Read the 3 conversation below:
Conversation 1
Interviewer: “Why are you looking for a change?â€
Respondent: “for better career growth!â€
Interviewer: “What do you mean by that?â€
Responded: “umm… better salaryâ€
Conversation 2
Colleague 1: “I want to switch to Java?â€
Colleague 2: “Why do you want to do that?â€
Colleague 1: “The market is better for Java!â€
Colleague 2: “What market?â€
Colleague 1: “I mean salaries are higherâ€
Conversation 3
Manager: “Why are you leaving ‘Change the World?’ to join ‘Make another Widget’ “?
Employee: “They are paying me 3000 moreâ€
Did you find anything wrong with the above three conversations? In case you didn’t then please read the next case below:
Conversation 4
You: “Why do you want to become a doctor?â€
Doctor 1: “Because there is lot of money in being a doctorâ€
Doctor 2: “Because am interested in the subject and want to make lives better for peopleâ€
Which one of the two doctors will you hire? Will your answers change if you are running a hospital viz. if you are a patient? I bet that in both the cases you will hire or visit the 2nd doctor. It’s strange to see that people are willing to make career decisions for money but they want to entrust their lives on people who are in their profession for something beyond money. Call it the height of double standards.
As an organization we feel it is critical not to focus on money alone, because of the simple reason: If money bought them in, money will take them out. Sometimes a difference of only 2000 or 3000 is all that is takes. It is important to hire people who have the right attitude and who are willing to contribute.
Too many times, I meet friends, MBA school grads, ex-employees, colleagues who seem to recklessly chasing the money regardless of what they are doing or like to do. They want to take up finance or switch to SAP because of the money is good. Once smart people, who could debate all day on various subjects, now know nothing beyond their narrow job profiles or worse, the dumb terminals which gawk and feed all day long.
If a job is not allowing to you explore your potential but still it is paying you more than fair market salary then soon it you will loose the critical skills that landed you in that job in the first place. Sitting there all day and doing what you don’t like will create a big void in your life which will keep getting bigger and bigger until every ounce of self-worth has been squeezed out and you become completely risk averse.
Money is important, I don’t question that, but your own sense of self worth is not derived from what you own but from what you are! Money as the primary content of job profile is not good. Customers will rely on the work that you do and if the job does not interests you then you will always do a lousy job.
Remember what someone said: “Do you what you like to do and you don’t have to work for a single dayâ€
