Cost-Benefit Analysis of My Job

February 2008

I’m with three offers to join. These were competitive with different positive considerations. Among these, one was with great duty timing, which will enable me to continue with something else for creating opportunities to enhance my career especially business. Second one with a great future prospect in terms of promotion, increment and finally business in the same industry. And the last one a great prospect to continue education both formal & informal. It is because my friend was already working there and both of us highly interested in computer technologies.

February 2011

I’m working in a development organization since February 2008 which the third option described above. Now a day I’m little-bit frustrated to review my three years of career. Though my career prospect is not clear enough to me, I tried to analyze the cost benefit of that period. What I found is as below:

Benefits I got from my job:

• I achieved the stability in family life whatever the income level is
• Have seen and/or worked with few great person whom I learned from and will never forget
• Similarly got few friends with whom the relationship gone beyond office
• Learned about office culture through attending office & then discussing with friends which might not happen otherwise
• Learned about the industry as the organization, I’m working, operates throughout the country, to some extent the world as well
• Travel to the different parts of the country, specially to Cox’sBazar many times
• And obviously, Africa tour where I worked with health ministry personnel and some international development organization including PSI

Cost of my job:

• Established myself in the different job which driven me away from the commercial industry and the corporate culture which might be the best for me
• Have lost three years  as I’m bound to change my track  because this is not the perfect one for me due to different reason such as growth
• Settled myself in a worst environment  which might have damaged  some of my values and beliefs
• My professional learning process has been slowed down as my working environment is  not  competitive enough for me
• Have lost my spirit of work and became lazy in such  way that I can’t search  and/or apply  a new job
• Lost  partnership  business opportunity with very prospective investors which was most interesting to me
• Being an full time employee I was unable to establish any new business opportunity for my career

These are outputs I got from my three years job in the development organization. It should be further noticed that I, definitely, have learned something which will be helpful to me. But the industry where I’m working is not the industry I’ll try to explore my career. Thus my experience loose it’s original value. At the end, I’ll mention that I have got few colleagues who are now friends to me and it’s the best outcome of my job.

Factors in Selecting Job: My Observation

In this era of globalization, vast numbers of job options are available to us. Definitely it’s a positive thing in terms of vastness of industries, location and so on. It made us thinking beyond boundaries. We got better workplace, payroll system and so on. All these created complexity in selecting right job, at least for few persons. No doubt, selecting a job is an important landmark of career regardless the stage of career. It’s most vital in the early career, starting just after the completion of education which lasts for 2 years approximately.

There are some people who are very much confused, to some extent de-motivated with their job, though they joined enthusiastically. It made us think that they are going to leave soon. But after few days we found that they are continuing long than we expected. Thus it led me to look for the factors effecting selection of a job. Searching on web, I found few write up, sort of guideline, which are as follows:

Ron Kurtus wrote “In selecting a job or career, you are typically motivated by three factors, depending on your personality and circumstances. These factors are interest in specific field or area of work, desire or need to make money, and desire to make a difference or have influence…” in his article “Factors in Selecting Job or Career” published on www.school-for-champions.com. A guideline was also provided to select best fit which includes three questions. First, what influence does interest have on selecting a career? Secondly, how much is money a factor? Finally, what about having influence?

JobBankUSA.com, Florida based online recruiting site, suggested to consider 18 factor which are Company Reputation, Job Training Opportunities, Work Environment, Earning Potential, Opportunity for Advancement, Working Hours, Work Location, Benefits, Salary, Position, Management Attitude, Job Freedom / Creativity, Relocation Requirements, Earning Potential, Work Hours, Working Conditions, Job Satisfaction Potential & Stability of Company. According to JobBankUSA.com one will be able to select best one by rating these factor.

While talking about this issue, Sharmin Apa, one of my favorite colleague, mentioned four factors which includes 1) Scope of learning, 2) Environment, 3) Future prospect & 4) Financial factors. It was great to find monetary issue as fourth, in fact least important. Though that’s not common finding. Most of the university student, I’ve ever met, primarily focus on financial benefit and organizational reputation. Beside I found some students who fight for government job which pays much lower than these private services. Their main focus is relaxation at office and being empowered. A common consideration is social recognition of job which differs person to person. Public service, banking and telecom organizations are commonly recognized as good employment. Unfortunately, most of the time some important factors like future prospect, working environment, matching personal interest & talent etc are remaining behind. Importances of these factors are beyond question which all the people realize at different stages of career.

Recent economic situation is not stable at all. Unemployment rate has grown up, market is loosing volume etc. Thus getting a job has become the most important event of life. Where someone is managing a job after huge effort, how would s/he consider such factors? No, all this discussion is not for these people who rarely can manage job. I saw some people who can or even changed twice or more in initial two years time. Not necessarily they are shifting industry; rather they are just moving within the industry and finally realizing their mistakes but too lately.

It’s very unfortunate that we rarely talk about this issue. What we do is nothing but expressing our satisfaction to others. As a result everyone is considering other’s one better. We expect true guideline(s) from our seniors, influential figures like teachers within and/or out of education. A comprehensive research will also let us know in detail and can guide us to better career.