{"id":11644,"date":"2024-08-01T11:21:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T11:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2026.karrierecoaching.ch\/?p=11644"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:21:59","slug":"what-do-you-want-salary-impact-or-self-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2026.karrierecoaching.ch\/en\/what-do-you-want-salary-impact-or-self-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you want: salary, impact or self-expression?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Salary is a common reason for dissatisfaction with one’s professional situation. It is often triggered by comparisons with other people’s salaries. I am not immune to the occasional comparison either. Bill Burnet, an author about design thinking, differentiates between salary, impact and self-expression in this context. This differentiation has the potential to make you happier.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter N\u00e4f<\/a><\/strong>
\nZurich, August 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

At least it worked for me – but more on that later.<\/p>\n

Let me illustrate the aspects by looking at people who have maximised one of the three: A successful stock trader earns a high salary. Even if the work is important and he enjoys it, his ambition is probably not to make the world a better place. The aspect of impact and many personal potentials are likely to be neglected in this highly specialised task.<\/p>\n

Personal needs are decisive<\/h5>\n

Those who work for an NGO that is committed to issues that are important to them will maximise their impact. They will accept a lower salary and self-expression is not a priority. And finally, the full-time poet maximises her self-expression. As poetry leads a niche existence, she is unlikely to achieve much impact. Above all, however, she is unlikely to earn a salary that will secure her living.<\/p>\n

The weighting of the three aspects is based on personal needs and preferences, which can change over the course of a career, as my own example shows: I worked in asset management in my first years of my career. The salary was high considering my limited experience. After graduating, this suited me as I could afford things that I had previously had to do without. I couldn’t make much of an impact in this role and there was no question of self-expression.<\/p>\n

If you are going to compare, please do so in full<\/h5>\n

Over time, I became dissatisfied with my situation. So, after a personal and professional assessment, I went into personnel consulting. This meant a loss of salary for the first few years. I was compensated for the fact that I was able to make an impact: Placing jobseekers in positions where they could develop further was very satisfying. As my salary increased with my success, the balance between the three aspects was right for a long time.<\/p>\n

After a few years, I felt the need to set up something of my own and bring more of myself into counselling. I therefore set up my own business as a career coach. This fuelled the aspect of self-expression, as I designed my business according to my own ideas. I also continued to make an impact in counselling. To optimise these two aspects, I initially accepted a significant drop in salary. Since then, I have juggled the three balls – salary, impact and expression – according to my needs, sometimes more and sometimes less successfully.<\/p>\n

And when I find myself comparing myself to others, I always ask myself the following question: \u00abWould I like to swap places with the envied person in every aspect of life?\u00bb That always puts the issue to rest.<\/p>\n

#personalbranding<\/a> #career<\/a> #application<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salary is a common reason for dissatisfaction with one’s professional situation. It is often triggered by comparisons with other people’s salaries. I am not immune to the occasional comparison either. Bill Burnet, an author about design thinking, differentiates between salary, impact and self-expression in this context. This differentiation has the potential to make you happier. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artikel-2"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat do you want: salary, impact or self-expression? - Karrierecoaching - Peter N\u00e4f<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The question of salary is often viewed one-sidedly. 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