Stoplight Career Choice

I love this light. Every time I see it I can’t help but think about the career choices we are faced with in this industry.

You are choosing between this job or that job, each with different pros and cons.

Job #1 is a relatively long contract, so you won’t have to look for another freelance job for a good year. How nice. Of course that could also mean that you’ll be out of freelance circulation so long that your contacts forget to call you when new opportunities come up. You’re not the type of person to take a job, and then quit it as soon as something better comes along; you’re going to commit to this job for the long haul. The pay, of course, is lower than what you’re used to, but it’s decent enough. The steadiness of the pay cheque will probably even out over the course of the contract to the feast-n-famine freelance lifestyle  of other jobs anyway. The project itself is inline enough with your career goals, but you are only mildly interested in the creative material. You have the ability to do a great job  and there will be sufficient challenge to keep you interested and striving to do your best.

Job #2 pays better but is a very short term contract of 3 weeks. The creative material really excites you, but you’ve been having more famine than feast of late, and don’t look forward to working hard on production knowing that you’ll need another job again very soon in order to cover the bills. You have the ability to do a great job here too, though some of the challenges are like walking into unknown territory and that scares you a little.

Which job do you choose?

You have a mortgage and family… now which job do you choose?

You are instead choosing between job #1 and no job at all (just the potential for finding another one)… which do you choose?

Who knows what lies down each of these paths! You can only learn about one of them. You may be able to see a part of the way down the road (to influence your decision) but not all the way. From this perspective, then, they are equal choices; they just take you down different roads… each one forward in its own way.

Does the choice bring you another step closer to your ultimate career goal? Can you make a certain choice at this moment in your life? You – by making your selection – are the one who brands the choice as “right”.

Best wishes in making your choices

Cheers & prosperous 2011 to you,
Deb

P.S. I took the short term job to the surprise of my closest friends who thought I would be more tempted by the steady nature of the first one. It was a tough choice at the time, but inside I knew it was right for me at that moment in my life… you know what I mean?