Have you ever taken a moment to breathe and wonder, “how have I been at this job or this company for 3 years?” (or 5 years? or 7 years?)

I hear this a lot from clients.

They can’t believe how much time has passed since they started at their company or in their position. Time moves quickly, especially if we aren’t taking a breath to review our career situation and see if it is meeting our needs.

I get it – life is complicated. Mine certainly is.

We have our careers, our families, our friends, our hobbies, and our lives. We can sometimes go from thing to thing to thing throughout the day during the week. Then on the weekends, we take the time to decompress and then we are back at it again.

Career fulfillment impacts overall happiness

Life can be busy.

However, as busy as it is, make sure you take the time to conduct a career self assessment. Being fulfilled in your career has a direct impact on how fulfilled you are in spending time with your family or your community.

There is a ripple effect.

If you don’t feel you have time to spend to reflect on how your career is meeting your needs, think of the impact it is having on your overall life and the impact it is having on those around you.

How can I make time?

Career Self Assessment Questions

Reflecting on your career can feel like an overwhelming task. So, don’t make it overwhelming. You can make it a series of simple tasks. For example, answer these questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how fulfilled am I in my career?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how closely is my career aligned with my values?
3. On a scale of 1-10, how closely is my career aligned with the skills I want to be using?
4. On a scale of 1-10, how closely is my career aligned with my areas of interest?
5. On a scale of 1-10, how closely is my career aligned with my long-term career goals?

Answering these career self assessment questions will give you a guidepost. What are the numbers? Which ones are high and which ones are low? The lowest ones may give you the areas to start working on.

By simply doing a quick career check-in with yourself, you can get a sense of what is going well and what is not going well. This will tell you the areas you need to start addressing, so you can increase your fulfillment.

Don’t let your career run you. Small steps, like the career self assessment exercise above can begin to help you gain ownership over your career.