A couple of months ago, I started asking the people in my network some questions. I wanted to know how they felt about their work life, how well they were balancing personal life, how they were leveling up, and how satisfied they felt. I am grateful to everyone who responded. Their responses gave me great insight into how they feel about their work, inspired me to follow some mentors, and made me aware of great books to add to my reading list. In this article, I share the insights I received from these great people.

What is your dream job? Is your current job your dream job?

Many of us pursue a dream job. But the definition of the dream job, as expected, varies a lot. I found two dominating themes in these responses - having one’s own business and serving/coaching others.

What is your dream job?

I was also curious to know how many people achieved their dream job.

Achieving one’s dream is of course not easy. I was very happy to see almost one fifth of my friends are already enjoying their dream jobs and another one third are approaching their goal. My hearty congratulations to them!


For the other half, to which I belong as well, clearly there is hope. Let’s work hard toward that.


Job satisfaction and work life balance

Zappos Founder Tony Hsieh’s death on Nov. 27 at the age of 46 shocked many of us. His dangerous lifestyle made headlines and raised a lot of questions. People chasing dream careers and lofty goals sometimes fall behind in physical and mental wellness. By the time they realize, often it is too late.


I asked my network about their own take on satisfaction with their current job, and work life balance. The summary of their answers follows.

This one really made me happy! Roughly two third of my friends are between somewhat and extremely satisfied with their current jobs. The remaining one third does worry me. I think satisfaction is primarily a result of two variables - your expectations and your perception of meeting those expectations. Arguably, you can take control of your overall satisfaction by adjusting either or both of these variables. Even if you continue in the same job and nothing in your job materially changes, you can still improve your job satisfaction with a growth mindset. A new role in the same company or in a different company may help you more. Consider both options to take control and work on improving your overall job satisfaction.

I’m not surprised at the almost even distribution of my friends’ feeling about how well they are balancing their work and personal life. As per a recent report in Investopedia, “In the U.S., labor productivity growth fell to an annualized rate of 1.1% between 2007 and 2017” and declining quality of labor has been cited as one reason. I hear from most people I talk to that they are working harder, spending more hours at work, and participating in more meetings than ever. That does not necessarily translate into large growth in productivity. It does, however, have the consequence of less time and energy to spend with family, less social engagement and less personal time. The work life balance becomes extremely difficult and job satisfaction decreases.


The combination of job satisfaction and work life balance is critical to overall wellness of a person. Overall wellness of people is critical to build and maintain a healthy society and an efficient workforce. I hope this topic will receive more attention in the 21st century as technology is changing fundamentally what we do, how we do it, and how we live.

The next job, better job

We are relentlessly pursuing better lives, better health, more money, more attention. So many of us, even if we have a decent job, are looking for the next big opportunity. Why? I have been a procrastinator and after complex thinking on many occasions, decided not to change my job for many years. I know people in my network are smarter than me. So I asked them.

More people in my network are looking for better opportunities to utilize their skills and learn more. Honestly, this surprised me. But it provided more clarity on what knowledge workers really want. Almost fifty percent of participants indicated they want to develop skills, they want to learn, and they want to utilize all that in their work. There are other noteworthy reasons for people to look for a new job e.g. better compensation packages or better leadership. Many great companies understand knowledge workers quite well and enable environments where employees can develop themselves as great knowledge workers by learning new skills and applying them constantly.

Leveling up

In the 21st century, it seems science, technology, business models and creativity have been evolving at a much faster rate than ever before. Uncertainty is the only certainty. How do you level up in such an environment? I reached out to my network asking questions about mentors, continuous learning and books they read. I feel these three form the trifecta of leveling up.

Mentors


"My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better." — Steve Jobs


“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton


“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” — Steven Spielberg


Mentoring can be done in many different ways. If I were mentored by Jobs, Newton and Spielberg, I would likely learn very different things from each of them. But regardless of who they are, a mentor helps us become much more than who we are otherwise.


During my survey, I hoped people in my network would touch upon mentors in their close circle of relationships, not just celebrities and superstars. They talked about...


Father, Mother, Uncle, Husband, Father-in-law, Professor, Co-worker, Colleague, Friend, Client, and Others in family, religious or social network.


Then there are the celebrity mentors. Some of them don’t know the people who follow them as mentors. Some of them stay as mentors even after they leave the earthly world. They inspire generations.


You’ll also find names of mentors below whom you and I may not know. They may not be well known outside their scope of work. But they played an equally important role in mentoring someone. With respect, I included their names as well. Let’s look at the list (in no particular order).

What people want to study

Thanks to the online learning revolution, we have numerous options to further our education today. And many of online education are free. Coursera says “70+ million people are already learning on Coursera”. EdX offers 2800 online courses from 160 member universities. Everytime I check in on LinkedIn, I see someone announcing they have achieved a new certification or completed a challenging course. Some are improving hard skills needed at work, some are developing soft skills. My network consists of many people who have strong academic achievements. Some of them didn’t even answer this question, perhaps because they are constantly learning so many topics.


The list (in no particular order) below shows a variety of topics people in my network are interested in learning.

Skill gaps are a looming problem for companies and many have started reskilling efforts to address the problem. If you are interested in this topic, I would recommend reading Beyond hiring: How companies are reskilling to address talent gaps, a McKinsey global survey report. Nearly nine in ten executives and managers say their organizations either face skill gaps already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years.


The good news is that workers are very interested to learn new skills and brush up on their current skills. As survey participants from my network indicated, they are keen to develop varied skills and apply their skills successfully for profit or otherwise. Companies may need to rethink whether their hiring strategy should shift from asking “do you have the experience of doing this job for years” to asking “are you ready to develop the skills needed in this job and do you have the right mindset”. We’ll watch how hiring practices evolve in this century.

Books

Aha, books! I love books, I’m sure you all love books. The book printed on paper, as we know it today, dates from the 15th century. Some estimates claim there are close to fifty million books available on Amazon today. Technology made it possible to read (or listen to) books anytime, anywhere, handheld, hands-free. Books are the most affordable and most widely available means to level up. There is almost no excuse for not reading books.


In fact, there are so many great authors and so many great books, that I feel lost when I try to find the next book to read (or listen to). There are several book lists available from famous authors, coaches, entrepreneurs, publishers, booksellers and others. What could be a better way to build a personal booklist than by asking my connections to recommend books that they have enjoyed reading or plan to read?

If that’s not enough for you, let me give you a couple of other lists.

Amazon Best Sellers

The Personal MBA Best Business Books

Books and Book Insights by Tom Butler-Bowdon


Mentors, continuous learning (courses, workshops), books - combined with the right mindset, should help us perform well in what we do and prepare us to do even better in future.

Advice to 21st century workforce

If you have read this far, you are amazing. Thank you for your time and attention. We are now going to wrap up.


I often wondered if I were called upon to deliver a convocation speech to a graduating class, what would I tell them? Life is difficult and uncertain. There are so many opportunities to excel and be happy. But there is no shortcut, no such thing as ten steps to be successful in the 21st century.


Not that anyone is calling me to deliver a convocation speech anytime soon, but I decided to prepare anyway with help from people in my network. So I asked:


Imagine you are invited to speak to a million young people. They come from diverse financial, social, cultural, religious and geographic backgrounds. They are trying to design and build their life and career for the 21st century. What would you tell them?


My network answered this question with passion.

I conducted this survey to fulfill my curiosity. It of course doesn't have a large sample size that a McKinsey or a Pew Research survey would have. But the beauty of this survey is its personal nature. I respect and have a connection with every respondent. And they taught me so much. I am thankful to them. Now I need to utilize what I learned here; the hard work begins.