Career Driver: The Specialist
This is a continuation of my series of postings on what drives us in our career happiness
Some people are motivated by being experts. This can be in a wide range of areas – an engineer being skilled at design, a sales consultant with a talent for closing a sale etc.
With a specialist preference you seek work that allows you to use your skills and talents. Having to do work that takes you away from this may be something you can do, but it doesn’t play to your strengths.
A move to general management will be unsatisfying. You’ll lose your sense of identity and move away from what makes you special. You need to ensure your work allows you to become knowledgeable about a subject.
If you are quite introverted in nature this could well be a research role, whereas if you are extrovert you will want to share your specialist knowledge through personal communication e.g. public speaking, teaching or specialist sales. Other people don’t want to be a specialist and prefer variety and breadth rather than depth in their work.
If we are driven by being a specialist our identity is tied up with our career and we appreciate recognition, particularly from those we respect. When we are criticised however we take it to heart as to criticise our work is to criticise us. Therefore career satisfaction for a specialist comes from being recognised for doing a good job.
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