The Career Satisfaction Index Formula
Your Guide To Discovering The Path To A Fulfilling And Happy Career
How do I know if I’m happy in my career? Recent surveys show that 87% are not happy in their current job…why are they staying? What makes them unhappy?
100,000 hours…sounds like an eternity, and it almost is. This is the amount of time that the average person will commit to a job or their career. The scary thing is that that number will probably get even bigger as the average age of retirement keeps getting older and older.
The fact of the matter is that we need to work in order to live. It’s hard to buy groceries on an empty bank account but if you are going to commit that much time into something wouldn’t it be important that it’s something that you enjoy? That gives you great satisfaction and joy?
Many people simply grind out a living working a job that does not get them jumping out of bed in the morning. But how do you know if you are satisfied? What factors should you consider when trying to evaluate this? And more importantly, what steps do you take to improve your satisfaction level?
Please allow me to introduce to you a groundbreaking new concept: C.S.I. Formula.
No not the crime television show, but rather the Career Satisfaction Index. Now there are a few parallels between the two, let me explain.
In the CSI TV shows basically, the cops must scour the crime scenes to find clues that eventually lead to the bad guys. Well, the CSI concept scours and investigates different areas that make up your workplace environment, your workplace mentality, and your overall satisfaction level.
This allows you to assess where you need to focus on in order to get yourself into a zone in your career where you are not only performing at a high level, but you are also highly engaged and happy with your choices and your career direction.
So, if I would use the CSI formula in your career, would I find clues that would lead us to believe that you are satisfied and happy?
The CSI concept takes into consideration 3 factors that contribute to your overall workplace satisfaction and success. These 3 factors are:
- Compensation
- Competency
- Culture
Now believe it or not it’s not just a lack of these factors that contribute to negativity and frustration. The pendulum can swing the other way. You could be stuck in a situation simply because one or a few of these factors are too strong and are basically keeping you trapped in a job that is not fulfilling.
Once you’ve been able to establish where you stand with all 3 of these factors you can then begin the amazing journey to total personal and professional satisfaction.
CSI TERMINOLOGY GUIDE
For any method to provide accurate results, it is important for the individual using it to properly understand its testing method. This one is no different.
You will first need to properly understand how we describe each of the 3 factors of the formula.
COMPENSATION
Getting paid! For many people, it’s all about the money…as Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr famously coined the phrase: SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
Obviously, the two extremes in this component are pretty obvious: you can be underpaid or overpaid.
Most people would react instantaneously to that last one: overpaid??
Is that really possible?
Of course, it is.
Certain tasks or responsibilities are only worth so much money but some people get opportunities in their careers where they are overpaid for these tasks, or overpaid compared to their competition or even their colleagues.
Hard to believe that this could be a negative thing but being overpaid in a job could trap you for years.
Maybe you don’t love what you do or you just don’t believe in the mission of the company anymore but you also realize that if you leave you would have to accept a pay decrease which isn’t the easiest decision in the world to accept.
Also, compensation is not entirely just salary. You would need to consider benefits and how much value do you extract from the work that you do and feeling of accomplishment.
Basically everything about the job that rewards you could be considered compensation.
The key is finding the sweet spot between avoiding being underpaid but also avoid the trappings of being overpaid.
A great example of being trapped in an overpaid situation is professional athletes.
You will hear fairly often now how a certain player has an “unmovable contract” so even if there was a better situation available for them on another team, their contract traps them with their current team.
And many times because they are trapped with their current team and that the circumstances are not totally satisfying for neither the player or the team, their performance struggles and then even once their contract expires many times their other opportunities expire with it.
I’m sure many people would love to have the ‘’problem’’ of being overpaid, however, once you know that you can’t make that same amount of money elsewhere it can possibly keep you trapped in an organization that you are unhappy working for.
Again, just like in a CSI investigation you need to find the clues.
Are you truly happy with the overall compensation (i.e. salary, benefits, bonus structure, commissions, etc)?
Are you paid appropriately in comparison to your peers, your competitors in the market?
How much value to do you extract from what it is you do?
Do you feel valued?
Do you feel as if you are truly doing what you were made to do?
Do you get properly recognized for the work you do and the value you bring to the organization?
These are all key questions that are directly linked to your overall happiness.
COMPETENCY
Competency is the second component in our CSI index. Competency is your abilities to skillfully do the job.
How does your education match up with your tasks and responsibilities?
How does your personal skill set lineup with what is required of you to be successful?
Are you truly happy with what it is that you do and does it fulfill your passion and your life objectives?
In this component, you can be overqualified or underqualified.
Being over-qualified for a job can definitely lead to frustration. Knowing that your skillset is being underutilized diminishes motivation and can lead to the development of bad work habits.
On the flip side, knowing that you are underqualified for a certain position can evoke feelings of pressure and fear. Nobody likes failing at what they do.
The key, once again, is finding that sweet spot. Finding that job or career that maximizes your skillset but still challenges you to become better and keep improving.
First of all, it is essential to know what you want out of your job.
Does it fit what you really want out of your career? You need to define your career priorities.
How much do you enjoy the day to day tasks? Obviously, it would be a very rare situation where you would love every task involved in a certain position however, there also must a limit of how many displeasing tasks you must accomplish regularly.
Eventually, you will become resentful of the work and your performance will diminish and that could affect many different things.
Does your education fit your position? Are you doing what you studied to do?
Is your investment in time and money towards your education paying you dividends? That is also an important criterion to consider.
How does your skill set get utilized? Do you feel that your organization is maximizing what you bring to the table? Do you feel that you could better perform in a different role?
And at the end of the day, are you really happy? Do you get back home after your workday and feel energized and fulfilled?
Are you looking forward to attacking it again the next day?
Answering these questions and others throughout the test will help you define your CSI score.
CULTURE
The final component of the CSI test is Culture. This is related to the company or organization you are a part of.
Do you believe in the company values, mission and reason for being?
Or is it just words on the wall somewhere that some executives in their ivory tower put together and don’t really represent, and the integrity of people inside the organization is lacking?
Is the leadership team of the company people you are proud to associate with and are willing to follow? Would you be fine with having your spouse, kids, and friends around them?
Do you enjoy the people you work with? You’ve made best friends with a lot of them and are happy to hang out with them outside of work hours…or is there is tension in the air and you feel stress when around the office?
Some of us have been blessed to be part of great organizations led by quality people that provide a fantastic company culture. A place where you are proud to represent. They look after people, they care for their employees and will always go the extra mile to do the right thing.
There’s an environment of respect and family values that make you want to go the extra mile. Leaving this place would break your heart as you would lose some of your best friends in the process.
Some of us have had the unfortunate experience of living through the flip side in terrible culture type companies. People lie, steal, cheat to get ahead. Backstabbing is often found between coworkers and conflict is even encouraged as a strategy by the quote, leadership team. Turnover of people in these organizations is constant and there’s no sense of security.
On one extreme of the scale, you will have a culture that is DIS-LIKE. Easy to describe, and figure out you don’t want to be there.
At the other end of the scale, you might have something we call CULT-LIKE.
Perhaps the culture encourages certain behaviors that aren’t healthy or that would be seen as extreme by anyone else outside that organization.
Companies that pride working extreme amounts of hours, taking risks or that convince you that this is the best and only place to work and everywhere else is bad. Us vs the world mentality. Constantly making promises of future promotions and raises for more work today. A culture or promotions in the title not in raises.
It might also be a situation where the leader, founder or president of the organization is idolized to a point where people will be willing to break their morals and values to please that individual.
The goal is to find a sweet spot between the two. A place where you can be proud to work, but that respects you as an individual and allows you to grow to your full potential.
CSI SCORING GUIDE
We use the phrase ‘’I feel…like this’’ for a reason. This is subjective and must reflect your true feeling.
Each of the 3 factors Competency, Compensation, and Culture are ranked on a scale of 0 to 10.
As you score them they will fall in 1 of 5 categories that help put words to feelings.
WARNING: The biggest mistake people make when taking the test is scoring it higher than they really, truly feel! Make sure to score accordingly.
Take a few minutes to score each of the 3 key factors right now based on your initial gut feeling.
9–10 Awesome: Scoring a 9 or a 10 is way up the scoring ladder. You really can’t wait to wake up every morning to your dream job. This a very high score that a small percentage of people ever reach.
7–8 Happy: Things are good, not perfect, would take a tremendous offer to take you away.
5–6 Comfort Zone: It's not bad, could be worse. Not looking but…if the right offer would come around I would consider. Most people fall around this zone. It’s why we call it the comfort zone 😉
3–4 Frustration: Always something that bothers you in one of the 3 components. Working for the weekend is you’re your favorite song and you have a TGIF bumper sticker on your car.
1–2 Misery: Nothing you can do will change it. Not the right fit. Hoping to get fired and can’t wait to get out of this spot.
Career Satisfaction Index FORMULA
Now that you have put a number on each category, it’s time to put these numbers into the Career Satisfaction Index Formula to find out your total CSI score.
The formula itself is quite simple. First insert your personal score ranging from 0 to 10 in each of the 3 factors Competency, Compensation, and Culture. You can either use your gut feeling scores or we recommend using the scores from the CSI test results for more accurate results.
You then multiply all 3 results together to get your total score on a scale of 0 to 1000. The higher the total score, the more satisfied you are in your current job or career. Here’s an example:
CSI SCORING RESULTS
Any surprises in your results? Is there one category that sticks out more than the others? If your score is very high then chances are you are happy and satisfied in all 3 factors.
One bad score will bring down the total score even if you are happy in the other 2 and vice versa.
Any score x zero is still zero!
Now that you have your test results and know which category you fall into, the goal is to review them properly and figure out what are your next career steps.
CSI SCORING ANALYSIS
You’ve taken the test. You’ve received your results. Perhaps you are one of the few who is in the Happy and Awesome zone, but if not and you are like most people in the Comfort, Frustration or Misery zones what does this mean?
What can I do to improve my score and ultimately my Career Satisfaction results?
Here I will help you understand those results and provide possible explanations and solutions.
Let’s break this down factor by factor.
COMPENSATION
Underpaid
What are your options if you find yourself in a situation where you are underpaid for your talent and skills?
The first option would be to go to your current employer and attempt to negotiate a better compensation package.
This might require that you also commit to increasing your value to the company by taking a new course, or more responsibilities.
You can work towards a promotion within your current company and see if that is a possibility. This option might not be available, or at least not at the current time.
Your final option is to start looking outside your current company. Some industries pay better than others.
Find a reputable placement agency or head hunter firm to see what would be available on the market for your services and at what rate.
Same as you would evaluate your home before selling it, you need to know the true value of your services on the market.
Over Paid
If you find yourself in the rare but possible position that you are overpaid then it might just be that you are new to the role and haven’t had the chance to raise your game to the level of your pay.
It is, however, a dangerous spot to be in. People in these positions are often the first to be let go or moved when times get tough.
Your options are to raise the value you bring to the company by taking on a larger role, increasing your skill set through new courses or qualifications or to move to a role that is more appropriately paid to your value.
If you’ve simply been in a role for so long that your annual raises have brought you to the top of the chart but you haven’t moved on to a role that is better matched to your experience and qualifications it’s time to move to a new role. Either within this company or a new one.
COMPETENCY
Under Qualified
If your results bring you on the dial shows that you are Under-Qualified then you have a few options. First, if you might simply be new to the role and need training.
This might be available internally at the company level or through outside sources. If you like what you do but simply need to improve your skillset then focus on that as a first step.
If you are in a role that doesn’t fit your skillset or you simply don’t like what you do then you have to start looking at either a change or role/responsibility within your current organization or at a new one that would be a better fit.
Over Qualified
If you find yourself in this category, there are a few possible reasons. First, you simply have been in the same role for so long that your skillset and experience has surpassed your current position.
The second might be a situation where you needed to find a job in an emergency situation and took the best you could find at the time but are now stuck there. Your options here in this position are limited.
You need to find a way to make better use of your talent either through a promotion, a change of role that better fits what you can do or to look. This might only be possible by finding a new job at a different company.
CULTURE
DISLIKE
A bad culture is usually easy to determine. You feel it every day. We find that people will endure bad pay or a bad fit for their skill set much longer than they can a bad culture.
If you find yourself stressed, borderline depressed or worst you need to get out of this toxic environment.
Abuse in any form is not worth accepting regardless of how well you get paid or like the actual work you do.
If this situation is caused by a single individual or group of individuals then it might not be a lost cause.
IF for example you’ve enjoyed a good career so far in that company but there’s a new boss or new coworker that is wreaking havoc on you through bad behavior then you have a few options.
If things can’t be fixed by addressing the behavior of these individuals via upper management or human resources, then you might have to look at changing departments.
If the culture issues are more far-reaching throughout the organization or industry in general then your only option is to look at a change of company or career.
Cult-Like
You started in this organization as a young graduate and have been a part of the company for a while. You believe in what you do and enjoy the people you are working with.
The leader is a strong personality but is good at selling a vision for the future and convincing you that your future is bright with them.
However, the raises aren’t there even if you keep working hard and ‘’paying your dues’’, putting in the overtime and taking one for the team.
Working 100 hours a week is a badge of honor and you believe in the cause but it’s affecting your health and your family life.
But you know if you cut back you will be left behind and lose all chances of advancement so you keep going.
If you find yourself in a similar position then the only real option for you is to settle for less or find a better working environment that will allow for better work-life balance.
WARNING:
The other danger in a culture that is ‘’too good’’ may not be negative in and of itself. People might be great, leadership is awesome, you love the people and there actually is a good work-life balance in place.
The values are strong and you believe in the company’s mission and vision. So good…maybe too good. How could this be?
It’s a perfect culture and environment which means you are probably overqualified and/or underpaid for the role that you are currently doing.
But because you are comfortable and the culture is SO good, you overlook the fact that you are stagnant in your career and not reaching your full potential.
Finding a great culture is fantastic and something everyone should strive for, but beware of the side effect and stay cognizant of how it impacts the other factors of your CSI score.
3 Main Reasons
We hope you now have a better understanding of your feelings towards your current job or career.
The first step in any plan to move forward is recognizing where one is at and accepting its reality.
The next step is to take action towards a better future.
From our experience, there are 3 main reasons however that tend to hold people back from fulfilling their calling and pursuing their dream career.
- Fear of change
- Lack of belief in themselves
- Don’t know what to do or how to do it
Fear of change
It is not unusual for people to stay in a bad situation rather than pursuit one that is clearly better out of fear of the unknown.
The best way to conquer fear is to do the thing you fear the most.
Easier said than done!
When you get to do it with other people however it tends to make change less fearful. Knowing you are not alone is important.
A program such as the Quit your job find your Career challenge which is done with other like-minded people in the same position can help.
Having the support of a group and being able to share your struggles and challenges with them and seeing others do the same will be of great value as you move towards your dream career.
Lack of belief in themselves
You only have one life to live, and getting the most fulfillment out of your career should not be shortchanged.
It’s normal and common to have doubts and not being sure if you are doing the right thing in leaving a safe job to pursue what you’ve always wanted to do…can be tremendously rewarding!
Having multiple examples of people in your exact situation who have been through the same challenges and came out loving their current job or career is important.
Positive testimonies are powerful. Find a program or career coach such as with the team at Career Year Academy that will have produced tangible results for many other people such as yourself.
Don’t know what to do or how to do it
Unfortunately, schools are not designed or at least not operated in a way that properly prepares us to make smart career choices.
Many make life-changing decisions about the rest of their life and pick a career with little to no knowledge at 17 or 18 years old.
It’s ok to make a change along the way and pursue your true calling and passion.
Not knowing HOW to do it however can be a showstopper for many.
What if a program existed that could take you, step by step throughout a condensed amount of time and provide you with all the knowledge and tools you need to make finding your dream job a reality?
I’m being somewhat sarcastic…and serious at the same time!
The team at Career Year Academy has prepared such a program for anyone who finds themselves with a CSI score lower than they are ready to accept and want to move forward towards a dream Career.
Final Words
In conclusion, finding and pursuing a dream Career is not always that simple or easy to do.
Going through the process of changing, overcoming fears and learning how to do it can be daunting.
But the results are SO WORTH IT!
We encourage you to take the next step and do what it takes to improve your CSI score and Career Satisfaction levels all the way to the AWESOME ZONE!
A full test, workbook and explanation video is available online at the following link: CSI TEST
