Your perfect role

27 April 2011



We all have our own ideas about what constitutes the perfect role but just how personal, and realistic for that matter, is that view, asks Dani Novick, MD of print and packaging specialist Mercury Search and Selection.


In society there are widely held views over which jobs are considered ‘sexy’, ‘cool’ or ‘exciting. Very often the jobs about which we think, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be great to do that’, bear no relation to our perception and in reality contain lots of stressful and/or downright dull work.

It is important, therefore, when making career choices, whether at the outset or mid-career, to think about just what it is you are good at and what you enjoy doing. Very often, people fall into the trap of progressing up a particular career ladder because it is considered the right thing to do and the top job is ‘desirable’.

Most people will be familiar with the individual who was, as the saying goes, ‘promoted to their level of incompetence’. That is, because they were good at something they were promoted and promoted until they end up as a manger without actually being any good at management. Typically, they struggle in the management role, get stressed, under perform and are unhappy because they rarely get to do the actual job they loved in the first place.

Many people choose to be in sectors perceived to be exciting without considering whether it will really suit them. In packaging, for example, many would choose to be in design or innovation roles rather than production related jobs.

This is all very well, but those roles will not suit everyone’s temperament.

For the sake of long term success, passion and enthusiasm, it is essential that individuals and mangers think about the nature of roles and the individual’s skills and temperament before following the perceived norms of career progression.

Mercury Search and Selection partners the IOP: The Packaging Society with www.packaging futures.com and the British Printing Industries Federation with www.jobsinprint.com.


Dani Novick. Dani Novick

Dani Novick Dani Novick


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