A person’s perceptions and feelings toward career experiences and achievements affect their sense of fulfillment as much as extrinsic rewards such as promotions, bonuses and high salaries do. That is why some people, whereas they hold high-level positions and earn comparatively more in their careers, still feel unfulfilled.
This raises two equally important markers for measuring career success, namely subjective and objective markers. Some people overlook one over the other, and that can be misleading. So what is the right way of measuring your career success?
Career growth
Depending on your career level, your personal life goals matter as much as your work targets and you must achieve both concurrently. Your work promotion as an accountant, for example, depends on your next degree, say an MBA for most corporate careers, making academic progress while you work a success measure.
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Salary increase
There is much more to career success, and a large paycheck is not everything. Still, your salary increase from when you first started your job, and where it stands today compared to other workers in the same industry with your qualifications and experience, is a visible and objective measurement of your value and career progress and success.
The salary measure comes with other aspects of pay that instill a sense of fulfillment in any career, including perks, per diems and other benefits such as communication and transport privileges and overtime allowances. Consider these when valuing your deserved compensation as a measure of career success.
Level of influence
How much of an influence are you in your workplace today compared to yesterday, this year, compared to last year, or to ten years ago? How much has the rate or the frequency at which your expertise or service is called upon in other departments grown from since you joined the organization? That is a strong measure of career progress.
Work colleagues, both old and new, frequenting your office for solutions, for clarifications and even guidance, and top-level management calling upon your insight on key matters, despite you being in the lower level, points to work-related progress and career success.
The value of your relationships
Career growth is not feasible without valued relationships that you build over the years of working in a place and with a team of individuals. Your workplace will always have clients and colleagues coming in and going out, joining and leaving, making it a challenge to build and nurture long and valued professional relationships for any person.
The number and strength of the professional relationships that you have built and nurtured with work colleagues and professionals, both in your workplace and in other related organizations, is a strong indicator of career growth, and therefore a good way to measure your career success.
Career stability
In times of recession, the employment industry is tumultuous and unstable, and employees live with the constant fear of losing their job. This is even more so if they have just hired you and you bring little or no work experience to strengthen your case for retention in the event of unexpected layoffs.
However, if you have worked in a company or an organization for a while, you should feel confident of your job and be certain of retaining it under any circumstance. That proves you have demonstrated your value over time to achieve career stability. This is another good way to measure career success.