Just started reading what I hope will be a helpful book, Career Contentment: Don’t Settle for Anything Less! by Jeffrey Garton. Here’s a quote:
You have to understand that job satisfaction is controlled by employers, while career contentment is controlled by individuals independent of employers. …
Once employees are on the job, their satisfaction is codependent on their performance in exchange for what the employer offers to attract, motivate, and retain them. They expect to be made satisfied, but not at the expense of wasting their time and talents in the wrong job or career. If they’re not satisfied, they’ll leave—and it doesn’t matter how hard the employer tries to keep them satisfied.
Just as employers are obligated first to pay attention to the purpose of their business and only second to the commitments they make to employees, employees are obligated first to pursue their life purpose and only second to keep the commitments they make to employers. Each is in control of their destiny, and each perceives the other as instrumental to their purpose but interchangeable to suit their evolving needs. Employers change people, just as people change jobs, careers, and employers.
… Frankly, if you expect pay, benefits, perks, your employer, or any other traditional measures to provide you with contentment, your search will be long and fruitless. Career contentment must come from within you.
I’ll post more thoughts after I’ve read a few chapters.
