This blog post is a reflection of the attributes that truly result in you being able to say I love my job. While it has been a difficult year it has also been one to gain a new perspective on applying old skills to new endeavors. I had an opportunity to interview for a position as a Program manager for a banking institute after not interviewing for a job since 2005 when I decided to open a discount store. I wanted to make a break from corporate America and start up my own business. My wife and I chose something we both had enjoyed once, because most people say if you have to work for a living find something you enjoy. Unfortunately enjoying doing something doesn’t mean you are going to be successful at doing it or making enough money to pay your bills. That proved itself out over the next four years as we struggled to make ends meet in running of what expanded to two stores and about 14 different employees during that period. I once heard the most difficult thing about a business start up is finding good people, and that turned out not to be an exception in our case. I can actually say we did enjoy the stores, meeting people, finding deals, developing advertising strategies and organizing the store to attract and keep customers coming back. We were pretty successful at most of these things but when you are in a down economy without enough reserves to weather the storm things have a way falling apart pretty quickly. It has been said many times that it is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it and one thing for sure there was a lot of learning along the way. But back to the most recent job interview for the Program Manager position that happen to a position I enjoyed the most during my career working for  three major companies, Digital Equipment Corporation, Dell Computer and a division of General Electric. Each of those program management position required a different set of skills as it applied to the fundamental requirements of the organization. The position for Digital resided in a high volume manufacturing operation where new mid-range systems were being developed simultaneously in the US and Ayr Scotland operations requiring Program Manager to align the development between the two engineering organization to assure consistent test and development processes were being developed and implemented. The Dell position on the other hand required engineering coordination of destructive device testing for supplier selection. The GE position was development of a Program Management office in an environment that was functioning as a functional structure in bringing New Products to the market. Each of the position while holding the same title of Program Manager required a different level of skill and attributes to be successful in the position. The bottom-line being just because a position has the same title doesn’t mean you will find the same level of job satisfaction in doing it. So when you say I love my job of be a car salesman that may not translate to a sales job for car parts or something totally unrelated to cars. Love my Job has a lot to do with the function of the job but also the environment, the people, the practices and the structure of the organization. Why am I saying all this because when I interviewed for the Program Manager position for the banking institution my joy of the position came out as I reflected on my position with Dell Computer more so than the other two companies. So as you search and land that job you once enjoyed completely and find something is meeting think about what, why and where you loved that job and hope for similarity in your new position.  

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