Career Infidelities 

In your career negotiations it is possible to both commit to your current project with your whole heart, as well as to keep your options open regarding other possibilities.
Whilst a job is a kind of marriage in that there is a ‘marrying’ of our individual skills with the needs of the role or organisation, it is not an infidelity to be keeping an eye on the job market, or the next project simultaneously.
Increasingly we must all take responsibility for, and manage, our own ‘portfolio careers’. The ‘job for life’ has all but gone and we need to know what both what we bring to our current role, and, also what our role will bring to our future career aspirations.
We need to know who we are in ourselves. We need to be clear and confident about the environment that best suits us, the behaviours that we engage with that bring us joy. We need to hold in mind that our we need to be enjoying expanding our skills and capabilities and that our beliefs and professional identity will shift and change with time and experience. We need to honour our values and know what purpose our work serves for us and for others. 
Likewise it is really wise to keep half an eye on the fiscal climate, the shifting of funding, the risks of cuts and cultural transitions in order that the next career partnership we enter is an enjoyable and fruitful experience. 
Our education system may not have taught us to attend to all these facets because career pathways were clearer (?), More secure (?), More obvious and defined (?), When we left university… Now we must attend to our current roles and responsibilities with our whole selves, whilst attending to future possibilities too….. 

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