Last year, a Conference Board survey found that only 45% U.S. workers were satisfied in their jobs, the lowest level since 1987. Young people seemed to get the shortest end of the stick, as workers younger than 25 were the most unhappy in their jobs. But even if you’re one of the few who do like your job, if you’ve been working in the same job for years, it can still be difficult to keep the fire alive. Especially after a particularly bad or hectic day, it can seem impossible to stay positive with all the challenges brought on by the economic downturn. You may even have had taken on the role of two or three positions, causing your grunt work to increase. All the while, you may be asking yourself, ‘why am I here?’ Even though you may not be feeling the love right now, here are 10 ways to get it back.

Stop Complaining

Nobody likes a Debbie Downer. If all you do is talk about the problems you have at work, no one will want to listen to you or help you in your plight. You may be unhappy in your job, but you don’t have to complain about it to everyone who asks you how you’re doing. (This includes Twitter and Facebook, people! Your internet friends don’t need the negativity, either.) They’ve got their own problems and believe me, they’re tired of hearing about yours. Besides, complaining never helped anyone change their circumstances. Break out the positive energy and not only will it spread to the environment around you, but it will put you in a better position to take meaningful action to improve your situation.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Career

This follows from the first point I made about not complaining. Remember that your boss is NOT ultimately responsible for your career fulfillment. You are. If something isn’t going the way you want it to, it’s up to you to either change it or get the hell out of there and seek out new opportunities. You can’t go around blaming other people for making you unhappy in your job – at some point you have to take matters into your own hands.

Start Something

After a while, even the best job can become boring. If you feel like you’re doing the same thing every day at work, kick it up a notch by taking on more responsibility through fun or interesting projects. Ask your co-workers if they need help with their current workload. Sit down with your boss to see how you might spearhead a new initiative to help meet the organization’s goals. The beauty of starting something and putting positive pressure on yourself to see it through is that it can make you look forward to Monday instead of dreading it.

Visit Your Clients

What does your organization actually do for your clients? Have you ever seen it in action? Whether you work for a nonprofit or a for-profit company, it will benefit you to take a couple hours one day to go visit one of your clients. Sit in on a pitch meeting, make a phone call to thank a satisfied customer, watch your counselors help the unemployed craft resumes, or attend a play your arts organization is performing. The idea is to see for yourself the impact that organization’s efforts have on others. It will make you appreciate why you do your work every day, no matter how rough it gets.

Find a Mentor

Think about someone you admire in your industry and then ask them to sit down with you for a coffee or over lunch once per quarter. It doesn’t have to be a formal relationship, just someone you can talk shop with, pick their brain and get clarity about the next steps in your career. Most people will be happy to help you in your growth, especially if it gives them an opportunity to pass on their wealth of knowledge to the new leaders coming up after them. So don’t be afraid to ask your mentor how they got started and what advice they have for someone trying to climb the ladder in your particular field.

Be a Mentor to Someone Else

If you’ve been in your job a few years, chances are you also have a lot to teach the newbies that are just starting in your field. Take someone under your wing and show them the ropes at your organization or offer to help a person who’s at the beginning stages of trying to break into your industry. Helping someone at a lower rung on the career ladder can give you a huge sense of pride and purpose in your own work once you see how you can make an impact in their life.

Stop Being a Martyr

How many times have you heard someone say, “If I didn’t work 70 hours a week, there’s no way everything would get done around here.” This is the behavior of a martyr: one who suffers for the sake of principle or for a particular cause. But really, there’s no reason for you to stay at work until the wee hours of the night unless you work for a startup. If you’re always working overtime, it’s usually because there’s a problem with time management or your boss is simply taking advantage of you by asking (or strongly encouraging) that you stay late. Get rid of the need to feel indispensable at work and you might just start to enjoy the time you do spend there a little more.  The work that has to be done can, and will get completed if you live your life like a normal person.

Ask for a Raise

A lot of people hate their jobs because they simply don’t get paid enough. But that doesn’t have to be the case. You don’t have to live in near poverty. Everything is negotiable, whether you believe it or not. If you’re doing a good job, there’s no harm in asking for what I like to call a “salary adjustment.” If what you really need for your own peace of mind is more money, by all means you should ask for it. Of course, you may not get it, but the worst thing they can say is no. And at least your employer will know that you know your own worth. It doesn’t have to be all about money either. You can negotiate a work-from-home arrangement or ask for more vacation time. The point is that if you feel like your work is financially rewarded, you’ll be more happy in your job.

Take a Vacation

When was the last time you took a day off? Many employees save up their vacation time for when they have the money to take a fancy trip out of town, but you don’t have to wait that long. You are entitled to your days off, so use them! They are an important part of the compensation package for the work you do – you’ve earned them. You might take a day to just wander around at your local museum or goof off at the amusement park. Whatever you do, just stop hoarding your leave time and use it to recharge and come back to work with renewed energy.

Redesign Your Day

Maybe you’re just tired of coming into the office at 8am. If your schedule is set for you to work too early or too late, have a talk with your boss to ask if you can change it. I used to work a typical 9am to 5pm, but I worked better later in the day, so I simply told my boss I wanted to start coming in from 10am-6pm. It gave me more time to sleep in the morning, and didn’t harm the organization one bit. And I was a happier employee for it.

What are some other strategies you can use to fall back in love with your work?

Yesterday’s New York Time’s article about the resurgence of nonprofit careers confirms what I’ve been telling jobseekers for the past year: nonprofits are still hiring!

Idealist.org, the main online portal for nonprofit jobs, has seen increases in postings on their site.

“Jobs are back,” said Ami Dar, executive director of Idealist.org, an online clearinghouse for nonprofits. In the fall of the 2008, when the economic crisis hit, job postings on the site fell by 40 percent. Now they are nearly back to precrisis levels, he said.

And over at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, job openings have also been on the rise.

. . . employment ads have been sluggish all year, but in the Nov. 4 issue job postings suddenly doubled, said Stacy Palmer, the publication’s editor — perhaps reflecting a newfound confidence in the economy and people’s willingness to give.

The good news is that this is a great opportunity for young professionals in the job market, especially recent grads who are looking to enter the nonprofit sector or switch from brief stints in the corporate world.

But the bad news is that many young professionals are still not leveraging the true power of their education in their nonprofit career. While a college degree is an important asset to be able to bring to the table in your nonprofit job search, it doesn’t matter if you don’t use the negotiating power it can bring to your career.

Leadership scholar Gary Yukl explains that there are several different types of power, one of them being the expert power that can result from formal education. Meaning that when you have extensive education or knowledge in a particular subject, people are more likely to listen to you because they believe that you have special knowledge about how to perform certain tasks. In other words, when a hiring manager, your colleagues, or your boss perceive that you have a high level of expertise, they are more likely to respond favorably to your suggestions and ideas.

How, then, do you use your education to your advantage?  At the very least, it’s clear that it’s not enough to simply list your degree on your resume. Here are a few ways to make your education work for you in the nonprofit job search process.

Shameless Self-Promotion

If you have a degree from a great school or program, don’t be afraid to tell people. It may seem like tooting your own horn, but what good is a degree from Harvard if no one knows about it? You can’t always assume that your colleagues or even hiring managers have taken note of your educational accomplishments, so it’s your job to tell them. When you’re networking or introducing yourself, you can briefly mention the degree you have as a point of reference for others to get to know you and your background. But don’t just say “I have a Master’s from Yale” as that can come off as obnoxious. Say things like, “in my social entrepreneurship class at Stanford, we learned XYZ about marketing and I’d like to try those ideas out here.” You may also want to consider using MBA, MS, or PhD after your name as part of your email signature if you have completed these kinds of advanced education.

Demonstrate the Link Between the Job and Your Education

It’s important to be able to talk about how your degree or expertise in a given subject is relevant to the nonprofit job you’d like to have. I once met a recent grad who had completed a bachelor’s degree in African studies and worked for the Save Darfur Coalition. His degree was a unique asset to the organization because he knew about all of the intricate issues involved in the cause the organization was working for. It was clear to the organization that he could play a key role and hit the ground running, something that few recent grads would be able to do. As Steven Pascal-Joiner, a nonprofit midcareer transitions coordinator for Idealist.org, advises:

“It’s not enough to say, ‘I want to work for a nonprofit.’ You need to know what kind of organization you want to work for, the role you want to play and why.”

Has your education served you well in your nonprofit career? How have you used your expert power to your advantage?

P.S. If you haven’t gotten your copy of How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar yet, you can get it here.

Many young people come into the nonprofit field thinking that simply because they have a college degree and a few skills, they will automatically soar in their careers. I probably don’t have to tell you that this is not usually how the story goes. Sure, a degree and some basic know-how can get you in the door of a nonprofit organization, but it’s not ever enough to earn a promotion, get a raise or put you in line for leadership positions in the community. No, for that, you need to go above and beyond the bare minimum of just doing your job. What I’ve seen among my peers, however, is a constant disappointment with the fact that it’s tougher than they thought it would be to create a successful career path in the nonprofit sector.

And now I’ve got a hunch about why.

This week I was in New Orleans for the Organizational Development Network Conference. It was so nice to be able to be the student in the midst of all the speaking and teaching I’ve been doing this year. I always learn so much from the OD Network sessions and there are many more nuggets to share, but right now what’s on my mind is an idea from the closing keynote about the myth of meritocracy.

Meritocracy is an ideology that contends individuals be assigned certain roles, responsibilities or positions based on their intelligence or skill. In other words, it’s the idea that people be judged solely on their merit. The college GPA game is an example of decisions made through meritocracy. If you earned high marks in your classes, you’d get named to the Dean’s List, regardless of whether, say, you were a good role model or not.

Chris Rabb, author of the new book, Invisible Capital expounded on this idea in his closing keynote speech and talked about how certain merit-based proverbs have been ingrained into us since birth.

All you have to do is work hard and do your best and you’ll be rewarded.

As long as you have a good attitude, you’ll get ahead.

With perseverance, you’re bound to succeed.

Just get good grades and the world will be your oyster.

Chris pointed out that the problem with all of these commonly held ideals is that they assume a level playing field. While he was talking specifically about entrepreneurship and business, the myths hold up in the nonprofit arena as well. In the nonprofit sector, just like with any other sector, all things are not created equal. If you’re young or don’t have much of a reputation or track record within social change, it doesn’t matter if you graduated top of your class. It’s still going to be challenging for you to move up the ladder in your career.

So clearly, we’ve got to get away from this idea that if we just do good work, it will be noticed and rewarded. This belief is actually what often limits nonprofit leaders from prioritizing our own professional development and consequently stunting our career growth.

Which is exactly why me and Trista wrote How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar: 50 Ways to Accelerate Your Career. As we discuss in the video below, the book seeks to address the gap in career development for nonprofit professionals who are ready to take their leadership to the next level. In short, this book is for those of you who are ready to ROCK.

Wanna Bring Nonprofit Rockstar to Your City?

The Nonprofit Rockstar Book Tour begins in November 2010 with stops in Washington DC, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, San Diego and Wisconsin. Me and Trista are available to come to YOUR city for book signings and events. We’re both skilled at providing unique, inspiring and effective keynotes and presentations for nonprofit audiences of all sizes. Want to book us for an event, conference, workshop or book signing? Learn more about how you can bring the book tour to your city here.

P.S. Check out the first review of our book by Devin Mathias of the More Donors blog!