Expert Tips to Find Your Professional Purpose

Expert Tips to Find Yur Professional PurposeExpert Tips to Find Your Professional Purpose4Imperative, a New York, New York-based company that zu nutz und frommenvides a technology-based platform designed to empower people to discover and manage careers with professional purpose.Hurst is author of The Purpose Economy, a book that serves as the foundation for a movement to connect people to purposeful careers in an evolving global economy. Hes also founder of the Taproot Foundation, which has delivered more than $140 million in meaningful pro bono services since 2001. asked Hurst about how job seekers can manage their career choices in an era marked by seismic shifts in how people approach work, including a growing trend toward freelance jobs.Read on for Hursts thoughts on how to manage your career and tailor your job search to find your professional purposeIt seems like many people fall into a career or wind up doing something that is a good career choice based on other peoples ideas . Why is it that so many people dont actively engage in their own career management?Aaron Hurst The question of how and why people manage their careers is complex and fascinating, but one study in particular shines a light on the topic. Foundational research by Yale Universitys Amy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues, found that people tend to identify with one of three work orientations. These orientations are defined as Job, Career, or Calling.People who approach work as a job see it as a vehicle for material reward, but not fulfilling in and of itself. Those who define work as a career see it as a means toward social status, achievement, and prestige. Those who approach work as a calling find the act of work inherently meaningful and rich in purpose.Part of the career management differences show up in these discrete approaches to work. Its important to note that Wrzesniewski and her colleagues found that the calling group has higher job and life satisfaction than people with other wo rk orientations. Its strong evidence in support of the idea that finding work that has meaning to you personally is a good bet on all fronts.FJWhen did you realize you wanted more purpose in your professional life?Aaron Hurst I think purpose is something that Ive always sought in my professional life, but I didnt realize just how crucial it was to everyones work until more recently.During my time at Taproot, we were able to help thousands of professionals contribute their professional skills by doing pro bono work for organizations that needed it. Over and over again, these professionals told me that their pro bono work was the most meaningful work of their career. This led to the obvious question why cant all work be like pro bono work?The further I looked into this question, the more I was convinced that doing meaningful work was not just a goal to shoot for, but a dramatic shift that was already underway in our economy. I realized that working with purpose is an actual necessity if we want to stay ahead of the curve professionally.FJWhy do you think more people are choosing to freelance?Aaron Hurst The move to freelance in our economy is pretty staggering. Intuit did a study recently and found that by the end of this decade, 40 percent of the workforce will be freelancers. The fact that this incredible disruption to the traditional job market is driven largely by choice makes it all the more interesting.Were finding that people, especially Millennials entering into the job market for the first time, dont want to be tied to one employer, one job. Instead, they want to work on more of a project basis and be able to have a portfolio of diverse projects. They are choosing freelance as a better option.FJWhat are some of the first steps someone can do to start managing their career with purpose?Aaron Hurst The simplest thing you can do is to take two minutes to think of one moment today where you felt a sense of purpose in your work. If you repeat that process ea ch day for a month, youll find that you automatically start doing more things every day that bring you purpose and youll appreciate those moments more when they happen.FJ What role do employers have in empowering professionals to manage their own careers? What are the benefits to employers for supporting this exploration?Aaron Hurst Purpose is what employees, particularly the millennial generation, want in their work. And its what companies need in their teams to produce the goods and services millennials and others want to buy. Therefore, employers are starting to recognize the value of attracting people with purpose and the organizations. Employers can maximize purpose for their people by facilitating (and participating in) four key activitiesFoster self-awareness around purpose. You need to understand what generates purpose for you- because not everyone gets purpose from the same things.Tailor your job to fit your purpose. Jobs are like a nice suit a few adjustments in just the r ight place can take it from awkward to impeccable.Connect personal purpose to organizational purpose. Understanding where your purpose aligns with your organization allows you to spend your time and energy where you can make the biggest impact.Celebrate and connect around purpose. How you celebrate successes speaks volumes to your people. The next time you meet your quarterly earnings goals or get featured in the New York Times, celebrate the parts that brought purpose to your people along the way, not just the end result.FJWhat sorts of tools and support does Imperative offer individuals looking for their purpose?Aaron HurstRight now, you can go to www.imperative.com and find out what gives you purpose at work by taking our assessment. Youll get a report that shows you your Pattern, whoyou work to impact, whyyou do what you do, and howyou want to achieve success. Itll also show you how to start taking action to create more purpose in your current work based on your Pattern.Thanks t o Aaron Hurst for sharing his insights about how people can find professional purpose and meaningful careers in a shifting global economy