As Donald Trump’s hit show, 'The Apprentice,' continues to entertain viewers with its intense, “gold for the gold” and “be the best, or be gone” messaging, new survey results indicate Americans may enjoy watching individuals put everything they’ve got into achieving professional success, but they don’t necessarily want to do it themselves.
(PRWEB) October 19, 2005 -- A recent workforce survey* indicates a staggering 72% of employees say they'll need a way to 'find the work satisfying' at their current job in order to stay with it. “But satisfying doesn’t mean a bigger office, salary and title, like we see on The Apprentice,” says career expert, J.T. O’Donnell, “In fact, Americans are actually challenging the current career model to the point we are now in the midst of changing our nation’s history with respect to its definition of career.” For more information, check out http://www.bluekilowatt.com/pages/purpose-02.html.
O’Donnell owns the career coaching company, BLUE KILOWATT, is the author of a top career guide, and is the creator of the hot new career coaching kit, CAREERJUICE. She explains: “Today’s workforce is a product of our nation’s historical focus on career success as a way to gain respect and find happiness. We are known as the ‘land of opportunity.’ We attribute our country’s success to the individuals who helped it prosper. As a result, we now put career success on a pedestal. It’s no wonder why Americans feel such obligation and are so focused on creating successful careers. No other society puts as much value, self-worth and respect on a person’s career as America.” Information about O'Donnell and her work available at http://www.bluekilowatt.com/pages/purpose-01.html.
Is O’Donnell criticizing the nation and its leaders? “Absolutely not. We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t have ancestors who were passionate and committed to creating a better life for themselves and their families. But back then, a successful career gave you a way to improve your ability to take care of your family. Career success helped create security. Today, America has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Yet, people continue to literally ‘work themselves to death’ in their efforts to build a successful career, letting all the other areas of their life go in the process. Simply put, many Americans pursuing career success today are doing so at the cost of a successful life. And we've got health studies on the effects of stress to prove it.”
What does O’Donnell mean by a successful life? “Many Americans are on career auto-pilot and they don’t even know it. They’ve been trained to believe career success is the magic pill; that it will give them love, respect, happiness and health. Yet, I can show you hundreds of people who are technically ‘successful’ in their careers, but miserable in life.” For more information on the career mistakes being made by Americans today, check out http://www.bluekilowatt.com/pages/books-011.html.
O’Donnell says she has an easy way to prove to every American how much the country’s obsession with career success has impacted them: “I like to ask people four questions.” They are:
1.When meeting someone new, besides asking their name, what's one of the first questions you ask to get to know them better?
2.If asked to introduce yourself to a group of strangers, besides stating your name and where you are from, what's one of the first things you would share about yourself?
3.Think of the most successful person in your family. Did you automatically pick the person who has the greatest “career success?”
4.At what age did people start asking you what you wanted to be when you grew up?
O’Donnell says that by the fourth question, people become acutely aware of how much they’ve been conditioned to believe career success is something they must pursue. “The problem,” says O’Donnell, “is that people also tend to accept the ways they’ve observed others pursue career success as the way they should do it too. And this is where the dissatisfaction occurs. It’s like everyone deciding the only way to get fit is to run 5 miles each day. Just like you need to choose the right fitness routine to serve your needs, you also need to choose the right approach to career to make you happy.”
O’Donnell says the solution is to begin by creating a definition of career success on your own terms. She also says many Americans are using outdated methods for selecting and developing their careers. “The business world has changed so much in the last 20 years, yet everyone is still trying to build a career in the traditional manner. You don’t go to work for a company and stay there your entire career anymore. Gone are the days of the pension and the gold watch for a lifetime of service. Jobs come and go, in fact, careers come and go. As a result, a whole new approach to building a successful and satisfying career needs to be utilized.” You can learn more about the new methodology O'Donnell refers to in her book, available at http://www.bluekilowatt.com/pages/books-01.html.
What does O’Donnell think about Donald Trump’s show, The Apprentice? “It does a great job of showing what it takes to be successful in that environment. There are plenty of Americans, like Donald Trump, who can find real satisfaction and happiness in career success like that. But I've come in contact with enough people through my work to know that kind of career success just doesn’t work for everyone.”
*Survey referenced was commissioned by Randstad NA and conducted by Harris Interactive. Statistic cited comes directly from Randstad's "2005 Employee Review" which published the findings of this survey.
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