Career Satisfaction and Personal Branding

By Susan Guaneri The Career Assessment Goddess, is a National Certified Career Counselor and Certified Personal Branding Strategist. Susan is one of the event organisers and a panelist at "A Brand You World - Global Telesummit".

Just as a building requires four cornerstones to support the superstructure, so too career satisfaction requires a good match with four essential areas:

1. Motivated Skills – skills you are reasonably good at and enjoy using,

2. Interests and Passions – topics and causes that engender energy and passionate involvement,

3. Personality Type – personal style of behaving and communicating, and

4. Values and Goals – WHAT you want out of life (mission, vision, needs and objectives), as well as HOW you want to attain them.

These cornerstones, the building blocks for sound career change, can be determined through discussion with family and friends, journaling, “trying out” different kinds of jobs or volunteering. However, these methods can be time-consuming, erratic, and confusing.

Objective career assessments, however, have remarkable advantages when selected, administered and interpreted by a trained professional. They provide a step-by-step framework for self-exploration, career research, decision-making, and action, especially when combined with subjective methods, such as self-reflection and visioning.

Personal Branding: Integrate and Express Personal Assets

The assessment areas mentioned above typically are internal in that individuals assess themselves. Personal branding, on the other hand, is external; it’s about how you are perceived by others. The 360Reach assessment, the first-ever personal branding assessment, is a confidential, feedback instrument. It surveys your branded attributes and assets as reported by others.

With this additional external input, a clear focus, target audience, and ideal work environment can emerge. The development of on-brand communications can then accelerate the action stage, whether it’s re-careering or job search, starting a new business, or retirement planning.

Career Tests: YOU Have All the Answers

Career test results are a tool to prompt exploration and discussion. They do not yield “answers”; rather they assist YOU in gaining insight into your unique assets and abilities, communication and interpersonal style, risk-taking potential, career possibilities, and decision-making approach.

Armed with this benchmarked information, you can examine the world of work and determine which careers and work environments have the greatest potential for long-term career satisfaction. Using career assessments, as well as the 360Reach personal branding assessment, to dig deep and reflect will fast-forward the career development process via an amazing journey in self-discovery. That in turn boosts the final stages of the process: decision-making, accountability, and taking action.

Career Development and Enrichment: Alternatives to Transition

Employers who are concerned about the mass exodus of highly trained employees know that it costs less money to retain an employee than to replace them. The same four cornerstones for career satisfaction can exist within the workplace; proactive career planning may help to stem the drain of talented employees.

This is not a novel idea; more and more companies are finding that keeping employees happy by aiding them in career growth yields increases in productivity, motivation level, and loyalty. So too, personal branding can align the strengths and personal attributes of every employee with company goals and objectives, creating a “win-win” situation where both the employee and company benefit.