What I love about my job

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Summary:

• The people we’re surrounded with at work are the most important aspect
• Strategy consulting is about helping people (clients) to solve problems
• No two days in my job are the same

Practical advice:

• 3 factors are crucial when looking for a job: (1) People (2) Purpose (3) Well-being.
• We shouldn’t do a job in which we don’t see any meaning
• We shouldn’t be in a role that is harmful to our health no matter how great the other benefits are

Dear friend,

I cannot believe that this year is already half over. Time is running so fast, doesn’t it?

One factor that greatly contributes to my perception of time surely is the job I started at the beginning of 2021: For almost 6 months, I’ve been working as a strategy consultant. And it still feels like I’ve just started even though so much has happened.

Since I was 18, I’ve wanted to work in this area. I read articles, watched videos, and browsed various online forums to soak up information on this job, making me more and more excited.

Today, I have the job I dreamt of several years ago, allowing me to evaluate whether my past imagination corresponds to reality.

In this week’s article, I will write about the aspects of my job I greatly appreciate and talk about aspects to consider when choosing a job.

What I appreciate most in my role

By far the best aspect of my work is the people whom I work with. Because of my job, I was lucky enough to be always surrounded by highly motivated, purpose-driven, and very kind colleagues.

My colleagues were always determined to go the extra mile and don’t stop when things become difficult. They don’t do the job to make a living but do it to make a positive, enduring impact in our world.

Whenever I needed help, there’s always someone offering proactively her/his support. I truly believe that together we can achieve so much more, and it feels so great to work with people who think the same way.

Moreover, I’m still astonished from time to time how exceptional the people are whom I work with. I greatly appreciate the expertise of our leaders and the great achievements of my peers. There’re so many people who were the best of their class at the best schools for their subject. And so many bring even more stunning practical experiences to the table.

No two days are the same

The second aspect I truly love is a combination of multiple aspects: (1) There’s not a single day I didn’t learn something new (2) My job is to solve real problems (3) Each day is unique.

If I had to explain to a child what strategy consulting is about, I’d say that my job is to help people (our clients) to solve problems. In essence, this factor is one of the very few commonalities that consulting engagements have in common. Besides that, every engagement is more or less unique:

Today, I might work for a cosmetics manufacturer and help it to transform its organization while tomorrow, I might work for an energy company and help it to devise its new business strategy. Additionally, not only industries and functions might change from engagement to engagement but also each consulting team might consist of different people.

Within a consulting engagement, there’s also great variety: Each and every day, we want to come closer to the problem solution. During this journey, we’re faced with multiple sub-problems, which might be of a totally different nature. In collaboration with our clients, we come up with and refine possible problem solutions, which themselves are unique.

Due to this variety, we continuously expand our knowledge and tool kit (methodologies) and hence become better and better in making enduring positive change.

Aspects to consider when choosing a job

In my opinion, 3 factors are crucial when looking for a job: (1) People (2) Purpose (3) Well-being.

First, as already stated, the people we’re surrounded with at work are the most important aspect. Research shows that simply having a best friend at work greatly increases our engagement and motivation to do the job.

If we want to be truly happy, we need to find a job where we love working with the people around us. In my case, I’m looking for people who are purpose drive and hence highly motivated to solve problems and true team players who focus on rather the positive impact than their individual gain.

Second, the job should contribute to our life purposes. We shouldn’t do a job in which we don’t see any meaning. The more a job brings us closer to the pursuit of our individual purpose of life, the more motivated and happier we are. Since our job takes up a large part of our lives, it’s not a great deal to neglect this aspect when choosing a job.

Third, physical and mental well-being is also a key component. There’re many jobs where we can work something meaningful to us together with great people, however, among those are also jobs that exceed our mental or physical capacity. We shouldn’t be in a role that is harmful to our health no matter how great the other benefits are.