Career Coach News: Getting a Promotion – What to Look For

You may be positioning yourself for a promotion, but is it what you really want? That’s a question you need to ask yourself, says Seth Kaufman, psy.d, Certified Career and Life Purpose Coach with the Think Human.

He says you need to ponder whether the new job is “something that you want ” or if it is “simply the next logical step in your career?” He says it needs to be both, and it needs to be something you’re “passionate” about and can’t wait to get up in the morning to do.

Dr. Kaufman says there are also pragmatic decisions you need to make. You’ve got to do what works for you, he says, otherwise you will “feel unfulfilled” and unhappy with what you’re doing with your life.

Could you be excited over selling, say, medical devices? Maybe you could, or maybe it might be very boring for you. You don’t want a job that becomes like the “time to make the donuts” line in the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial, and that you find incredibly tedious.

The good news is that everyone’s unique. For example, Person X might find selling medical devices dull and uninteresting. But Person Y could find that same job exciting, enjoying helping make others’ health better through the products, or deriving some other satisfaction from doing the job.

The most important part of getting a promotion, says the coach, is that it needs to be a good fit for your talents, and for you as a person. So keep those items in mind before going after the job.

The Think Human offers life, career, and executive coaching services.