I’ve was given a happy problem not too many days ago. In fact, this is the 3rd of my happy problems over the past 3 or 4 months.

This last happy problem came when someone I knew gave me a call. He’s running this company on his own which is doing really well with lots of projects, except that he needs someone to help him take on the projects.

You know where this is going - he wants to hire me. Oh, and he’ll pay lots more than what I’m getting now. (But that’s because I’m grossly underpaid.)

Anyway, these happy problems made me start thinking a little harder about what I look for in a job. Or what it takes to hire someone like me. Other than paying me lots of money. And giving me a nice office without cubicles. And a really fast Apple computer. And a nice Aeron chair. And a personal handpicked secretary cum masseuse…

Other than those minor details, here are some of the larger issues that I look at before I sell my soul.

Meaning

Remember how Steve Jobs convinced John Sculley to leave his CEO post at Pepsi to join Apple? He reportedly said to Sculley:

Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to change the world?

Even Pepsi CEOs eventually want to do something meaningful and change the world.

I can last in a job only if there is meaning. This means that I must find it meaningful, and believe that what I’m doing is changing the world, albeit in a small way. This means that if you can convince me that cleaning the toilet will change the world, I might just do it (subject to the other criteria as well). Come to think of it, I used to clean toilets, but that’s another story.

Creativity

I believe that creativity is the highest expression of human intelligence, and I won’t be happy in a job that is not intrinsically creative.

This means that you won’t find me doing purely admin work. (No offense to those doing admin work - it’s important work, just that I can’t stay sane doing it.) Sure, there are opportunities for creativity when you’re doing admin, but the proportion is too low, and that’s really not enough for me. This also means that I don’t see myself cleaning toilets as my next career move, since it’s not intrinsically creative either.

Some jobs may seem intrinsically creative, like ‘marketing’ (I know so many people in ‘marketing’), but they often turn out to be uncreative - liasing with the ad agency, figuring out which magazine to place the ads and how big the ad should be - that’s nothing more than specialised admin. If you’re just there to keep the status quo and not rock the boat (let alone capsize the boat), you’re just a glorified clerk. Again, no offense to clerks out there, but the only time I ever wanted to be a clerk was when I was in the army.

Freedom & Flexibility

I’ve been spoilt. Although my company officially has fixed working hours (I believe it’s 8.30am - 5.30pm), I’ve always assumed that my job has flexi-hours (no one ever complained about it). I normally arrive at my cubicle around 9.30, but once in a while my sleep pattern gets disrupted and I arrive slightly later (10.30? 11.30?). But of course I’ll be on time when I have meetings and presentations since I’m really very responsible ;)

But freedom and flexibility isn’t limited to just rationalised working hours. I look for management and culture that is open and reasonably flexible, meaning that they are open with different perspectives and unconventionality as long as things get done and the larger objectives are being met.

A job can be intrinsically meaningful and creative, but given an inflexible management and culture, much of the meaning and creativity gets asphyxiated.

Take teaching for example. Teaching can definitely be very meaningful and creative. But I’ve talked to teachers where the lesson plan has already been micro-defined (down to the minute - I’m not exaggerating) by some higher-up, and they’re somehow expected to follow it. I’d rather be cleaning the toilet - at least they didn’t tell me how exactly to clean it, as long as it was clean…

Learning

This is probably the biggest reason why I’m still around in my current job, despite the crappy pay and the crappy computers and the crappy cubicle and no personal secretary cum masseuse. I have this insatiable lust to keep learning; I want to know and understand (almost) everything, and I’ve so far had very supportive bosses who let me do things that I was never qualified for or things that I’m obviously not good at, but I’ve learnt through those things. Maybe they know I love to learn, and I generally learn fast. Then again, I haven’t learnt to love my cubicle.

Let’s hope the new boss coming in doesn’t mess up the great culture we already have.

* * *

I’m sure I can come up with more criteria if I have more time (I’m supposed to be at work now after all), but I really shouldn’t, otherwise I might end up unemployable. And unemployed.

Now back to work!