Artur Meyster: How to Know if You and Your Career Aren’t Meant to Be

Photo: Tony Ward, Copyright 2020
 

Text by Artur Meyster, Copyright 2020

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How To Know If You And Your Career Aren’t Meant To Be

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Sometimes, job offers are way more attractive on paper than in real life. Nowadays, during interviews, employers are saying whatever crosses their minds to catch qualified aspirants’ attention. As a result, you may land a job that seems like your dream job, but it isn’t. Still, you don’t have to feel bad if your current career isn’t a good fit. What matters at the end of the day is identifying when it’s the right time to leave. If you’re wondering about quitting or making a career change, these signs will help you decide and move in the right direction.

Your Duties Make You Feel Frustrated

Sometimes, the job you have always wanted is not what you thought. For that reason, if your dream job makes you feel frustrated, don’t be of two minds about quitting. Doing the same tasks repeatedly without using your strengths is not good for your mental health or career. Look for a job that makes you feel motivated. Nowadays, companies are investing in new technologies like AI to help workers during repetitive processes.

Talking to your boss is always a good alternative to solve the problem. Ask them if you can collaborate on projects where you ca use your best skills. If you have machine learning skills, don’t hesitate to give an extra hand to data scientists or data analysts. This will help you to stay motivated and feel comfortable. However, if your boss disagrees, don’t stay in a place where your best skills aren’t appreciated. 

You Don’t Enjoy What You Do

Enjoying what you do is crucial to feel comfortable and achieve happiness in life. Hence, if you dislike what you do and you think you should look for another job, don’t let your fear of being jobless stop you. Embrace changes and start a new job searching path. 

In 2020, companies in the healthcare sector and the online retail industry are actively looking for new hirings. If making a career change is necessary to land a job you may like, don’t be afraid of making your decision. After all, most people spend between 40 and 50 hours per week at work, and enjoying what you do will be key to improving your wellbeing. 

Your Feel Overloaded

If your responsibilities make you feel you’re starting to crumble, you should ask for help. Talking to your boss may be a good option to fix the issue. But, if you receive no support, this is a big sign that quitting is the best decision you can make. Feeling overloaded is not healthy. Since overwork can have adverse effects on employees’ health, relaxing is a must. Don’t accept a job offer that makes your work-life balance awful. 

Developing Your Skills Is an Uphill Battle

In 2020, the competition is getting more challenging day after day. For that reason, you need a job that provides you with professional development opportunities. If developing your skills is an uphill battle at your current job, you should think about leaving. Having no professional development might take you out of the game and will make getting employed hard. Look for vacancies that provide you with tuition reimbursement benefits.

Top-notch companies like Netflix and Nintendo are concerned about skills training. Therefore, they provide employees with tuition reimbursement benefits to help them stay competitive. Many employees have enrolled in coding bootcamps to get equipped with in-demand programming tools. 

Coding Dojo, for example, offers online programs that allow students to become self-sufficient developers in a few weeks. Their programs cover in-demand tools like JavaScript, AWS, Python, and React. Coding Dojo also offers career services to help students achieve their short-term and long-term career goals. 

General Assembly, on the other hand, helps students to develop their skills with ease. By providing them with schedule flexibility, students can decide whether to take full- or part-time courses. And by allowing them to learn from experts in the field, students can stand out from the competition. 

In Summary

Never keep a job that affects your personality or causes you to be in a bad mood the whole day. To move forward, you must enjoy what you do. Keep in mind that when people feel motivated, they keep a positive attitude and find solutions instead of problems. If you recognize these signs at your current work, don’t be scared of leaving. To get a meaningful job, you may need to go out of your safe zone, but I can guarantee that you won’t regret it.

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Artur Meyster: Founder of Career Karma

About the Author: Artur Meyster is the founder of Career Karmahttps://careerkarma.com

Bob Shell: Morality & Science

Photo: Tony Ward
 

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The Honorable Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current member of the United Nations Global Commission on Drug Policy recently said, “We need to accept that behaviors and actions of others that are not aligned with our own moral perspectives do not need to be turned into criminal offenses.”. That’s a remarkably perceptive observation.

I’ve always believed that my body and soul belong to me alone, and the government has no business sticking its long nose (or arm) into my affairs. As long as I’m harming no one else I should have the unimpeachable right to do as I please. Government today wants to be our daddy and dictate what we can do. One of my favorite people in history is Woodrow Wilson. He once said:

“I do not want a government that takes care of me. I want a government that keeps other men’s hands off of me so that I can take care of myself.”

My sentiments exactly.

The same applies to my photography. Just because some people were offended by my erotic nudes is no reason to demonize and imprison me. Nudity and sex are both natural and normal parts of the human experience, but they scare the bejaysus out of a certain portion of humanity. Perhaps because both show that were animals, in spite of our exalted ideas of ourselves. It doesn’t bother me to be an animal, even to be “The Third Chimpanzee,” as Jared Diamond has called us in his book of that title. Are we more than mere animals? It used to be said that humans alone had self awareness, and that made us different. But recent research with animals has shown that some animals are self aware, specifically the great apes, bottlenose dolphins, orcas, magpies, and Asian elephants. Most recently, a fish called the cleaner wrasse has passed the “mirror” test for self awareness. This is a simple test. Put a mirror in front of an animal and see if it realizes “Wow, that’s me!”

Scientists in Germany put a black mark on the fish in a place where it could only be seen in a mirror. The fish was confused by the mirror at first, but then caught on and, after checking its reflection in the mirror, tried to remove the mark by rubbing the area of the mark against a hard surface. The mental ability of distinguishing “me” from “the rest of the world” is a very important step up the ladder of intelligence.

Another very simple test uses a three-sided box made of wire mesh. An animal is put inside with a treat clearly visible on the other side of the mesh. The animal is blocked from the treat in front and on both sides. To get the treat it has to master the idea of going away from the treat, out the open back of the box, and around to the treat. Most animals fail this test, futility trying to reach through the wire mesh, which is impossible. Most dogs fail this test, as do most cats. A minority of dogs figure it out, and a larger percentage of cats. Both fail the mirror test, although many years ago I had a cat who figured out mirrors, and also figured out how doorknobs work.

In 1929 a scientist named Constantine von Economo discovered a special kind of brain neuron, that has been named after him. Most brain neurons are blobs with the single axon and multiple dendrites extending in all directions. The von Economo neurons are long and thin with axon and dendrites only at the ends. So far these special neurons have been found only in humans, great apes, whales and dolphins, and elephants. I call them “the neurons of consciousness.”

Humans have about 1.5 times as many von Economo neurons as elephants. Are these special neurons what makes us human? Could a simple mutation that produced these neurons be what elevated us above all other earthly life in sentience? I tend to think that the answer is yes.

It’s purely an untested personal theory, but I think that ingestion of certain substances may spark the production of more von Economo neurons in our brains. Silicon valley has recently discovered the benefits of microdosing with LSD and other psychotropic substances, and has found that it increases productivity in jobs where conceptual thinking is important. Where does any government get off telling people not to use natural substances that improve their mental acuity? The fact that these substances are currently illegal has not significantly reduced their popularity. There must be a good reason for that.

I feel blessed that I came of age when these substances were legal and “magic mushrooms” and peyote buttons could be ordered by mail from magazine ads. Pure pharmaceutical LSD made by Sandoz in Switzerland, where Albert Hoffman discovered it by accident, was readily available. Then in 1969 the government made everything they could think of illegal, shutting down research into therapeutic use of psychotropics. Only recently has very limited research been restarted, often with strong positive results. We’ve been held back from important research for fifty years! And all because of misinformed, ignorant fear. Governments worldwide need to learn that they do not own their citizens, that the citizens own the governments.

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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models.  He is serving the 13th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia. To read Bob Shell’s, first essay on civil war, click here: https://tonyward.com/bob-shell-do-you-believe-in-ghosts/

Editor’s Note: If you like Bob Shell’s blog posts, you’re sure to like his new book, COSMIC DANCE by Bob Shell (ISBN: 9781799224747, $ 12.95 book, $ 5.99 eBook) available now on Amazon.com . The book, his 26th, is a collection of essays written over the last twelve years in prison, none published anywhere before. It is subtitled, “A biologist’s reflections on space, time, reality, evolution, and the nature of consciousness,” which describes it pretty well. You can read a sample section and reviews on Amazon.com.