What Is Your Company Paying You For?

Madame X over at Openwallet asked the question, “What is your company paying you for?”  It’s funny to read her answer to the question and realize that we are probably exactly 180 degrees from each other on the Meyers Brigg type test.  I took a similar test (Called Insights) and was a big fat yellow.  Being a yellow means that I crave the social interaction of the work place and love to celebrate a job well done.  I tend to be motivated to get the work done and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.  I also have a little red in me in that I drive to completion and expect that from the others on the team.

It sounds like Madame X is clearly a “blue” on the Insights wheel because she loves the numbers.  While she likes dealing with the numbers and her personality test stuck her in a room doing analysis all day, she also ventures out in to other personality areas and uses a bit of the “red” and “yellow” to complete her responsibilities.

What struck me as interesting when I took this test was that I have completely positioned myself (to the best of my ability) in a more social role of working with internal customers to identify their requirements and help architect technology solutions to meet them.  That’s just because I work in IT.  I’d never be happy sitting back writing software all day because I wouldn’t get the social interaction that I obviously need.  I also wouldn’t choose number crunching all day for the same reason.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my career and whether I am listening to myself and pursuing the goals in life that I really want to.  The problem is that I’ve had a lot of trouble figuring out what those goals are.  I know that process development and the many other things I do in my daily job at a large bureaucratic company aren’t my life calling.  So, then, what is my life calling?  I think this must be how a midlife crisis starts.  I’m 35 and probably a little early on this, but I definitely need to spend some time figuring out what kind of job I would enjoy that would take advantage of my strengths (working with people).  I’d consider sales but that seems to be fairly high pressure and I really don’t want to be measured on a weekly basis for my productivity level, although I can see why a company needs to do that.  It doesn’t make sense to pay someone that isn’t bringing in the revenue.

If I was given a choice, I think I’d just retire now and quit worrying about earning income from a 9-5 job.  I can tell you that as soon as there is a national healthcare solution offered, I will leave the workplace immediately and start doing things I like.  (Unfortunately most of the things I like to do generate very little income).  Blogging is something that I enjoy, but that doesn’t exactly pay the bills.  If I could blog, read, nap, work around the house, drive race cars in an amateur circuit, and mess around with computers all day, I think I’d be content.  Of course that is on top of my first priority which is spending time with my family.

As far as what my company pays me for, I’d have to say these attributes:

-My judgement

-My ability to complete work

-My ability to work well with others

-My ability to be a strong communicator

-My technical skills

-My business knowledge

Yeah, it’s all pretty broad but everything I read says that in the future companies are going to be looking for people with an emphasis on the soft skills like communication skills, ability to work well with others, ability to follow through on commitments etc.  That’s music to my ears.