whether your career meets your needs. The points below can help you determine how well your job accommodates your lifestyle and personality in key areas, such as beliefs, income, and interests.

What to Consider About Your Career

• The money: Does your job pay enough to sustain a good lifestyle? Are you being paid the market rate?
• Development, training and education: Does your employer offer regular training and education opportunities? Do you have learning and development options available to help you do your job better?
• Advancement opportunities: Do you have a clear advancement trajectory in the company, or will you get stuck in an entry-level job? Does your company often promote from within when there are job openings? Don’t let your career stagnate at a job with no future.
• Work environment: Do you work better independently or in teams? Do you like being in an office or in the field? How well does your work environment suit your preferences?
• Passion: Does what you do align with what you love? Do you believe in what you are doing?
• Values and company culture: Does the company mission statement and your coworkers’ personal beliefs align with your own? If your morals and integrity are misaligned with the company culture, you’re in an ill-fitting job.
• Challenges: Are you continually being challenged by your job, or are you getting bored with it? Do you solve problems that help you learn and improve?
• Personal needs: Does your employer respect your life outside of work, or are you constantly getting late-night calls? Are you expected to work overtime with no pay? Do you feel you have a healthy work-personal life balance?

After reviewing the aspects of your career that were listed above, decide whether you are truly satisfied with your career trajectory, or whether it is time to evaluate other options.

You can use the career wheel below, from Marsha Warner SPHR, to help you score your career satisfaction.

Need more help figuring out what kind of industry and position you are best suited to? Take a look at our solutions page to view time-tested job matching assessment options that will look at your key personality traits, skills and desires to determine your best job fit.