You need more clarity. If you have just been retrenched you are probably thinking that you need more money. A friend of mine used to walk around saying to himself “I need more clarity”, now you need it to.
And you need it for three reasons:
1. For your own good. Most of us are wired and skilled in such a way that we will perform much better in some contexts than in others, and for the sake of sanity, for the sake of being useful in the world and also (likely) for the sake of being better paid, it is worth spending the time thinking how we are wired and skilled and where we might be put to use.
2. So that others can help you. Despite original sin, most people are keen to help, especially if that help is of an incidental and incremental nature. Most people will give you half an hour of their time, and an introduction to someone who could assist you. BUT it is very hard to help if you don’t know what you are looking for. And don’t think this is because they are somehow being selfish – it’s just hard to help.
3. Because of your future employer. For good and bad reasons. The good reason is that they want to know how and whether you will be able to make a useful contribution. The bad reason is because employers don’t want people to want jobs, they want them to want ‘careers’, and the longer you have been dreaming about and focused on the career in question the better. So they will ask you where else you have been looking. This is a trip wire to find out how focused and motivated you are (supposedly). A man I knew had an interview terminated when he disclosed to the person conducting an interview for a Mergers and Acquisitions role that he was also looking at Private Equity firms. They took the view that his heart would always be with Private Equity, he was taking the view that he wanted a job and would investigate anything he was suited to
Finding clarity, or having it find you, won’t necessarily be easy, and probably requires the input of others, so if you have the time, and can get the help, take it.
English theologian, Oliver O’Donovan, suggests the metaphor of a series of lenses coming into focus, is a useful way of thinking about these kinds of decisions. That it, it is not so much about making one either/or decision, rather about making and locking in a number of considerations which eventually leave (hopefully) a clear picture. These considerations could be concerning skills, personality, preferences, constraints (financial or otherwise), concrete opportunities and so on.
There are any number of resources which can help with this, if anyone has found anything especially useful please leave a comment letting us all know.
