Job Types
Approximately 3 months from your separation or retirement date, your job search process should become more refined and focus on landing a job that you can see yourself doing. You should bin your jobs into 3 areas, and you can seek out all three at the same time, but know that the availability of each of these 3 areas will vary.
In the first bin is to simply find a job. This is simply a job that will pay the bills for you. You don’t need to like it, but it needs to work. Finding jobs like this are meant to reduce the risk that you may face. This is a job that is better to have and not need than vice versa. Ideally, this job, along with the other two, have some optionality with it. And by that I mean some room to grow, especially if you show some effort, curiosity, and reliability. Nothing complicated, but in the case that you are in this position for longer than expected (by choice or not), you have the chance to grow within it.
The second type of job is one that you are good at. You may not like it, but your have a demonstrable skill. The reason for being interested in these jobs, particularly if you don’t like the work, is that it gives you the chance of increasing your pay due to your skill level. And again, much like the first bin, having some optionality gives you the room for growth within this job.
The third type of job is one that you are passionate about – whether that’s the industry, the company, the job itself, or hopefully all three. In a perfect world, if this is something that you are passionate about, you are hopefully good at it, and the pay that comes with being competent can be combined with the passion to create an ideal combination. However, also realize that you may have to accept lower pay for a role that you are passionate about. It will largely depend on the role. Along with the first two bins, it would be even better if this role had some optionality in terms of growth, within the role/company, or outside of it.
Priorities
In addition to the type of jobs that you can find yourself seeking, there are also the qualities about the job itself that you should account for. These qualities break down in to the following 5 items;
- Where you work (commute)
- Like who you work with (people)
- Like what you do
- Pay (how much you make)
- Hours (how many, and when)
I will also add ‘autonomy’ as an item there. That is something that I value
The thinking is that if you can find a job that has 3 of these 5 attributes, you have a solid job. 4 out of 5 is amazing, and 5 out of 5 is a dream job. For me currently, I find myself with pay, liking what I do, and like who you work with (to some degree) – I get along with my boss very well, and that has been great. Additionally, I have a lot of autonomy in my role.
Something worth mentioning is that you should not afraid of valuing pay. By valuing pay, there seems to be this implication that you are greedy or shallow, and that does not need to be the case. The importance of money in the world can’t be overstated, so having it is a must. How much can be debatable, but your situation helps drive that. If you are retiring and plan on a pension, then the amount of money you need to make in your next job may not be as high, so pay is a lower factor. But money is nothing more than a tool that you can use.
As you start looking more seriously at jobs, keep these different measuring sticks in mind. There are a lot of jobs that you can be interested, and it can be a bit overwhelming. Finding a way to narrow down that option set is helpful, and having a way to rank order the remaining will help bring clarity to the process.
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